EACH YEAR aN eSTIMATED 20 mILLION pEOPLE aRE dISPLACED aS A RESULT OF dEVELOPMENT pROJECTS

The number of people displaced by ‘development’ has risen from 10 million to 20 million per year in the last decade alone. Current trends suggest that this figure will keep climbing as the number and scale of projects that lead to the displacement of people, such as dams, roads, mines and conservation areas, steadily increase. Displacement that is caused by development projects, known as development-forced displacement and resettlement (DFDR), is a hidden human rights problem because it is seen as an unavoidable consequence of development. Many international donors, governments and development agencies argue that resettlement should be carried out as if it were a development project itself that can improve people’s lives. However, despite attempts to compensate for losses, evidence suggests that DFDR tends to culminate in long-term and often severe social, economic and cultural impoverishment for resettling and host-village residents.