Managing Small Scale Land Acquisition in Samoa: the World Bank, Samoan Government and Civil Society Nexus

Abstract

Development modernisation has, since the 1950s, led to involuntary land acquisition causing the displacement of more than 10 million people. This has evoked a plethora of public criticism and indigenous resistance. The World Bank's involuntary resettlement policy, developed as the central model for managing the displacement phenomenon, is intended to mitigate the extensive risks faced by displaced peoples as a result of resettlement. The application of this policy, through a tripartite relationship between the Bank, borrower governments and civil society, has been met with mixed results. This paper explores the application of the World Bank's current Involuntary Resettlement Policy 4.12 and its multistakeholder management model to a World Bank-funded urban infrastructural management project on the Pacific Island of Samoa. The case study examined in the thesis facilitates a greater understanding of the phenomenon of involuntary land acquisition and displacement, showing that the key factors identified in the World Bank resettlement review of 1996 continue to provide causal explanations for how operational practice fails to truly reflect the objectives of Involuntary Resettlement Policy 4.12. From there, the thesis invokes the phenomenological concept 'lifeworld' to argue that differing perspectives and experiences affect the working relationship between the key actors (World Bank, Samoan Government and Samoan civil society). In combination with the rearrangement of state-society relations under the World Bank's good governance agenda, these factors help to explain the discrepancy between policy and practice in the case study. The thesis concludes by offering some recommendations for improving the application of involuntary resettlement policy and enhancing the working relationship between actors in managing the phenomenon of involuntary land acquisition and displacement.