4th JDC Research Conference on Forced Displacement

June 4-6, 2026 - Bangkok, Thailand. Venue: Chatrium Grand Bangkok

The World Bank – UNHCR Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement (JDC) is pleased to announce its 4^th Research Conference on Forced Displacement, organized in collaboration with the Faculty of Economics of Chulalongkorn University, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the World Bank.

The Research Conferences held so far have contributed to JDC’s objectives by providing an ideal space for stimulating the production of quantitative research on forced displacement, offering a platform for interaction between researchers and practitioners, and identifying thematic, population and geographical gaps in our knowledge on forced displacement.

We are happy to continue the important collaboration with our partners on filling evidence gaps on the forcibly displaced and stateless persons, with a specific focus on low- and middle-income countries.

Register for In-Person Attendance

The Conference will feature a combination of academic presentations, keynote note lectures and policy-oriented panels. The event seeks to address in particular the following topics:

1. Quantitative analysis of drivers and effects of self-reliance among the forcibly displaced, stateless people and the host communities.

2. Quantitative research on pathways to and the impact of economic inclusion of forcibly displaced and stateless people, including evidence on skills development, job integration, private sector investments, and entrepreneurship.

3. Socioeconomic evidence on the return of displaced populations, reintegration challenges, and durable solutions.

4. Methodological innovations in quantitative forced displacement research (e.g., sampling, data collection methods).

5. Operational and policy impact of data and evidence in displacement settings.

The Conference program will be published shortly on this page and will be constantly updated.

Speakers

More speakers to be announced soon.

Andrés Moya

Andrés Moya is Associate Professor of Economics at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, and a Commissioner for the 2024–2025 Lancet Commission on Health, Conflict, and Forced Displacement. His research focuses on the consequences of conflict and forced displacement, including how these dynamics drive poverty through economic, psychological, and behavioral channels. He is affiliated with several research networks and contributes to ongoing work examining the displacement of Venezuelan refugees in Colombia, including the impacts of policies and programs to support their socioeconomic integration and longer-term outcomes.

Elizabeth Eyster

Elizabeth Eyster currently serves as the Head of UNHCR’s Sustainable Responses Service, based in Geneva. She brings over 23 years of experience with UNHCR and has previously held several senior leadership roles, including Deputy Director of the Division of Resilience and Solutions in Geneva, UNHCR Representative in Mauritania (2022–2024), and Deputy Representative for Protection in Colombia (2020–2022). Her diverse career spans leadership of the Internal Displacement Section within the Division of International Protection, service as Deputy Representative in Tunisia, and a range of field assignments in locations such as Pakistan and Kosovo.

Faris Hadad-Zervos

Faris Hadad-Zervos is the World Bank Country Director for Afghanistan. He has held senior leadership roles across the World Bank, including Country Director for Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, Country Manager for Nepal and Malaysia, and Head of the Global Knowledge and Research Hub in Kuala Lumpur. Since joining the World Bank in 1996, he has also served as Head of Mission for Iraq, Operations Manager for the West Bank and Gaza, and Country Manager for Bolivia. He was Deputy Head of the Quartet Office for the Middle East Peace Process and has lectured and published on economic development in conflict settings.

Hai Kyung Jun

Since February 2024 Hai Kyung Jun is the UNHCR Regional Director for Asia and Pacific. Prior to this, she was the UNHCR Representative in Korea. She joined UNHCR in 2001 as Associate Fundraising Officer and Donor Relations Officer at UNHCR Headquarters. She then went on to serve as Donor Relations Specialist at the UNICEF Office for Japan and the Republic of Korea before assuming the position of Senior Advisor in the Multilateral Affairs Division at UNICEF Headquarters. In 2012, she served as Special Advisor at the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific at UNHCR Headquarters and as Assistant Representative (Program) for UNHCR in Afghanistan from 2013 to 2014. She then worked as UNICEF Representative in Chile until 2018 and as Director and Secretary of the UNICEF Executive Board at UNICEF Headquarters before working as UNHCR’s Representative in Myanmar in 2020.

