Development, Conflict Prevention Key in Tackling Migration Root Causes

UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres said that adaptation to climate change, a better link with human mobility, durable solutions, and conflict prevention are four priorities for development cooperation in the future to tackle the root causes of people displacement.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Climate change adaptation, durable solutions and conflict prevention were listed on Wednesday by UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres among the key areas of focus for the United Nations in tackling the root causes of people displacement.

"Building on the groundwork laid by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its commitment to not leaving anyone behind, I see four priorities for development cooperation in the future: adaptation to climate change, a better link with human mobility, durable solutions, and conflict prevention," Guterres said at the opening of the Dialogue on Protection Challenges.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was agreed on by the UN General Assembly in September. Global insecurity and natural hazards must necessarily be addressed, the high commissioner said, stressing their interconnection.

In conducting development and adapting communities to climate change, a stronger link with mobility must be made, Guterres said. Development policies must create "conditions for people to be able to stay and not to be forced to move," he added, after illustrating the huge scope of displacement that has occurred across the world within the last few years.

Outlining the need for conflict prevention, Guterres listed regional stabilization, support for fragile states, good governance and the rule of law as the key factors, alongside addressing the issue of some 10 million stateless people in the world.

Between 2011 and 2014, the world's refugee population has grown by 40 percent due to rising violence in the Middle East and North Africa, according to a recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) report. Global refugees numbered some 13.7 million in 2014, with the number projected to rise to 16.4 by 2017, according the UNHCR.