The World Bank, Hydropower-based Poverty Alleviation and Indigenous Peoples: On-the-Ground Realities in the Xe Bang Fai River Basin of Laos

Abstract

The Nam Theun 2 Hydropower Project (NT2) in Laos has – despite being considered a model project by its main international supporter, the World Bank – had major social and environmental impacts on downstream areas in the Xe Bang Fai (XBF) River Basin. In this article we argue that NT2 has been especially damaging to ethnic Brou Indigenous Peoples, and particularly Brou women, who although they have not been passive victims and have demonstrated a certain level of agency, have nevertheless been proportionally more impacted, and have been generally less able to take advantage of project compensation. In its expedient approach to project development, the project developers, including the World Bank, have failed to even recognize that thousands of ethnic Brou people living in the XBF Basin qualify as Indigenous. This has led to a number of adverse consequences, including increasing the vulnerability of these communities to induced internal resettlement. Much more needs to be done to address the plight of those impacted by NT2 in the XBF River Basin, including Indigenous Peoples and especially Indigenous women.