Violence-driven displacement in Mexico: Why including internally displaced persons in national statistics is necessary to inform a protection-based response

Figure 1 shows the official estimated IDP population due to violence, as well as the share of the total population, in Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico.7 The variation in the years of reporting illustrates the lack of regular data collection for this population, and thus the importance of their inclusion in the official production of national statistics. [...] The unit of analysis is the individual event and the main variable of interest is defined as a respondent having changed their residence due to crime in the previous year as captured in ENVIPE questionnaire14, in relation to those who did not move or perhaps moved for other reasons such as economic ones. [...] Considering that the identification is based on a question that makes explicit reference to a change only in the year prior, and by controlling for the year in the model, we are able to produce valid estimates on the relationship between the outcomes in question and the variable of interest. [...] The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has been working, with the support of the World Bank – UNHCR Joint Data Center for Forced Displacement (JDC), with national authorities in Central America and Mexico to aid the inclusion of IDPs in official statistics through the implementation of the International Recommendations on Internally Displaced Persons Statistics (IRIS). [...] In November 2022, with the support of the Ministry of the Interior (Secretaría de Gobernación or SEGOB) and other United Nations agencies and international organizations, UNHCR convened the "Workshop on Internal Displacement, Data Systems, International Standards and Practices, and the Way Forward in Mexico" to promote the international framework and methodologies that produce IDP statistics in ac.