Development-induced Displacement And Resettlement Research Articles

How does the grassroots drive just transition? Evidence from an alteration of resettlement sites in China

Dam-induced resettlement is a typical pattern of development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR), which concludes involuntariness and leads to injustice practices. Although the justice of resettlement is studied in existing works, few of them notice that the selection of resettlement sites might be holistically an opportunity for just transition, and the performance of this process is not totally a government arrangement. To address this gap, this paper takes the Multi-level Perspective (MLP) as the theoretical framework, and adopts mixed methods to examine a second selection case of resettlement sites for the Wuxikou dam in Jiangxi Province, China. Based on grounded theory, five categories of resettlees' demands for resettlement sites, namely agricultural production (AP), non-agricultural production (NAP), material life (ML), social life (SL), and reception of natural ecology (RNE) are identified. The multiple conjunctural causation between these demands and resettlees' actions for changing initial resettlement sites is analyzed by Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). Four intermediate solutions as well as the core and peripheral conditions are found. Apart from the bottom-up petitions, how the political environment and governmental administration enabled the resettlees' request for altering resettlement sites is illustrated. It is found that, although the government and resettlees with different interests and action logics, the same result is promoted under the national policies,viz, the implementation of changing resettlement sites, process justice and outcome justice are therein realized. Relative policy implications and outlooks on just resettlement practice are remarked.

Cause analysis of delay in development induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR) project. A case study of Diamer Basha Dam Project in Pakistan

Developmental projects, which will complete within a timeframe, save extra-cost and time over-run. Due to many causes, hydro power and dam projects in Pakistan are trapped into long gestation periods and face delay in development. This research is based on a case study to explore the causes of delay in the Diamer Basha Dam Project (DBDP) in Pakistan. The preliminary causes of delay in project, identified from literature were classified under political, economic, social, technical, legal, and environmental factors using the PESTLE technique. Through stratified random sampling method a designed questionnaire with 52 items were distributed to 120 severing employees in the public stakeholders institutions of the DBDP. The collected data were tested using statistical tools in Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 20. Based on the 109 responses, this study has examined and ranked critical causes of delay in the DBDP. The findings show that the causes of delay in development induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR) project are associated with PESTLE related causes and the most influencing factors are economic and social factors. It is suggested that policymakers well understand the dynamics of PESTLE factors of delay at projects planning stage and devise corresponding strategies to cope with these issues.

‘Sustainability of what, for whom? A critical analysis of Chinese development induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR) programs

Most studies and influential agencies propose a shift to sustainability thinking and regard it as an important means of coordinating economic, social and environmental development. However, much less research focusses on conflicts over resources, the issue of asymmetrical power, and value-and-cultural conflicts behind the trajectories of sustainable development. For countries speeding up transitions such as China, it can be asked how and why might accelerating sustainability transitions through resettlement become a new utopia or a poverty trap? To examine the significance of this question for sustainability, we explore three development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR) programs in China: dam-induced resettlement, poverty-alleviation oriented relocation (including ecological migration) and agglomeration of villages. This research examines normative issues of Chinese policies for sustainability. We find that building sustainability via DIDR will not be as easy as projected and could lead to new poverty traps that disadvantage some groups of people, such as resettlees. We highlight three themes, the change of resettlees’ financial conditions, land access and local governance, to explore how competition is skewed between resettlees and local governments while speeding up to pursue more ambitious goals. We find that with the increased pace of implementation of quick sustainability policies that power lies with local governments to the detriment of resettlees. DIDR can become a just governance tool to build sustainability, but only if there is sufficient agreement among all stakeholders on a transparent, accountable and collaborative approach. Without inclusion and equality in transitions, potential risks and challenges can eclipse sustainable development.

