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Avoiding
New Poverty
Mining
- Induced Displacement and Resettlement
pdf file
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A
general overview of the problem of mining-induced displacement and
resettlement (MIDR). The paper breakdown MIDR risks to societal
sustainability and offers a model as to where its
most likely place to occur (spatially). This is a good place for
non-specialists to learn the terminology and models of involuntary
resettlement,
including
the key obstacles that seem to force the displaced into what Downing calls
"new poverty" as opposed to preexisting old poverty. It
argues that compensation by itself cannot adequately restore and improve the
income levels and livelihood standards of people subjected to expropriation
and forced displacement. It
examines the key question : Who
pays for countering the resettlement effect in mining-induced displacements
and resettlements? A three level theory of liability is
presented, scaling the extent
to which obligations to pay are regularization. A MIDR Contingency
Clause (MIDR-CC) is proposed as an interim, on-the-ground solution. The MIDR-CC
would be an agreement that all likely MIDR risks be assessed, goals set,
costs estimated, organizational arrangements proposed, and financing secured
before a mining project goes forward.
Published
by the International Institute on Environment
and Development as part of their MMSD project. 2002
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Indigenous
Peoples and Mining Encounters: Strategies and Tactics
pdf
file
with
Jerry Moles, Ian McIntosh and Carmen Garcia-Downing |
Much
of the remaining unexploited ores in sufficient concentration to be attractive
for modern commercial exploitation lie under indigenous lands. As pressure
builds to gain access to their lands, a major sustainability and land access
problem is unfolding. Mining can empower indigenous peoples, but previous
encounters have stripped them of their sovereignty, their traditional wealth,
and posed multiple impoverishment risks. This
report addresses the most critical sustainability in an encounter between
indigenous peoples and the industry, as well as governments, financiers and
non-governmental organizations.
Published
by the International Institute on Environment
and Development as part of their MMSD project.
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Plan
B: What is going to Happen to my People?
with Carmen Garcia-Downing
in Adobe pdf format
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Indigenous
peoples are being approached by outsiders with projects designed to covert
their resources for economic gain of others. Uncritical acceptance or
rejection of projects (Plan As) is giving way to more critical planning and
evaluation (Plan Bs)
that permits indigenous peoples to negotiate or walk away from a
deal. This paper outlines eight components of a good Plan B.
Cover Story: Cultural Survival Quarterly, Fall 2001
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Creating
Poverty: Flaws in the Economic Logic of The World Bank's Revised Involuntary Resetlement Policy
(OP 4.12)
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On
21 October 2001, the World Bank board approved a revision to its decade old
involuntary resettlement policy (OD 4.30). This article examines flaws
in the economics underlying the revised policy (OP/BP 4.12) that are likely
to lead to an impoverishment of development refugees. The paper introduces my idea
of "induced-development insurance" to protect the innocent
victims.
In
Forced Migration Review, Vo.
12, Feb 2002.
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The
World Bank Denies Indigenous Peoples the Right to Prior Informed Consent
with Jerry Moles |
On
23 October 2001
, The World Bank Governing Board
denied indigenous peoples the right of prior informed consent if they are
threatened with involuntary resettlement.
See President Wolfensohn's
Reprinted
from Cultural Survival Quarterly, Winter 2001
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On
a Short Fuse:
A Revised World Bank Indigenous Peoples Policy Awaits Public Comment
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On 5
July 2001, the World Bank quietly uploaded its long anticipated, new
indigenous peoples policy for public comment (Operational Policy 4.10 and
Bank Procedures 4.10). Public comments are due before 30
October 2001. Downing argues that this is a major event in
international indigenous policy. He offers an overview of what appears to be happening and
identifies a serious shortcoming that may harm, rather than help, indigenous
peoples.
Published in the SfAA Newsletter, Fall 2001.
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The World Bank's
draft involuntary resettlement policy: suggested revisions
and
The World
Bank's response of 8 Aug 2001
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For many, The World Bank's involuntary resettlement policy
(OD 4.30) set a global
standard for the rights of people who find themselves in the way of Bank
financed resettlement. This pioneering document offers a policy
template for comparable involuntary resettlement policies of other
multilateral lenders.
An attempt is underway to weaken the policy
and undermine the human rights of the displaced. The proposed new
policy, Operational Policy 4.12, is being reviewed and may go to the Board
in late August 2001. In this 8 May 2001 letter
to President Wolfensohn, I argue that the proposed change is based on flaw economics. As the primer global economic institution, I
asked
the Bank to rework its analysis. .
FOLLOW UP:
On 8 August, Wolfensohn and Vice President
Ian Johnson responded, through their employee, Maninder Gil. This letter
telegraphs a major policy shift has been recommended whereby
Bank financed development projects that involve resettlement will be highly
likely to be subsidized by the poor.
Further information is available through the International
Network on Displacement and Resettlement.
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The World Bank
Draft Disclosure Policy: Suggested revisions.
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What are the rights of people in the way of
development and outsiders to information on operations of The World Bank
Group? The Bank disclosure policy has become what I call a "primary human
rights document" in defining the rights of project affected peoples and interested
parties to information. To donor governments and their
representatives, the disclosure policy also offers a step toward institutional
accountability. Revisions to the policy are currently being
considered. On March 23, 2001, I presented this analysis of the
strengths and weaknesses of the proposed policy changes.