Haishan Fu

Haishan Fu is the World Bank Group’s Chief Statistician and Director of the Development Data Group. In these roles, she leads and coordinates the Bank’s development data agenda, including global data programs, technical advisory services, public-private partnerships, and innovative financing initiatives such as the Global Data Facility. A long-standing advocate for the power of data to improve lives, she has been at the forefront of global data discourse as a thought leader, advisor, and researcher for over three decades. Prior to joining the World Bank, she led regional statistical development programs at UNESCAP and was the first Chief of Statistics for UNDP’s Human Development Report.

Jean-François Maystadt

Jean-François Maystadt is Research Associate at the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS), Professor at the Economic School of Louvain (UCLouvain), and Senior Lecturer at Lancaster University, UK. He is a development economist specializing in conflict, climate change, and migration, with a focus on the causes and consequences of conflict and forced displacement, particularly in developing countries. He has published extensively in leading academic journals and is currently an invited lecturer on the economics of conflict at Sciences Po, France.

Klaus Dik Nielsen

Klaus Dik Nielsen is Co-Secretary General of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network. He is an international human rights advocate and partnership builder with more than 20 years of experience advancing rights, social justice, and inclusion for minorities and marginalized communities. His work spans advocacy, partnerships, mobilization, and capacity-building, engaging civil society, governments, funders, the private sector, and UN agencies. He has held roles with Amnesty International (International Secretariat) and the Open Society Foundations, and has consulted with organizations including ActionAid Thailand, the People’s Empowerment Foundation, APCOM, OHCHR, and UNICEF.

Luis Felipe López-Calva

Luis Felipe López-Calva is a Global Director with the World Bank Group’s Prosperity Vertical. He has 25 years of professional experience working with international institutions and advising national governments. He rejoined the World Bank in 2022 from the United Nations Development Programme, where he served as UN Assistant Secretary General and Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean since 2018. At the World Bank, he has held various positions including Global Director for Poverty and Equity, Practice Manager of the Poverty and Equity Global Practice for Europe and Central Asia, Co-Director of the World Development Report 2017 on Governance and the Law, Lead Economist and Regional Poverty Advisor in the Poverty and Equity Global Practice for Europe and Central Asia, and Lead Economist in the Poverty, Equity and Gender Unit in the PREM Directorate for Latin America and the Caribbean. López-Calva is a Board Member at the Global Development Network (GDN) and a Fellow of the Human Development and Capabilities Association.

Melinda Good

Melinda Good is the World Bank Division Director for Thailand and Myanmar, based in Bangkok. Prior to this role, she was the Country Director for the World Bank in Kabul, Afghanistan, where she oversaw the country program, working with international partners to support the Afghan people. Before her tenure in Afghanistan, Melinda was the Operations Manager in Islamabad, Pakistan overseeing a portfolio of IDA and IBRD lending and guarantees. Melinda has also worked in the World Bank’s Washington, D.C., and Indonesia offices, and with the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation in Washington, D.C. Melinda began her career as a lawyer in private practice in New York and Singapore, working on project finance and equity transactions in Asia.

Raouf Mazou

Raouf Mazou took up his appointment as UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Operations on 1 February 2020, having joined the organization in 1991. His various assignments have enabled him to garner expertise in such areas as emergency response, repatriation, and the development of strategies aimed at bridging the gap between relief and development. Mazou previously served as Director of UNHCR’s Africa Bureau in 2019 and as UNHCR Representative in Kenya for over five years. In the four years immediately preceding this assignment, he was a Deputy Director in the Africa Bureau, covering the East and Horn of Africa. Other senior positions he has held at UNHCR include Deputy Director of the Division of Operations Support and Head of the Emergency and Security Service, a role in which he oversaw the organization’s global emergency management and staff security interests. Mazou joined UNHCR in 1991 in the Great Lakes Region and subsequently served in West Africa, supporting the agency’s response to the Liberian and Sierra Leonean refugee crises.

Tammi Sharpe

Tammi Sharpe is the Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Thailand since April 2024. She has more than 27 years of UN experience, with postings in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, UNHCR Headquarters and UN Secretariat in New York. Her expertise covers humanitarian protection, peacebuilding, reconciliation, the humanitarian-development nexus, external relations, resource mobilization and management. Prior to joining the UN, she worked with the U.S. Catholic Conference and volunteered as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal.