Access to Durable Solutions Among IDPs in Iraq is a unique study that follows, through six rounds of data collection, Iraqi households who were internally displaced between January 2014 and December 2015 by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The study aims to shed light on how evolving conditions of prolonged displacement change the lives of IDPs over time and how IDPs themselves adapt and engineer solutions to displacement-related challenges.
The study is based on the Inter-Agency Standing Committee’s (IASC-2010) Framework on Durable Solutions, which lays the cornerstone for specifying how governments, humanitarian practitioners and academics alike attempt to measure IDPs’ advancement toward durable solutions. The framework defines three 'durable solutions' — sustainable return, sustainable reintegration or sustainable resettlement — each of which depends on the fulfillment of eight criteria: long-term safety and security; adequate standard of living; access to livelihood and employment; access to effective and accessible mechanisms to restore housing, land and property; access to personal and other documentation; family reunification; participation in public affairs and access to effective remedies and justice. IDPs are said to have reached a durable solution when they 'no longer have any specific assistance and protection needs that are linked to their displacement and can enjoy their human rights without discrimination on account of their displacement.
A joint project between the International Organization for Migration in Iraq and Georgetown University, the study not only affirms that ending displacement is a process that happens over time, but more importantly, it provides evidence for how, when and according to whom IDP households resolve the challenges of their displacement.
