IAIA Special Symposium - Resettlement and Livelihoods 2017 - Prospectus

Every year millions of rural people are displaced in Asia due to the development of dams, infrastructure, mining, agriculture, and forestry. Governments are also displacing large communities of urban dwellers in order to make way for the development of mega-cities and to mitigate disaster risk. There is much evidence that many of the people displaced by large projects experience reduced wellbeing and impoverishment. Resettlement needs to be planned as a development opportunity and the challenge is how to move from a situation where most people’s livelihoods are diminished to one where they are improved, especially in the context of the adoption of the Sustainable Development goals to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030. The challenge is to consider how to develop large projects in countries with rapidly expanding populations and limited land resources while enhancing the livelihoods of local communities.