Connecting the Disconnected: The Role of ICT in Women’s Livelihood Restoration in the Resettlement Site Kannagi Nagar in Chennai, India

In Chennai, Development-Induced Displacement and Resettlement (DIDR) pushes the urban poor to resettlement sites in the outskirts of the city. One of those sites is Kannagi Nagar, located 15 km from the city centre, in which women suffer from more significant livelihood deprivation. As there is evidence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) being useful in development, this study aims to explain the role of ICT in the livelihood restoration and enhancement of the social and financial capital for women in Kannagi Nagar. Through a case study with a blend of quantitative and qualitative techniques, the research incorporated a closed-ended questionnaire survey and interviews. Among the women, ICT use is prevalent, however, they have not fully optimized the potentials of ICT for livelihood restoration. The use is still limited to the purpose of maintaining the contacts they already have. However, some women have been able to use ICT, especially through their phones, for the restoration and enhancement of their social and financial capital. Nonetheless, to harness the full potential of ICT and strengthen women’s agency, access to ICT should be improved.

Skills’ sets and shared benefits: perceptions of resettled people from the Yangtze-Huai River Diversion Project in China

ABSTRACT Development induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR) projects should share their benefits with those affected by them. This paper shows that in the case of the Yangtze-Huai River Diversion Project in China perceptions of compensation received differs amongst different groups of resettled people even if levels of compensation are similar. Based on a survey with displaced people, a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation concludes that those with generic skills’ sets are the most satisfied, mainly because they are able to find new work and re-establish livelihoods after resettlement more quickly. On the other hand, those with only agricultural skills find it difficult to re-establish their livelihood and are often dissatisfied. Finally, those who did not have any work before resettlement were found to be satisfied overall as their life quality is said to have improved. The skills of those affected are therefore a key explanatory factor for satisfaction with compensation following resettlement.

Improving living conditions of displacees: A review of the evidence benefit sharing scheme for development induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR) in urban Jakarta Indonesia

Benefit sharing schemes have been used as an option to restore or improve displacees’ lives which aims to assist displaced households to adjust to challenges in new life and environment. What can be shared includes cash, training, capacity building, natural resources (i.e, foods, energy etc), authority and privileges to control the land, technologies and infrastructure However, this concept has so far only been offered in developmental projects that are able to generate profit. Generally, this scheme is developed in hydropower and extractive industries (oil, gas and minerals). This research discusses on how benefit sharing can also be applied to DIDR informal settlement eviction by using the application of the Jakarta regional government policy decisions as a case study. The authors would like to explain the potential of benefit sharing for DIDR informal settlement eviction in Jakarta, which displaced 25,355 individuals, 5725 families and 5379 commercial entities from 2014 to 2016. Assessment of the rationales and compositional facial characteristics of the four benefit sharing models proposed by Lebed et al was used in this study. However, this model has been adjusted for DIDR projects. Based on the evidence presented in this study, the model implemented by the Jakarta provincial government has been evaluated as benefit sharing. The study demonstrates that government has adopted polices which enables the private company to gain more profit and in turn share its profits in infrastructural development to help free cities from informal settlement problems.

Planned resettlement to avoid climatic hazards: What prospects for just outcomes in China?

Planned resettlement is being widely considered as a response to the impacts of climate change. As many millions of people are expected to be displaced in the coming decades, scholars and policymakers are searching for precedence to inform their research and planning, particularly from experiences of Development‐Induced Displacement and Resettlement (DIDR). Nowhere in the world is DIDR and other closely related forms of planned resettlement more prevalent than in China: an estimated 78 million people have been displaced by development projects over the last six decades. While planned resettlement has consistently been shown to cause impoverishment, the Chinese state views it as the answer to a multitude of social ills including poverty, environmental damage, low levels of domestic consumption, and most recently, climate change, providing impetus to the normalisation of resettlement as adaptation. This paper examines the prospects for just outcomes in resettlement projects by examining distributive justice at multiple scales in existing resettlement practice in China. It finds that due to the interplay between resettlement and questions of procedural justice, prospects for just outcomes are quite limited, and that in order to achieve fair adaptation, alternatives to planned resettlement should be emphasised.

