Mega-disasters and urbanization spur spike in displacement: report

By Megan Rowling SENDAI, Japan (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The number of people forced from their homes each year by disasters has quadrupled over the past four decades, and the risk of being displaced has doubled, said a Norwegian humanitarian group. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), part of the Norwegian Refugee Council, called on governments meeting in Sendai, Japan, later this week to tackle displacement as part of a new global plan to reduce disaster risk worldwide. The plan’s predecessor, the Hyogo Framework for Action, did not refer to displacement by disasters, such as earthquakes, floods and drought, the center said. “The world has a unique opportunity at Sendai to prevent millions of people from losing their homes by more robustly linking displacement risk with disaster risk reduction plans,” said IDMC director Alfredo Zamudio.