ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the "what to ask"—the most significant social issues to be covered in social impact assessment (SIA). It examines the guidelines of what to assess, as formulated by several development agencies. The great diversity of development projects makes it impossible to standardize completely the contents of SIAs, so these guidelines are suggestions rather than directives. The fundamental SIA task of anticipating the human implications of proposed projects, however, is always the same. In a project in Cameroon to improve communal wells, social analysis revealed the need for more discriminating planning: some of the wells chosen for upgrading were private and would benefit only family owners, rather than entire communities, as intended. In 1975 Agency for International Development issued guidelines for social soundness analysis and also required that administrative or institutional analysis also be carried out for all prospective projects.
