A/71/279 15. The present report considers the important messages and outcomes of the Summit, the core responsibilities addressed and the commitments made to advance protection and assistance to internally displaced persons as well as durable solutions for them. Importantly, the Summit challenged States and the international community to achieve an ambitious target: to reduce internal displacement in a dignified and safe manner by 50 per cent by 2030. The report seeks to provide a resource to help achieve that target through practical steps that s hould be taken by States, regional bodies, the international community and other stakeholders. It calls for the target to be met in full conformity with international standards, including the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement of 1998 and the Inte r-Agency Standing Committee Framework on Durable Solutions for Internally Displaced Persons, with legitimate reductions achieved through prevention and the implementation of durable solutions. 5 16. In advance of the Summit, the Secretary-General, in his report entitled “One humanity: shared responsibility” and its annex containing the “Agenda for Humanity” (A/70/709), recognized that the number of internally displaced persons, refugees and asylum seekers has reached nearly 60 million and that “forced displacement is neither a short-term challenge nor primarily a humanitarian one: it is a persistent and complex political and development challenge”. In the light of the unprecedented global challenges, the Special Rapporteur welcomes the Secretary General’s bold proposal to turn the trend around and begin the essential task of preventing and reducing internal displacement. 17. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals include references to internally displaced persons as falling within the category of “vulnerable groups”. However, this new Summit initiative creates a timely new goal and global commitment specifically addressing internal displacement head on. If achieved, in line with international standards, it has the potential to achieve real and lasting progress towards a solution to internal displacement. The goal recognizes that addressing and reducing internal displacement is also key to addressing and reducing the increasing flows of refugees and asylum seekers across international borders. 18. The Secretary-General’s Agenda for Humanity lays out innovative and creative approaches: States should invest in political solutions to end the causes of displacement and in the return, integration or resettlement of the displaced; develop national legislation, policies and capacities for the protection of displaced persons and their integration into national social safety nets, education programmes, labour markets and development plans; recognize displaced people as socioeconomic assets rather than “responsibilities” and incentivize the development of local markets and private sector activity; direct appropriate national resources and international financing towards national and local systems that address their needs and those of host communities; ensure that humanitarian and development actors, local authorities and private sector enterprises work collectively, across institutional divides and mandates and in multi-year frameworks, to end aid dependency and promote self-reliance; and adopt and implement regional and national legal and policy frameworks on internal displacement. __________________ 5 6/25 The present report was drafted before the adoption of the final document of the World Humanitarian Summit and therefore does not reflect the content of that document in its consideration of the issues. 16-13413