ABSTRACT
Resettlement often leads to tensions between those resettled, the investors, and the governments. Causes include unclear government legislation and regulations, confusing CSR guidelines and other socio-economic policies leading to unrealistic expectations among those being resettled, causing frustrations within the community, and shifting them to any imminent conflict against the investors. A likely contributing factor is the standard type of socio-economic surveys and community involvement processes that could harmonize relationships among the parties. This research aims to investigate responsive processes to plan, initiate, and guide resettlement processes in such a way that tensions and conflicts are avoided. Based on the process already completed and compared to similar cases in Mozambique, mixed methods to collect primary data were adopted: three focus groups of 125 people and five semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders. The chapter concludes that the affected community knows how resettlement should be led to avoid tensions, but the attitude of the Chinese company and the inertia of the government shifted them to marginalization, although they recognized some gains during the process. The research contributes to the existing literature by identifying the responsive resettlement approach that can be replicated in other contexts along the country, especially in the new discovery of mineral resources.
