Relocation and Resettlement in Ceará - Houston Advanced ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

20 FRC, PAGE 20 flowing text and address subtleties stemming from cultural, political and contextual differences. As the co-ordinating institution in this process, HARC will assume the organizational responsibilities of the project, freeing the local partners to manage their roles as articulators and advocates for project-affected persons and communities. A three-tier sequence of events is planned to drive the preparation and compilation of the Citizens Guide: First, local partners—with HARC assistance—will organise and convene a series of local workshops in their regions. These workshops will be used to orient the participants with the objectives, design, and process of this project. At these orientation meetings, local partners and HARC will attempt to create interest and buy-in amongst local stakeholders not formally part of the project consortium, such as government officials, local development officers, project agency personnel, etc. HARC and its partners will attempt to build channels of communication and information sharing amongst these participants in order that the information contained in the Citizens Guide addresses the inherent complexities of the process and reflects the viewpoints of all stakeholders. By including the other side, (i.e., government and project agency personnel) the workshop will open a dialogue on the issues where participants can educate each other on the expectations, needs, and abilities of their respective positions. Second, regional and national-level workshops will be convened in which the participants will discuss their experiences and attempt to cull general principles and concepts from specific experiences. At these regional workshops, we will organize brainstorming sessions on how to address the particularly thorny issues of resettlement. Throughout these workshops, there will be writing sessions where designated authors would jointly draft chapters with assistance from HARC staff, its partners, and local stakeholders. Third, an international conference will be held in which participants from Brazil and India can discuss the critical issues and compare and contrast their experiences. This will enable further refinement of general principles and lessons and at the same time create mutually supportive and reinforcing links between non governmental and community organizations from each country. We look upon this project as an experiential learning process from which: 1. A valuable and useful resource is created. The Citizens Handbook can be translated into other languages at a fraction of the cost and be widely distributed. We believe that the product will empower the communities, both in terms of making better decisions when they are confronted with resettlement choices and in terms of facilitating a more co-operative, consultative and collaborative relationship with project agencies. 2. Participants—community leaders, representatives, and members—greatly benefit from the opportunity to discuss and debate their experiences with others in their situations and with government and project personnel. 3. Networks are established among communities, planners and policy makers for shared learning, consultation, and collaboration. 4. Participatory planning and decision-making is promoted. The release of the initial version of the Citizens Guide does not, however, signal the end of the process. HARC and its partners will preserve the momentum by creating an organizational core that can undertake updates on the Citizens Guide, regularly on the internet, and at longer intervals in hard copy versions. These updates will contain the latest information, knowledge, and policies related to involuntary displacement. To do this, the project will sustain itself through small matching grant programs, as well as financial support from local governments, donor institutions, and private foundations. One important aspect of this project is that the examples of relocation and resettlement profiled will not be restricted solely to communities affected by dams. Rather it will include communities affected by projects such as roads, highways, energy supply lines, and airports. This breadth and diversity is important. Because dams have received the most attention
21 FRC, PAGE 21 due to the size and scale of their impacts, few people are aware of how other forms of infrastructure development and urban renewal impact area populations. By treating the populations that have received relatively little attention from planners and activists, we will better represent the spectrum of contemporary relocation and resettlement work and provide important information on cases and scenarios rarely studied. The project will initially be binational, located in two large countries active in dam construction and other forms of large-scale infrastructure development—Brazil and India. Local offices will be established in each country that will gather information and co-ordinate regional, national, and international activities. As the lessons learned process advances, we expect to incrementally include other countries facing similar demographic, policy and planning scenarios. The process will become more streamlined as initial drafts of the Citizens Guide are prepared, enabling participants who join the process later to be quickly updated on the critical issues of debate and, drawing on their populations’ varied experiences, to build off of them. Brazil and India have been selected as the initial sites for this innovative project because both countries have similar infrastructure development requirements and plans. Brazil and India have been two of the most prolific dam building nations in the developing world. Despite differences in culture, language, and income levels, these two countries share much in terms of their economic and political structures. Both countries have histories of strong labour and social movements and highly developed NGO sectors. They also share similar socio-economic problems in the arenas of literacy, health, and rural development. These similarities and differences represent a great opportunity for synergistic learning and knowledge transfer that would benefit project-affected communities, NGOs and civil society, as well as planners and policy-makers. Even if the project were to be restricted to either Brazil or India, great benefits would accrue. The knowledge and networks would continue to be formed, only they would be somewhat smaller in scope. The relevance and importance of the Citizens Guide would remain the same. In either country, promoting participatory planning and decision making through this project would have a great and positive impact on thousands of individual who face involuntary displacement in the coming years. Conclusions In general, the management and execution of resettlement in Ceará has been satisfactory. The State Government and project agencies have made a commitment to good, participatory resettlement planning and followed through in good faith on that commitment. Project affected community reactions to resettlement and towards government agencies and their personnel has, by and large, been positive and encouraging. Few complaints were noted regarding the compensation of acquired assets and none were egregious. In addition, the policy and quality of resettlement is generally similar across the various projects—PROURB, Castanhão, and Pecem— and the various agencies in charge of resettlement—SRH, SDU, and IDACE. A welcome change in resettlement management in Ceará is that it has to a large extent moved away from cash compensation in favour of land-based resettlement. The only exception is in the case of rural PAPs whose assets total over R$12,000. We would recommend that in the near future, these PAPs too will be provided with other forms of resettlement assistance. The highlights of the success enjoyed by Cearense planners and policymakers are the innovative participatory forums that they have created—the CARPAs and ISCAs and the Multiparticipatory Groups of Castanhão and Pecem. These forums have proved to be efficient and effective in creating two-way communications channels between the project agencies and the project-affected communities. With minor modifications, as suggested in the First and Second Interim Reports and
Page 1 and 2: Relocation and Resettlement in Cear
Page 3 and 4: Center for Global Studies, Houston
Page 5 and 6: 5 FRC, PAGE 5
Page 7 and 8: Authors’ Note 7 FRC, PAGE 7 The F
Page 9 and 10: Available details on training and c
Page 11 and 12: Landlessness: 11 FRC, PAGE 11 Ceare
Page 13 and 14: Recommendation: Consult with PAPs t
Page 15 and 16: 15 FRC, PAGE 15 operational evaluat
Page 17 and 18: Women are not being adequately cons
Page 19: 19 FRC, PAGE 19 page should present

Relocation and Resettlement in Ceará - Houston Advanced ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?