For 50 years, mainstream development thinking has legitimised the displacement and resettlement of people for large-scale projects such as dams, infrastructure and wildlife conservation. But half a century of evidence shows, indisputably, that displacement causes social, economic and environmental harm, and that it cannot be mitigated by resettlement. Despite this evidence, estimates suggest that the number of people displaced for development has risen drastically in the last few decades, from 10 million a year in the 1990s to 20 million in the 2010s (Cernea and Maldonado, 2018). Resettlement continues to be the preferred solution to overlapping claims on land. The three authors of this brief have each been working in and researching development-forced displacement and resettlement (DFDR) for 15-20 years in different parts of the world. We come together to express our shared conclusion: displacement causes irreparable harm, and well-intended resettlement policies and practices perpetuate and justify further displacement. Decades of experience and research demonstrate that it is impossible to get large-scale resettlement right. New policies must prioritise human-scale development that does not require displacement.