Colombia has long been a global reference point in responding to internal displacement. Since adopting its first law on internal displacement in 1971, the country has steadily built a strong legal and institutional architecture to recognize victims of armed conflict and uphold their rights.
These investments have enabled Colombia to document the scale of displacement and understand the demographic profiles and living conditions of affected populations. Yet, displacement in Colombia is not only large‑scale; it is also protracted, structural, and increasingly urban. As of October 2025, more than 9 million people – over 17 per cent of the population – were registered as internally displaced. Many continue to face entrenched poverty and inequality, systemic marginalization and exclusion, repeated victimization, psychosocial trauma, and new forms of violence that undermine social cohesion. Against this backdrop, advancing durable solutions has remained a challenge.
In December 2025, the Government of Colombia approved its National Policy for Durable Solutions 2025-2035. For the first time, Colombia mandates its national statistical system to produce official statistics on progress towards durable solutions for internally displaced people.
The Government of Colombia leads this work. Working with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) under the Internal Displacement Solutions Fund (IDSF), JIPS supported the design of the indicator framework. The proposed methodology follows the International Recommendations on IDP Statistics (IRIS) and builds on JIPS’ work with EGRISS to standardise a global statistical framework for measuring progress towards solutions.
This case study highlights how the Government of Colombia developed the world’s first national statistical framework to measure progress towards durable solutions for internally displaced persons, using data to track progress over time and inform global practice.
Check out the case study or head over to the story map to find out more about the methodology and JIPS’ work in Colombia.
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This publication as well as JIPS’ overall support in Colombia was made possible through the generous co-funding and multi-donor partnership with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), the Internal Displacement Solutions Fund (IDSF), and the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM).
