Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Internal displacement is an increasingly important public health and governance challenge, driven by the interaction of armed conflict, recurrent disasters, and climate-related hazards. Internally displaced persons (IDPs), who remain within national borders, often face persistent protection gaps, fragmented assistance, and disrupted access to essential services, challenges that are particularly pronounced in low- and middle-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Mozambique illustrates how historical patterns of conflict-related displacement intersect with contemporary crises linked to floods, cyclones, droughts, and renewed insecurity, resulting in repeated and protracted displacement. These dynamics generate cumulative health and social vulnerabilities among IDPs, including elevated risks of mental health disorders, malnutrition, poor maternal and child health outcomes, and infectious diseases, shaped by poverty, disrupted livelihoods, weak infrastructure, and constrained health-system capacity. This article presents a policy- and practice-oriented narrative review that synthesizes national evidence on internal displacement in Mozambique and critically situates these findings within global frameworks, international policy recommendations, and comparative contexts of displacement-affected areas. It examines the historical evolution of displacement dynamics and analyses their implications for health systems, governance, and research agendas. The review aligns with Mozambique's National Research Agenda in Human Health (AGISA) and assesses the Policy and Strategy for the Management of Internally Displaced Persons (PEGDI), identifying gaps in legal enforceability, integration of conflict- and disaster-related displacement, monitoring systems, and long-term resilience planning. Building on the Technical and Scientific Programme on Vulnerable Populations of the National Institute of Health (INS), Mozambique, this article proposes displacement-sensitive research and policy priorities to strengthen routine health planning, surveillance, participatory approaches, and multisectoral coordination. The findings underscore the need to move beyond short-term humanitarian responses toward sustained, evidence-informed strategies that recognize internal displacement as a structural determinant of health and embed displacement considerations within health-system strengthening, climate adaptation, and development planning in Mozambique.
Júnior et al. (Tue,) studied this question.