Paper short abstract:

This paper will highlight the principles underlying USAID's new Guidelines on Compulsory Displacement and Resettlement and contextualize them within the ongoing organizational culture change within the Agency, specifically around complexity, systems approaches, innovation and risk management.

Paper long abstract:

Decades of experience and research make clear that, without proper management, impoverishment risks related to development-induced displacement and resettlement (e.g. landlessness, homelessness, joblessness, and others) will manifest as adverse social impacts that undermine development organizations' programmatic objectives and violate the fundamental ethical principle of 'do no harm.' Multilateral Development Banks, bilateral aid organizations, and private financial institutions have developed and implemented safeguard policies on land acquisition and involuntary resettlement as early as 1980 which detail what proper management entails. Specifically, safeguard policies and guidelines outline well-known methods for identifying, avoiding, minimizing and mitigating risks. Building on decades of experience and research across the development aid landscape, the US Agency for International Development will soon publicly release its own "Guidelines on Compulsory Displacement and Resettlement in USAID Programming." Simultaneously, USAID, like many other aid organizations, is increasingly acknowledging the need for agile approaches to be effective in the complex, uncertain, and changing systems in which the Agency operates. Further, there is greater emphasis on innovation and increasing risk tolerance in order to achieve the audacious goal of eradicating extreme poverty in the coming decades. This paper will highlight the principles underlying USAID's new Guidelines and contextualize them within the ongoing organizational culture change within the Agency, specifically around complexity, systems approaches, innovation and risk management.

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