ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies the key measures required to support vulnerable households through the land access and resettlement process. Households that are particularly vulnerable include landless, squatters, tenants and those with limited labour resources, such as households headed by women, the elderly and those in poor health. The vulnerable household support programme can lead to considerable jealousy within the community and requests for all households to receive the same benefits. In some communities vulnerable households can develop a type of 'learned helplessness' where exclusion from community discussions and decisions has resulted in an attitude of hopelessness and passivity. International Finance Corporation Performance Standard 1 requires projects to identify vulnerable groups during the environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) or through the social baseline studies component of resettlement planning. Most ESIA baseline studies are not thorough enough to identify vulnerable households and therefore vulnerability to impoverishment should be identified in the resettlement action plan baseline studies.