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Participatory Evaluation of a Pehuenche
Indigenous Development Foundation
The
Summary of the REPORT THAT WAS CENSORED BY THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCE
CORPORATION (summary)
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The Pehuenche of southern Chile are being threatened by a series of hydroelectric
dams planned for the Alto Bío-Bío River. The Pangue dam is finished.
Another, Ralco entails the involuntary relocation of more than 1000
Pehuenche is underway. The first dam was financed
by the International Finance Corporation, part of The World Bank Group.
When problems developed, the IFC hired consultant Theodore Downing to evaluate
an Indigenous development foundation, established by the IFC and the owner-power company, ENDESA,
S.A. to benefit the Pehuenche. Downing formed a participatory
evaluation team of 4 Pehuenche men and 3 women. His results showed serious
problems and deep cultural misunderstandings. Under prodding from
ENDESA, the IFC refused to allow
Downing to disclose his findings to the Pehuenche, effectively preventing
the Pehuenche
from learning about plans affecting their cultural survival (March 1998). Downing
releases this summary and complies with the IFC request to
state that although the IFC accepted this report, it represents his own opinion.
More information:
The American Anthropological Association
Human Rights Committee held hearings and published a report
in Washington, DC on the Pehuenche situation and Dr. Downing' ethical
behavior. Also read AAA President Jane Hill's
letter
to World Bank President James Wolfenson on this issue and his reply.
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Evaluation
Methodology for the Participatory Evaluation of the Pehuen Foundation, Alto
Bio Bio, Chile |
The paper describes some of the innovative and
standard methods that I used to collect information from mostly illiterate
people organized at a band level (see above). These methods have widespread
applicability.
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Chad-Cameroon
Pipeline Project's Impact on Bakola Pygmy Indigenous People's Plan of May
1999 |
Forty-three Bakola Pygmy settlements are
located within 2 kilometers of the proposed pipeline easement in the Cameroon.
The company building the pipeline, owned by Exxon, Shell and Elf, has prepared
an Indigenous Peoples Plan (IPP) is an environmental requirement of the
private sector arm of the World Bank. At the request of the Bank Information
Center, I offer the an overview of the proposed plan and suggests improvements.
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Mitigating
Social Impoverishment when People are Involuntarily Displaced
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I introduces my theory of social geometry as applied to involuntarily
displaced peoples and disaster refugees.
In Understanding Impoverishment:
The Consequences of Development-Induced Displacement. In C.McDowell (ed.).
1996. Oxford and Providence, RI :Berghahn Press. 996.Pp.34-48.
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Human
Rights Research: The challenge for anthropologists
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Beginning with an anthropological analysis of
the Magna Carta, I identify eight human rights principles and discusses
micro-macro level challenges to research on human rights.
In Human rights and anthropology. 1988. Edited by
T. E. Downing and G. Kushner. Boston: Cultural Survivals Inc. pp. 9 - 20.
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Macro-organizational analysis:
an application to organizational evolution of the Mexican coffee industry, 1888-1977
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Macro-organizational analysis investigates the evolution of institutional
relationships. It seeks to understand the forces which impinge on a network
of individuals and institutions which share political and economic interest. I establishes a clear linkage between price changes, policy changes
and major reorganizations of the social organization of the coffee industry.
Reprinted from The Hidden Crisis in Development: Development
Bureaucracies. 1988 Edited by Philip Quarles van Ufford, Dirk Kruijt,
and Theodore E. Downing. Tokyo: United Nations University Press. pp. 175-194
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Evidence
from Balaji Pandey's Depriving the Underprivileged
for Development is Launched into a Storm of Policy Controversy on International
Involuntary Resettlement
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In a resource starved and crowded world, tens of millions are
forced to make way for land-based development projects. Normally, we
hear about these people in tidbits - one project at a time. And, save a
handful of critical long-term studies, historical depth has been missing.
Depriving the Underprivileged for Development by Balaji Pandey new book
launches timely scientific evidence into a storm of international policy
controversy over a revision of the World Bank Group resettlement policy.
On Development Policy Kiosk. Jan. 1999.
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New Social and Environmental Policies Emerging
for the Private Sector from World Bank Group
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" I invited Theodore Downing... to give an overview of a rapidly developing story with broad implications
on global environmental policy. Downing was a consultant to the World
Bank for over a decade and was one of the first social science consultants
to the Bank's private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation
(IFC). Subsequent events resulted in the IFC censoring his work on the Pehuenche
Indians of Chile and his filing a [the first] formal internal human and civil rights
complaint against members of the IFC staff. While dismissed by the IFC,
the AAA Human Rights Committee has conducted its own
investigation . This story is far from over."
- Ed Liebow,
Contributing Editor on the Environment Section of the American Anthropological
Association Newsletter, May 1998
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| The
NATION's Alexander Cockburn's
comments on Downing's work in "Wolfensohn Indian Killer" |
Well-known columnist in The Nation, on Downing, the Pehuenche, and the
International Finance Corporation.
The Nation, June 30 1997
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| New technology and
dry land agriculture (The Social and Economic Challenges of Jojoba and Guayule
in the US Arid Southwest). |
with Ivan Restrepo. To be posted soon. Original
published in Culture and Agriculture, 1980 Vol. 7, p.1-7.
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