Evaluators Assess ADB Safeguards on Involuntary Resettlement

AN EVALUATION team has rated ADB's policy on involuntary resettlement as effective in terms of the impact on people affected by infrastructure projects in a limited number of countries visited. But compliance with the policy has been variable over the years and across projects and countries.

The assessment, carried out by the Operations Evaluation Department (OED), was conducted through case studies on projects in People's Republic of China, India, Philippines, and Viet Nam. It is based on available information about the coverage of compensation provided to affected persons and the satisfaction levels registered.

More recent resettlement operations appear to be better planned and carried out, according to the assessment, while capacity development in project executing agencies – usually government offices – had also by and large been effective.

But changing procedures and organizational arrangements made to enforce the policy have been setting the bar higher, making application of the policy less efficient and consistent in many cases, according to the report.

Adopted in 1995, the policy requires projects to avoid involuntary resettlement where feasible or mitigate adverse impacts and pay special attention to the problems of the vulnerable. It aims to ensure the displaced people receive assistance that will enable them to be at least as well off after the project as before. It details how to deal with land acquisition and resettlement in a systematic way. The evaluation assesses that the policy is relevant to ADB’s aims of developing infrastructure and reducing poverty.

Because of additional due diligence and more strict interpretation of the policy since 2002, half of all ADB-supported projects have included resettlement planning, compared to about one fifth in the period 1994-2001.

Projects approved between 1996 and 2005 were expected to affect at least 1.8 million people in terms of their access to, or use of, land and often also in terms of loss of house or other structure, mostly associated with transport projects.

“The involuntary resettlement policy has proven contentious both inside and outside ADB for differing reasons, and it is a topic on which it is virtually impossible to develop a consensus,” says Bruce Murray, Director General of OED.

The study finds that the increasing demand for monitoring resettlement in ADB projects is not matched by its available staff resources and assesses ADB's involuntary resettlement approach as less than likely to be sustainable. The latter is because of the high incremental and transaction costs associated with implementing the policy to the letter, to which some executing agencies object.

It calls for required resources to be identified by ADB and more frequent monitoring of resettlement operations. It also states that ADB should accord a higher priority to training programs for government project staff and that country reviews of safeguards should be undertaken to assess the extent to which country safeguard systems could be relied on in the future, preferably in partnership with other donors.

The report gives a number of recommendations to clarify and update the 10 year old policy. An ADB review of the policy, which includes an extensive consultation process with a wide range of stakeholders, will consider how to address the issues raised by the evaluation.

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