Resettlement Induced Secondary Poverty in Developing Countries

Abstract

Most developing countries in their quest to improve upon the standard of living of their people design and implement huge development projects (construction of dams, urban renewal and development; and natural resource extraction); these projects are characterized by the use of land and other related resources; this inevitably leads to the displacement and further resettlement of landowners and other land users. The lives of these displaced persons are disrupted as their productive lands, homes, businesses and social lives are impacted adversely.

Large numbers of people are often affected by development projects especially in developing countries, and in most developed and developing countries, resettlement and compensation is the common policy implored to deal with not just development induced displacement but also post disaster development and planning. However, very few of the projects that pursued resettlement as a policy to deal with displacement and associated poverty have succeeded in promoting and sustaining the economic and social lives of resettled people; thus large numbers of those displaced and resettled are left poor or worse off than they were prior to displacement. These efforts have failed to a large extent because these initiatives aimed at safeguarding environmental, social and human rights are usually at the macro level and hardly translated to the grass root level. Most developing countries in their transition stage of development will continually embark on such projects to improve their economies hence a need to examine the adverse effects of these projects so that mitigating measures can be applied appropriately and people become project benefactors instead of victims.

Using data from some selected development projects in some developing countries; this paper explores the concept of secondary poverty caused by displacement and resettlement; by assessing the impact of these projects on the lives of the displaced. Review of these projects suggest that displacement and resettlement in most cases causes severe poverty among displaced persons and groups. This paper therefore concludes by proposing the eight Displacement and Resettlement Risks and Rehabilitation Model by Michael Cernea as a strategy to overcome poverty induced by resettlement; and assessing the few situations in which the reconstructive measures were implemented to improve upon the socio-economic lives of displaced persons.

Key Words: Poverty; Resettlement; Development; Displacement