Sikuka, Alois Neza2026-07-232026-07-232024-11-30http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11837/4115Globally, states are expected to recognise and offer assistance to all its citizens including those internally displaced without any form of discrimination and segregation. In Zimbabwe, literature on internal displacement points to the state as being responsible for the IDPs, but at the same time is also responsible for ameliorating internally displaced person’s effects. Subsequently, political recognition of the internally displaced individuals by the state builds restoration of sustainable livelihoods and capabilities of the displaced populations. Using an inductive method approach and drawing on capabilities, entitlement and sustainable livelihood approaches, the study investigates the marginalisation of internally displaced individuals in Zimbabwe and exclusionary effects on them with a comparative analysis of the three provinces. Data were collected from the internally displaced individuals, authorities, host communities and development partners. Content examination was applied to analyse qualitative data, supplemented with descriptive analyses of statistics assembled in this study. The research revealed massive marginalisation and exclusion of internally displaced groups in the three provinces under research in Zimbabwe. The non-recognition and exclusion IDPs point to the failure of the state to apply social justice, promotion and protection of human rights, constitutionality, of the IDPs. Furthermore, the study exposed a power struggle between the state and the development partners resulting in vulnerability of the internally displaced groups thereby reducing their capabilities to their entitlements to achieve durable solutions. Another significant observation of the study was the lack of possession of legal documents such as identification cards destroyed during the displacement cycle. In addition, lack of security of tenure has negatively affected accessing the basic social, economic, political and environmental services to enhance livelihoods and sustainable integration for the internally displaced individuals. The main conclusion reached in the study is that IDPs in Zimbabwe have not been recognised and are usually deprived of their human rights, capabilities, entitlements, human capital and livelihoods. Therefore, in order to recognise, protect and offer assistance to the IDPs, the international community through its various mandated instruments should act and ensure viable, integration interventions for internally displaced individuals are implemented by the state. This will in the long run promote sustainable integration, and improve livelihoods for the marginalized IDPs in Zimbabwe. The study posits that sustainable attainment of durable solutions for internally displaced persons depends on the functionality of the study`s three recognition, empirical and exclusion dilemmas linking with concepts of capabilities, livelihoods and entitlements.enInternally displaced persons -- Zimbabwe.Humanitarian assistance -- ZimbabweRefugees -- Legal statuslawsetc.Thesis