Working papers
Analytical writing on land acquisition and involuntary resettlement, for researchers and safeguards practitioners. Where the blog addresses a decision on your own project, these address a subject.
- 01
The impoverishment risks framework and what it still explains about displacement outcomes
Cernea's eight risks of displacement, why the model endures in resettlement scholarship, and where practice still fails to operationalise it.
12 min5 references - 02
Comparing international resettlement standards: IFC PS-5, World Bank ESS-5 and AfDB OS-2
A structured comparison of the three standards that govern most resettlement in Africa — eligibility, valuation, livelihood restoration and monitoring.
14 min6 references - 03
Customary tenure and compensation eligibility: the recurring failure of title-based valuation
How customary and overlapping land rights interact with compensation frameworks built around individual title, and what this means for eligibility determination.
13 min5 references - 04
Valuation methods in compulsory acquisition: replacement cost, market value and the gap between them
Valuation approaches used in compulsory land acquisition, why replacement cost and market value diverge, and how rate-setting errors propagate through a resettlement programme.
12 min5 references - 05
Gender-differentiated outcomes in resettlement: why compensation reaches households and not women
How household-level compensation interacts with intra-household resource control, and the mechanisms by which resettlement worsens women's economic position.
11 min5 references - 06
What makes a grievance mechanism work: accessibility, escalation and the closure problem
Project-level grievance mechanisms are assessed on accessibility, escalation and closure. Most fail on the third. This paper examines why.
11 min5 references - 07
Livelihood restoration: what the evidence shows about outcomes after compensation
Livelihood restoration is an outcome obligation, not an activity. This paper examines what is known about whether restoration is achieved, and why measurement is so weak.
12 min5 references - 08
Cut-off dates and opportunistic in-migration: eligibility, disclosure and defensibility
The cut-off date is the most contested fact in a resettlement. This paper examines its function, the in-migration problem it addresses, and what makes it defensible.
10 min4 references - 09
Displacement on linear infrastructure: why corridors are harder than sites
Transmission lines, roads and pipelines displace differently from dams and mines. This paper examines what corridor geometry does to resettlement practice.
11 min4 references - 10
Cultural heritage in displacement: graves, sacred sites and the chance-find procedure
Cultural heritage in resettlement is mostly intangible, locally significant and undocumented. This paper examines why standard heritage instruments fit it poorly.
10 min4 references - 11
Identifying vulnerability in resettlement: category, threshold and the risk of both
Safeguard standards require special attention to vulnerable groups. This paper examines how vulnerability is identified and the failure modes of each approach.
11 min5 references - 12
Designing the socio-economic baseline: the instrument that constrains everything after it
The baseline survey determines what can later be measured, claimed or disproved. This paper examines its design and the errors that cannot be corrected later.
12 min5 references - 13
Monitoring indicators for resettlement: inputs, outputs and the outcomes nobody measures
Resettlement monitoring reliably reports activity and rarely reports outcomes. This paper examines why, and what an outcome-capable indicator set requires.
11 min5 references - 14
Digital compensation payment: mobile money, identity and the reconciliation problem
Mobile money has changed compensation delivery in East Africa. This paper examines what it solves, what it does not, and what it makes newly auditable.
10 min4 references - 15
Compulsory acquisition in Uganda: constitutional guarantee, statutory process and the gap with lender standards
Uganda's legal framework for compulsory land acquisition, how it operates in practice, and where it diverges from IFC and World Bank requirements.
13 min5 references - 16
Estimating resettlement cost: why budgets are wrong before they are approved
Resettlement budgets are set at feasibility with the least information and revised least willingly. This paper examines the structural sources of underestimation.
11 min5 references - 17
Land governance in East Africa: registration, plural tenure and the administrative capacity constraint
Land administration systems in East Africa combine statutory registration with customary tenure. This paper examines what that plurality means for acquisition.
12 min5 references - 18
Consultation, consent and free prior informed consent: what the escalation actually requires
Standards escalate from consultation to informed participation to consent for particular circumstances. This paper examines what distinguishes each.
12 min5 references - 19
Host communities: the population that bears resettlement impacts without being displaced
Resettlement transfers impacts to receiving areas. This paper examines host community effects and why they are so often unbudgeted.
10 min4 references - 20
Digital systems in resettlement management: what changes when the record is machine-readable
Digital data capture and management are displacing paper in resettlement practice. This paper examines what that changes, and what it does not.
11 min5 references