Development Induced Displacement; A Review of Risks Faced by Communities in Developing Countries

About 15 million people every year are forced to live their homes to give way for huge development projects such as dams, highways, and mining. In most developing countries, such projects have been noted to increase ecological and social vulnerability, thus leaving the affected people displaced, disempowered and destitute. The literature review paper focused on the different risks communities are exposed to due to development induced displacement and resettlement. The data presented is review of online peer-reviewed and grey literature between the years 1980 through 2018. The risks analyzed through the Impoverishment, Risk and Reconstruction (IRR) model acts as a guide in selecting and understanding the risks of development induced displacement and Resettlement (DIDR) during social vulnerability assessment. Often the question of social vulnerability has been largely ignored due to the difficulty in quantification. Risk analysis also provides ground to further investigate reasons for the occurrence and persistency of the risks, in developing countries such as India, Sudan, and Kenya. The findings of the review through the IRR model indicated that displacement and resettlement exposes project affected people to some opportunities, but largely associated with more risks. Some of the reasons for the persistency of the risks included; compensation for lost properties and lack of experience and capacity to handle resettlement processes. Identifying reasons for the persistency of the already known risks, especially in developing countries builds on the previous work on DIDR risks by Micheal Cernea and other researchers.

Financing for Development and Socio-Ecological Transitions: A Review of Chinese Investments in Kenya

Kenya has adopted a comprehensive development path to accelerate and create suitable conditions for sustainable development as outlined in the “Vision 2030.” A key strategy is the catalytic role of bilateral loans and finances which have increased in manifolds over the years. However, a growing and critical discourse has emerged about the social-ecological sustainability in the Chinese-financed development projects, within the context of China-Africa engagement policy. China is playing significant role in the economic growth of developing countries and in particular, critical investments in productive sectors. This paper examines the development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR) framework and explores the social-ecological impacts and outcomes of some selected Chinese-financed projects in Kenya. The paper also examines the various social-ecological guidelines and standards issued by Chinese authorities over-time, for their overseas investments and operations. It concludes that contemporary Chinese-financed development and investments in Kenya are resulting in increasing, improving and sustainable social-ecological outcomes.

Does Kenya’s Development-Induced Displacement, and Resettlement Policy Match International Standards? A Gap Analysis and Recommendations

Multilateral Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) apply variable Development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR) policies for project investment-finance extended to client countries. However, developing countries, in essence, finance their development or investment projects separately, thus the need for a DIDR policy that matches international safeguard standards. Kenya has recently enacted far-reaching improvements in its DIDR framework informed by a long history of controversies surrounding DIDR and the colonial displacement and resettlement praxis. This paper traces the development of DIDR framework in Kenya and then develops a matrix to compare the framework with international safeguards extracted from the standards of six selected multilateral DFIs. It then analyses the gaps and prescribes measures to bridge the gaps towards the international standards. The major gaps noted are lack of solid income and livelihood restoration mechanisms and inadequate tracking, supervision and monitoring for DIDR. It has also presented a discussion on the need to fast-track attainment of the international standards, particularly in this period when Kenya is embarking on ‘Vision 2030’ development blueprint which hopes to spur Kenya to “High-Income Country” status by the year 2030. Multilateral DFIs are also piloting new Environmental and Social Frameworks (ESF) with the objective of assisting individual countries scale-up their DIDR policy. They can start by supporting Kenya to bridge the gaps as well as building human and technological capacity. Policy aspects indicated in this paper will enhance DIDR outcomes for Kenya.

Development-induced displacement in Asia: conflicts, risks, and resilience

This introduction to the themed special feature on development-induced displacement in Asia discusses the scope and major drivers of development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR) in Asia, and recent policy developments at the national and international level. It describes some of the existing conceptual frameworks in the field of DIDR and presents a new set of questions and concerns that are addressed by the five articles that make up this special feature.

