In March 2017, Heads of State and Governments from the IGAD Region convened a special Summit in Kenya and adopted the Nairobi Declaration and the subsequent Plan of Action on protection and durable solutions for Somali refugees and reintegration of returnees in Somalia. The Summit recognized the regional nature of forced displacement and mixed migration patterns, and underscored the need for a strengthened regional durable solutions framework.
With this, IGAD became the first regional economic community to apply commitments of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework, the New York Declaration and the subsequent Global Compact for Refugees Heads of State pledged to improve protection space and solutions for those displaced including provision of education, health and economic opportunities for millions of refugees and forcibly displaced with paradigm shift from humanitarian response to more sustainable long-term development response, commitments that have since been expanded to cover all the forced displacement situations in the IGAD region.