ID: 1838
Presenting Author: Grace Rigby
Session: 688 - Fair Resettlement: Managing Stakeholder Expectations and Misinformation
Status: pending
This paper unpacks the challenges of communication which can be encountered on government-led resettlement projects and proposes a practical framework for how they might be addressed in the future.
Physical and economic displacement impacts often occur as a result of major infrastructure development projects, constituting one of the main social risks for the affected persons and communities, as well as one of the biggest challenges that project proponents face.
In many jurisdictions, the responsibility for managing physical and economic displacement impacts through processes of land acquisition, resettlement and livelihood restoration lies with national governments who, through their respective agencies and departments, play a leading role in communicating information about such processes at the community level.
Previous project experience demonstrates that such communications can be problematic with cases of too much information, too little information and / or the wrong information being shared. This can, in turn, have far-reaching consequences for the affected persons, as well as adverse implications for the successful realisation of projects (including from a financial, scheduling and reputational perspective).
This paper aims to unpack the above challenges with reference to case study examples of government-led resettlement projects from countries across Africa and the Middle East, as well as to propose a practical framework for overcoming such challenges in the future.
Grace is a social performance specialist with a primary interest in the management of social risks and impacts associated with major infrastructure development projects.
Coauthor 1: Tracey Draper