Development projects and involuntary population displacement: The World Bank's attempt to correct past failures

Abstract

In the past, poor rural peasants have been the unintended victims of large-scale development projects in the world's developing countries. Development projects such as dam and road construction have triggered large streams of population movements within poor countries. Policy makers such as those at the World Bank have made several attempts to tackle the problems of development-based involuntary population displacements. This paper examines some of the consequences and dynamics of development induced forced migration. It discusses the World Bank's past failure to provide adequate policies that sufficiently tackle the displacement problems that were the consequences of its past projects in Africa. The Bank's new Operational Policy on Involuntary Displacement is then evaluated in a retrospect- ive analysis of how it could have solved the population displacement problems in one of its projects, the Nangbeto Dam in Togo, West Africa. The analysis concludes that the Operational Policy could be an effective tool to tackle development induced population displacement but that it still needs a few more adjustments as a policy instrument.