Learning from population displacement in the Pacific: case study of the 2017-2018 eruption of Ambae volcano, Vanuatu. SWOT analysis and recommendations.

Abstract

The 2017-2018 eruption of Ambae volcano, Vanuatu, caused the entire population of the island (~11,700 people) to be evacuated off-island twice: firstly in October 2017, and then from the end of July 2018 until the end of October 2018, when the eruption ceased. This event presents a valuable opportunity to learn from a large-scale forced migration in a Pacific setting. Lessons from this event will advise and help to plan for future population displacements and forced migrations due to hazard and climate change events. For the first phase of this report, a review and analysis of the literature on internally displaced people was carried out, and used as the basis to design a questionnaire. Our field team visited the island of Santo, the destination for the majority of evacuees from Ambae, in February 2020, and carried out interviews with 42 evacuees, 26 female and 16 male, ranging in age from 21 to 82 over a four-day period. This report contains an event summary; a description of the research; a SWOT analysis; a discussion of key findings; recommendations; and an identification of future research needs.