Publications

	Table of Contents
p. 3 of 8 BACK | NEXT Why is Gender Important in Resettlement? Gender Issues in Resettlement Consultation and Participation Resettlement Planning Resettlement and Rehabilitation Institutional Considerations Monitoring and Evaluation International Instruments

Gender Checklist: resettlement

---

Consultation and Participation

The ADB Policy on Involuntary Resettlement and Handbook on Resettlement highlight the need for fully informing and consulting affected persons on resettlement planning and implementation. The consultation process should include women and ensure that their participation is actively sought in identifying impact, developing appropriate mitigation, and during implementation and monitoring.

Key Issues

• Social and cultural factors may exclude women from participating actively in planning, implementing, and executing resettlement activities. Special efforts need to be made to ensure their inclusion.
• Often, planners operate via male elite, who may not represent the community in its entirety and especially women.
• Unless women’s participation is ensured, male biases in administration and legal systems might both undermine women’s rights in customary institutions and disadvantage vulnerable women. Widows, the elderly, divorced women, and women-headed households may suffer as a result of this bias.
• The key to participation is full information. If the affected persons are to exercise their rights to rehabilitation, they must be fully informed.

Key Questions

• Have women representing all socioeconomic categories been consulted about the project?
• Do women have any information about the proposed project?
• Have women been consulted on the resettlement plan?
• Were women involved in developing the resettlement plan and were their inputs solicited?informed.
• Have women been consulted in identifying affected persons?
• How will the plan be shared with affected women?
• Is there a mechanism for ensuring women’s participation at each stage of the project?
• Should there be separate meetings for women?

Key Strategies

• Ensure adequate representation and presence of women from different socioeconomic groups.
• Ensure proportionate or 50% representation of women during planning and disclosure of the resettlement plan and seek women’s opinion on it.
• Consider separate meetings with women, using female facilitators to solicit women’s views, especially on such sensitive issues as toilets, sanitation, water, and house plan.
  

Back Gender Issues in Resettlement	Next Resettlement Planning