Mining-induced displacement and resettlement: a critical appraisal

Abstract Physical displacement, relocation and resettlement are widely acknowledged as posing enormous social risk. For over four decades, scholars, campaigners and project-affected people have sought to highlight the effects of development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR). Increasingly, the generic set of international standards that are used to manage cases of DIDR are being tested by the unique challenges posed by mining-induced displacement and resettlement (MIDR). In this article the authors provide a critical appraisal of current thinking and practice relating to MIDR. Findings indicate that MIDR is largely characterised by factors that occur in 'brownfield' project scenarios; even when the initial displacement commences in otherwise 'new' mining developments. The article identifies five critical and distinguishing factors associated with MIDR. These factors are explored in light of contemporary policy debates surrounding the mining industry, including 'consent', 'negotiated agreements' and overall effectiveness of existing social safeguards in regulating industry practice.

Impact of conservation-induced displacement on host community livelihoods: Complicating the DIDR narratives

Studies of development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR) and conservation-induced displacement argue that when displaced people are resettled at a new location, their ‘hosts’ suffer impoverishment risks due to loss of common property resources to resettlers. Compensation for host communities, though acknowledged increasingly in policy, is rare in practice. This paper unpackages ‘host community impacts’ by investigating intra-household variations in livelihood impacts in a central Indian host village in a case of conservation-induced displacement. The ability of host households to cope with risks and gain from new opportunities is distributed unevenly along lines of power encoded in caste, class and gender. However, we show that site-specific historical and ecological factors can create contingent and multi-directional livelihood outcomes. Moreover, the overall human development impact on host households varies depending on how old vulnerabilities like low cash income give way to new vulnerabilities related to stronger integration with the market and the developmental state.

Out of Harm's Way; Preventive Resettlement of at Risk Informal Settlers in Highly Disaster Prone Areas

Preventive resettlement of communities from extremely hazard prone areas would result in large quantitative gains in global disaster resilience, reduce annual global recovery spending, and prevent disaster events from impacting on hard won development gains. Prevention as opposed to recovery has become the norm in describing a smart approach to disaster management yet preventive resettlement, requiring action before a significant event, is rarely considered as part of national disaster management strategies. This article describes why it is underutilised and how it could be employed more systematically to reduce risk in the most hazard prone areas in countries such as the Philippines. The Paper describes how the poor global track record of development induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR) has inadvertently impacted on perceptions of resettlement in general and considers how preventive resettlement fits within current theoretical models, proposing a distinct model for preventive resettlement.

Development-Induced Displacement and Resettlement: An International Bibliography

A well-annotated bibliography of publications on development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR).

Mining-Induced Displacement and Resettlement: Social Problem and Human Rights Issue (a Global Perspective)

The object of this paper is to present mining-induced displacement and resettlement (MIDR) as a highly diverse global socioeconomic issue occurring in all regions of the world, as a human rights issue, and as a source of challenges to public international law and and institutions providing humanitarian assistance. Development-induced displacement is primarily an socioeconomic issue associated with loss or significant reduction of access to basic resources on which communities depend. Physical abandonment of the existing residence shall therefore secondary to the loss of access to material resources such as land, pastures, forests and clean water as well as intangible resources such as socio-economic ties. More in-depth analysis has been preceded by an introduction which draws attention to the specific nature of MIDR as one of the categories of internal displacement. Mining-induced displacement is currently not a statistically significant category of development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR). Nevertheless, the social costs of exploitation are great, and that is why the topic is worthy of a wider and more profound scientific analysis. The first displacement caused by mining dates back to the late nineteenth century. As pointed out by Walter Fernandes, in India alone, mining has led to the displacement of more than 1,5 million people over the last fifty years (particularly in Jharkhand region). Other sources estimated the scale of mining-caused displacement in India at more than 2,55 million people between 1950 and 1990. Contrary to the opinions of some specialists, the problem of mining-induced displacement and resettlement is a global problem, occurring on all continents. Countries with particularly large-scale MIDR include: India, China, many African countries (e.g. Ghana, Mali, Zimbabwe) and even Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. The problem of compulsory resettlement is also a consequence of open pit coal mining in European countries like Germany and Poland. Although mining-induced displacement is a global phenomenon, problems experienced by the displacees in many parts of the world differ greatly. The largest portion of the displacement is caused by open-pit mining (associated with the extraction of gold, copper, iron, lignite, and diamonds).