4 December 2025
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.
'When global consensus stalled, a "coalition of the willing" moved forward. The Nansen Initiative process proved that state-led, bottom-up "minilateralism" works.'
Professor Walter Kälin, Envoy of the Chair of the Platform on Disaster Displacement
Professor Walter Kälin is Envoy of the Chair of the Platform on Disaster Displacement and formerly Envoy of the Nansen Initiative. Professor Jane McAdam is Scientia Professor of Law and Founding Director of the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW Sydney.
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.
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