 Armed conflict, instability and environmental shocks are driving record numbers to leave their homes, within and across international borders. It is estimated that more than 60 million people globally have been forcibly displaced. Responding to emergency needs with humanitarian assistance plays a critical role in saving and sustaining lives. However, without sufficient support to facilitate long-term recovery, displacement crises are becoming more protracted and more complex. The international community recognizes the need to move beyond responding to the symptoms of crisis. Resolving displacement cannot happen without addressing its underlying causes. This requires context-specific interventions to end needs, sustainably address vulnerabilities and build foundations for inclusive, risk-informed peace, security and development. The perception that populations first face a crisis then receive help and gradually recover is sadly not a reality in most cases. Social, economic and environmental vulnerabilities can remain long after the emergency phase of a crisis has passed. If left unaddressed, populations risk backsliding into crisis situations year after year. Breaking this cycle of vulnerability and aid dependence is essential for long-term recovery and often requires addressing the factors that first led to crisis. IOM works in partnership with states, civil society, displaced populations and others in more than 60 countries to facilitate transition away from crisis and help communities find long-term solutions to displacement. IOM applies a holistic approach, simultaneously addressing the social, economic and material vulnerabilities to enable people to recover sustainably and with resilience to destabilizing influences. Interventions in areas affected by displacement can include direct assistance to displaced groups and the wider community. Things like helping communities rebuild basic infrastructure, creating housing and jobs, reducing tensions and restoring social cohesion and indirect interventions enabling communities to build the foundations for sustainable recovery. Things like enhancing the capacity of local government to respond to community needs or reintegrating armed actors, often key drivers of displacement, into their communities. Empowering communities and their leadership to define, own and drive their own recovery processes is central to all of IOM's transition and recovery work. Investing early in recovery processes makes them more effective, whether during an emergency response or before a response becomes necessary. IOM works across a spectrum of activities addressing vulnerabilities as well as the drivers of those vulnerabilities in order to contribute to sustainable solutions.