Nansen Initiative
+10
Exploring a decade of advances on disaster displacement and international protection
Ten years on from the launch of the Nansen Initiative Protection Agenda, we take stock of progress in protecting people displaced in the context of disasters and climate change, and look ahead to future challenges and opportunities.
Image: Unsplash/Random Institute
Image: Unsplash/Random Institute
15 December 2025
Diogo Andreolla Serraglio, Fernanda de Salles Cavedon-Capdeville and Erika Pires Ramos
Latin America has become a global reference for policy innovation on climate-related human mobility. Since 2015, the region has advanced legal and policy responses to human mobility in the context of disasters, climate change and environmental degradation, drawing on a tradition of rights-based and cooperative governance. The Nansen Initiative Protection Agenda has played a central role in this evolution. Focusing on regional developments, this article examines how the Protection Agenda has supported key innovations, informed frameworks and shaped priorities for the coming decade.
Image: IOM/Renato Fogal
Image: IOM/Muse Mohammed
4 December 2025
Featuring Walter Kälin and Jane McAdam
Ten years ago, 109 countries endorsed a landmark agenda to better protect people displaced across borders in the context of disasters and climate change. In this special podcast episode, Professor Walter Kälin and Professor Jane McAdam retrace the journey from the Nansen Initiative to the Platform on Disaster Displacement. Listen as they discuss why "listening mode" was critical to the Nansen Initiative's success and how a "coalition of the willing" built a consensus based on the realities of affected communities across the Pacific, Horn of Africa, and beyond.
Image: IOM 2023/Wendy Gloria
Image: IOM 2023/Wendy Gloria
1 December 2025
Nicodemus Nyandiko and Ibukun Taiwo
While the Nansen Initiative drew the blueprint, Africa is raising the structure. The next decade must be about delivery, ensuring that rules, resources and responsibilities meet people where they stand, or where they have been forced to move.
Image: IOM/Muse Mohammed
Image: IOM/Muse Mohammed
19 November 2025
Susanne Melde, Sabira Coelho, Lisa Lim Ah Ken, Chris Richter, Pablo Escribano Miralles and Nicholas Bishop from the International Organization for Migration
Ten years after the Nansen Initiative Protection Agenda, the promise of regional collaboration has moved decisively from concept to practice. In Africa, the Americas and the Pacific, regional coalitions have generated political momentum, clarified responsibilities and created replicable pathways to translate commitments into national action.
Image: IOM/Muse Mohammed
Image: IOM/Muse Mohammed
12 November 2025
Walter Kälin
Ten years after the endorsement of the Nansen Initiative Protection Agenda, much of the optimism that accompanied it has vanished. Yet, it is important to remember that a lot of progress has been made over the past decade – progress that cannot be easily dismantled.
About the Nansen Initiative +10 blog
In 2015, more than 100 governments around the world endorsed the Nansen Initiative’s Protection Agenda – an Agenda for the Protection of Cross-Border Displaced Persons in the context of Disasters and Climate Change. In this commemorative blog, leading experts reflect on subsequent developments in key priority areas identified in the Nansen Initiative Protection Agenda, including protection and solutions for people displaced in the context of disasters and climate change, and the integration of human mobility within disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation strategies.
The Nansen Initiative +10 blog is a collaboration between the UNSW Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, the Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD) and UNHCR. It is edited by Dr Tamara Wood and Scientia Professor Jane McAdam. For further information or to contribute, contact: kaldorcentre@unsw.edu.au.
To learn more about disaster displacement and international protection:
- Read the Nansen Initiative Protection Agenda
- Visit the Platform on Disaster Displacement
- Read about UNHCR's work on climate change on displacement
- Read about IOM's work on environmental migration
- Explore the Kaldor Centre's Climate Mobility Hub
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