Involuntary resettlement in development projects: Policy guidelines in world bank‐financed projects M. M. Cernea World Bank, Washington, 1988, pp. vii + 88. World Bank Technical Paper Number 80
| Date | 01 April 1990 |
| Published date | 01 April 1990 |
| Author | David S. Cownie |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230100217 |
248
Book
reviews
INVOLUNTARY RESE’ITLEMENT IN DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS: POLICY GUIDE-
LINES IN WORLD BANK-FINANCED PROJECTS
M.
M.
Cernea
World Bank, Washington,
1988,
pp. vii
+
88.
World Bank Technical Paper Number
80.
The World Bank Technical Publications series is designed to disseminate the results
of
investigations
of
field projects sponsored by the World Bank to project managers, government
officials, and similar people. As such, the series is designed to provide insights
of
an operational
nature, and suggest planning and implementation strategies which can overcome problems
which appear to be generic to a particular sector.
In
Involuntary Resettlement
in
Development Projects,
Cernea has taken on a particularly
arduous task: how to plan and implement projects which involve substantial dislocations of
people. Fortunately, Cernea handles the topic with a sensitivity to the multifaceted effects
which dislocation has on affected groups. As such, the book approaches involuntary resettle-
ment from the eyes of those dislocated, not from the eyes
of
planners and aid agencies. His
message is that, unless planners and aid workers approach the issue
of
involuntary resettlement
from this angle, the disruptions
of
life incumbent in forcibly moving people will overcome
people’s ability to reconstruct their lives. Further, planned and implemented properly, reloca-
tion has the potential to offer services, and provide opportunities, which did not exist in the
original location.
Clarity of objectives, consistent procedures during implementation, and adequate resources
for resettled communities are central to successful resettlement. As a result, the World Bank
in
1980
issued a directive to internal staff that all relevant World Bank-funded projects must
have a well-developed, coherent policy regarding involuntary resettlement (the only interna-
tional development agency to do
so).
While different projects have met with varied levels
of
success in this regard, the data generated, and research undertaken, were instrumental in the
preparation
of
this overview work.
In the past, according to Cernea, relocation has been treated as a ‘salvage and welfare’
operation, rather than one that can support development goals. ‘Salvage and welfare’ pervaded
the approach
of
planners and project personnel, with the (not unexpected) result that people
responded to the move in a variety of negative ways. Rather than focusing on productive
activities in the new locations, for instance, planners and project personnel focused more on
undoing the negative effects
of
the move. Further, dealing with relocation appeared to almost
be an afterthought. While Cernea notes that dislocating people is inveitably a negative event
(and such negative effects must be countered), planners must give adequate attention to
positive social and economic interventions at the pre-project stage. As Cernea notes (p.
19),
‘Resettlement can be bureaucratically dealt with by some planners
or
administrators as a mere
and hasty physical removal
of
people out
of
the path
of
the flooding reservoir waters
or
of
the
coming highway. But it may also be approached as a multisided opportunity for the reconstruc-
tion
of
systemsof production and human settlements that would represent a development in the
standard
of
life of those affected’.
Throughout the book, Cernea pays particular attention to the socio-economic effects
of
involuntary resettlement, dimensions
of
resettlement which an be overlooked during planning
and implementation. Further, he stresses the role
of
supervision, monitoring and evaluation in
assessing these and related data regarding the resettlement operation.
As
an aside, Cernea never links his discussion
of
involuntary resettlement programmes due
to the effects
of
a project with those resettlement programmes, such as the one in Tanzania,
which were based on government initiative. The unstated conclusion from this technical paper
is that such resettlement schemes are not
inherently
negative in terms
of
their productive/social
development potential.
Overall, the book accomplishes those tasks it sets for itself. It tackles a sensitive topic, and
stresses the need to handle the varied components
of
involuntary resettlement at the planning
and implementation stages. Planning and implementation
of
resettlement, in short, becomes
part
of
the overall project feasibility study, and has to be integrated into project monitoring and
evaluation.
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