Relocation and Resettlement in Ceará - Houston Advanced ...

Women are not being adequately consulted.
17
FRC, PAGE 17
At the community level participation of women in negotiation and consultation over resettlement
issues is lower than desirable, especially in the case of the Castanhão resettlement. Women are
often unable to travel to meeting sites because of childcare and other domestic responsibilities.
When present, women often do not participate vocally in discussions over resettlement. Female
participation is much higher and qualitatively better in the case of the PROURB projects.
Recommendation: In addition to conducting community meetings, hold separate focus group
sessions with women at a time and location convenient for them to attend.
GM meetings are not universally accessible to PAPs.
While the GM is a critical and useful vehicle in involving the community in resettlement planning at
Castanhão and the movement of the meetings from Fortaleza to the project affected regions is a
great improvement, the meetings remain inaccessible to a large number of rural PAPs. There are
no regular or convenient means of transport available to rural PAPs to attend GM meetings in
Jaguaribara and other semi-urban locations. In addition, rural PAPs have not been adequately
informed of the GM meetings and their utility. As such the level of rural participation in the GM is
proportionately much smaller than the level of urban participation.
Recommendation: Provide transport to and from GM meetings for rural PAPs. Publicise GM
meetings more in the rural areas, especially through staff meetings with the PAPs.
IV. Resources
In an effort to continue the analysis and discussion of the issues raised in this research, HARC is in
the process of developing several new resources to facilitate future dialogue: A workshop on
resettlement; the Water for Ceará web page; and the Citizens Guide to Involuntary Relocation and
Resettlement. This section briefly outlines these initiatives.
Workshop on Resettlement
During the planning stages of this project, it was envisioned that following the submission of the
Final Report on Relocation and Resettlement in Ceará and based on its findings, a workshop on
planning and implementation of involuntary resettlement would be conducted in the State. Built
around interactive sessions with personnel of the various state agencies charged with resettlement
in Ceará, this proposed workshop will focus on the lessons learned and policy recommendations
generated by the HARC study of R&R in Ceará.
This workshop will assist in the goal of planning for and achieving more open and participatory
resettlement management. The workshop would enhance returns on the investment already made
in the HARC study on resettlement by providing an opportunity for in-depth discussions of the
findings of the HARC study and promoting their dissemination. Through the workshop, the level of
knowledge and understanding about the issues and problems related to involuntary resettlement
within the project agencies would be greatly increased. Bringing together the various state
agencies in the discussion forums at the workshop will facilitate inter-agency discussions of the
critical issues and thereby improve coordination and collaboration in planning and executing R&R
operations in the State. The workshop would also provide a forum for open and frank discussion of