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Dams and Development E-Paper Contents

p. -1 of 74 BACK | NEXT Home Page of Dams and Development Foreword I. Why an e-paper on dams and development? II. Assessing options III. Participatory processes IV. Social impacts V. Environmental impacts VI. Benefit distribution VII. Dam safety and sustainability VIII. Existing projects IX. Improving governance X. What other organizations say XI. ADB, Dams, and Development XII. References Contact Us

WCD approach to 'prior informed consent'

WCD built on ILO Convention 169 (and the preceding Convention 107 of 1957) in proposing policy principle 1.4 (p.218)

'Decisions on projects affecting indigenous and tribal peoples are guided by their free, prior and informed consent achieved through formal and informal representative bodies'

In describing the concept of free, prior informed consent, the WCD emphasized the influence that indigenous and tribal peoples would have to 'guide decision-making on dams and their alternatives' (p.219). They would have the 'power to consent to projects and negotiate the conditions under which they can proceed'.

An important aspect is that the influence is held by the communities according to their own norms of representation and is not equivalent to a veto power of individual stakeholders as has often been mistakenly interpreted.

WCD also makes proposals for good faith negotiations and dispute resolution measures in the case that agreement cannot be reached between the communities and developer / government (p.219 and Guideline #3, p.281). Ultimately, the State is considered as the ultimate arbiter, subject to judicial review under the laws of an individual country (Guideline #2, p.281).

Further background on the impacts of projects on indigenous peoples and the emerging international framework is provided in a thematic review prepared as input to the WCD report:

Colchester, Marcus - Forest Peoples Programme 2000. Dams, Indigenous People and vulnerable ethnic minorities, Thematic Review 1.2

Initial proposals for implementing PIC were also prepared for WCD as a contributing paper:

Metha, Lyla and Stankovitch, Maria, 2000. Operationalisation of Free Prior Informed Consent. Contributing paper to Thematic Review 1.2

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