Displacement and Resettlement in India: The Human Cost of Development by Hari Mohan Mathur

Author:Hari Mohan Mathur [Mathur, Hari Mohan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ethnic Studies, Social Science, Political Science, Regional Studies, General
ISBN: 9781135047184
Google: JbSfcuR4_6YC
Goodreads: 18097038
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-07-18T00:00:00+00:00

Monitoring and evaluation

The best of resettlement plans may face problems during implementation, and not stay on track. Timely detection of these problems and their resolution are critical to achieving resettlement objectives. Effective monitoring can help accomplish this task. Yet, monitoring is one resettlement task that is much neglected.

Regular monitoring provides periodic checks to ascertain whether resettlement activities are proceeding according to the plan. It provides both an information management system for project managers as well as a channel for the affected people to make known their needs and reactions to resettlement implementation. Evaluation, on the other hand, is an exercise usually undertaken towards the end of the project to assess whether the resettlement plan achieved its intended goals.

Monitoring is the responsibility of the project management, and generally the task is carried out internally. To be useful, the findings of internal monitoring should be periodically submitted to the project management. This keeps the management in close touch with the progress and problems of resettlement operations. The reports should highlight the problems in implementation that require the particular attention of the management so that corrective action could be initiated. Such reports often contain huge amounts of data that may not be of much use for the mundane tasks of management, but for research purposes it is invaluable.

Internal monitoring helps improve implementation, but an outsider’s perspective is no less important. Projects are therefore increasingly hiring independent observers from university, research or consulting agencies to monitor their resettlement activities. External or independent monitoring is often needed to periodically assess resettlement implementation and impacts, verify internal reporting, evaluate qualitative aspects of the resettlement program, and suggest adjustments to the delivery mechanisms and procedures, as required (World Bank 2004a).

The tasks that the independent, external monitoring and evaluation agency is required to perform include the following:

• Verify that resettlement has been implemented in accordance with the approved resettlement plan.

• Assess whether resettlement objectives have been met; specifically, whether livelihoods and living standards have been restored or enhanced.

• Assess resettlement efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability.

• Draw lessons for resettlement performance improvement in future projects.

Most projects tend to devote more attention to the monitoring of administrative arrangements rather than the socio-economic aspects of resettlement. Commenting on this bias of project managers, Appleby (2006: 249) observed: “Socio-economic monitoring is much less well done even in the best of projects”. This was true for the Shuikou Hydroelectric Power Project in China, widely considered one of the exemplary resettlement operations in the World Bank portfolio for its planning, implementation, and income restoration activities. The administrative aspects are not insignificant, but it is far more important to keep track of the socio-economic conditions of the affected population, especially the aspect of livelihood restoration aspect.

Each project needs to develop monitoring indicators to suit its particular circumstances, but these indicators must cover all major activities that are essential to the task of resettlement management. To get the best results from monitoring it is important that the selection of monitoring indicators be done with great care. The affected people can make a meaningful contribution to this task.

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