In eastern DRC, a region which has over relied on humanitarian actors for the provision of social services and public infrastructure in the past, empowering local state actors is a key step to building more sustainable solutions to displacement, and one which we at the UN country team will continue to prioritize in the years ahead. As the inter-communal conflicts in the Eastern Provinces roll into their second decade, and tensions and violence over the use of land and exploitation of natural resources continue, including through the many armed groups active in these regions, more displaced families are forced to depend on humanitarian assistance in order to survive.
As we know, humanitarian assistance – although necessary to alleviate suffering in the short term – is not enough to solve the deep-rooted, structural challenges driving internal displacement.
The need to find durable and long-lasting solutions to the issue of internal displacement in the DRC could not be more urgent.
The challenges ahead for the DRC are significant, but I am hopeful that the new Action Agenda, alongside the nexus-based approach, will ensure that displaced communities are further protected, local authorities strengthened, and development actors brought to scale”.
Untying the ‘Gordian knots’
‘The thing we want most in the world is to return home, to cultivate our land, but the security conditions are not there yet – and so we have to continue to live in these difficult conditions.’
Development can have an important multiplier effect, helping to strengthen local actors and systems, boost local economic development and support a return of State authority.
The factors driving internal displacement are often complex and interconnected, from conflicts, climate related shocks, disasters, to rising rates of violent crime.
Even during the current period of crisis and escalating violence, I’ve come to see just how important it is to plant the seeds of development and address the underlying vulnerabilities which have uprooted so many families across the country in the first place.