Conceptualizing household livelihood needs in mining-induced displacement and resettlement: a case study from Ghana

Abstract

Development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR) is a significant socio-economic problem. Recent estimates suggest that approximately 20 million people are displaced every year to make way for the construction and operation of large-scale development projects, such as dams and mining. More than forty years of scholarship show that people displaced by these projects often experience worse levels of poverty and, in the majority of cases, struggle to recover from this impoverishment. International finance institutions have attempted to address project-induced impoverishment by putting forward resettlement policy frameworks and guidelines. These policy measures have been complemented by scholarly models for planning and implementing resettlement that aim to prevent impoverishment. However, despite numerous policies, impoverishment remains a predominant outcome in most displacement settings. This thesis focuses on mining-induced displacement and resettlement (MIDR). It engages scholarly works and literature on displacement and sustainable livelihoods and argues that continuing widespread impoverishment — in the face of ‘improved’ resettlement policy and practice — is a result of inadequate engagement with the human scale dimensions of household livelihood development.The thesis is based on an ethnographic case study from Ghana and examines a resettlement exercise as it occurred at the Akyem gold mine project. Based on constructivist perspectives, it uses a combined conceptual lens from the Sustainable Livelihoods Frameworks, Sen’s (1999) Capabilities Approach, and concepts from industrial sociology to examine the human scale issues in MIDR. These issues are examined at three levels: household, policy platforms and institutional practices. Habermas’ (1984) idea of “communicative action” is also deployed to conceptualise potential areas of intersection across these levels. Primary data is analyzed from interviews with a sample of 82 participants and informants, comprising twenty-five (25) randomly selected household participants and fifty-seven (57) key informants. Documents are analysed as primary sources for understanding the legal and regulatory instruments, policies and guidelines pertaining to MIDR within Ghana and the international context.At the household level, the findings from the research confirmed the established pattern of impoverishment and vulnerability resulting from MIDR. The pressures of being dispossessed, combined with the rapid transformations associated with industrial scale mining, were prominent and directly explained the impoverishment process facing the households. Attempts by the households to embark on livelihood reconstruction were undermined by key structural constraints, foremost the inadequate access to productive land for agriculture. At the policy level, the findings show notable instances where the material concerns of household livelihood development were not well represented across key policy platforms. While institutional actors in mining and resettlement demonstrated common knowledge about these concerns, the research highlights that much of the legislative and programmatic response put forward to address impoverishment in this case context did not account for these critical human scale concerns in the resettlement process. By bringing a disparate set of insights together across a range of institutional actors, the thesis concludes that there is potential to improve livelihood outcomes by placing enhanced focus on the human scale considerations in resettlement policy and practice.