More development invariably increases poverty, research shows
Though countries go ‘hammer and tong’ on development projects, research now appears to imply that such development spawns more poverty.
Raising this issue, Chaohua Zhang, Lead Social Development Specialist, The World Bank, told the Business Times on the sidelines of a national workshop on ‘Management of Land Acquisition and Resettlement in Infrastructure’ that the debate on social consequences on land acquisitions is raging on. At the same time the people whose land is to be acquired are resisting such attempts as the authorities are not doing it properly.
After land acquisition everybody becomes poorer, he said.
This 2-day workshop was held last week in Colombo jointly organized by the Ministry of Land and Land Development, The World Bank, Australian Aid and the Moratuwa University. He told the Business Times that “after their land is acquired those people would be homeless, they are jobless and their income drastically comes down.”
These are the challenges and while earlier it was a win or lose situation, today this concept needs to be changed to a win – win formula.
He conceded that the key to economic development is infrastructure development and for all development there should be a footprint on the land and these developments should reduce poverty. In South Asia, he said, there are huge infrastructure gaps and impedes economic development.
He said that in some of these countries daily electricity cuts are rampant and thus businesses and industries and other activities have to be stopped. People are increasingly unwilling to give their land and the confrontations had put many development projects on hold. He said “Now people know their rights and they want justice. You cannot go for development and at the same time create more poverty. This is not sustainable development.”
Dr. S.M. Jaamdar, Former Secretary Housing, Karnataka, Former Project Director for Upper Krishna Hydro Power Project, India, speaking at the meeting also agreed that development could appear to increase poverty and gave a clear picture as how land acquisition operates in India.
He said that market value became problematic when deciding the compensation as market values constantly change.
While India is attempting to democratize the process of land acquisition, he said that due to protests of people whose land is to be acquired a large number of huge projects have to be abandoned. He said that large scale displacement of people from their lands for development is leading to massive protests, violence and unrest especially in the developing countries.
L.B.S.B. Dayaratne, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Land and Land Development speaking on the ‘National Involuntary Resettlement Policy of Sri Lanka’ said the Sri Lankan government owns 80 per cent of the land area in the country; yet the government needs to acquire private land for development purposes.
Razaak M. Ghani, Senior Social Development Specialist, World Bank, Colombo speaking on the objectives of the workshop said that development induced displacement and resettlement are key areas of focus of World Bank operations since 1990s.
In order to address this issue, he said the bank has developed social safeguards policies to avoid, minimize and mitigate involuntary resettlement and negative social impacts of physical infrastructure projects.
In South Asia, the infrastructure development especially investment in urban infrastructure, transport and road sector development projects is growing rapidly. In this context, land acquisition and resettlement has become a big challenge for both development partners and client government agencies.
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