As part of our mission to promote just and inclusive development, IDI develops popular education materials that aim to empower communities threatened with development-induced displacement and break down the barriers they face to accessing critical information about their rights and means of defending them. The following are community education and empowerment resources that IDI associates have been involved in creating, and forthcoming resources by IDI:
A Cambodian Guide to Defending Land and Housing Rights
IDI associates co-developed A Cambodian Guide to Defending Land and Housing Rights, which was published in 2009 by Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia (BABSEA), International Accountability Project (IAP) and Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE). The Guide contains the first resource book of its kind for threatened communities and three facilitator books that can be used to guide the delivery of interactive, participatory lesson plans on international human rights law, domestic law, and strategies that communities can employ to defend their rights in the face of forced displacement.
A Community Guide to the ADB Involuntary Resettlement Safeguards
As a follow up to this successful initiative, IDI associates authored and edited A Community Guide to the ADB Involuntary Resettlement Safeguards, which was published by Bridges Across Borders Cambodia in 2011. This interactive resource aims to equip communities affected by projects financed by the Asian Development Bank with a basic knowledge of the core principles and pertinent provisions of the ADB Safeguard Policy. The guide explains who is covered by the safeguards, what people are entitled to in terms of both compensation and resettlement, and the obligations on the borrower government both to make information accessible to those affected and to conduct meaningful consultations about the project, its impacts and mitigation measures. The guide further explains what people can do to hold the ADB and government accountable if they are harmed by the project and ADB safeguards are violated.
A Community Guide to Negotiation
IDI is currently working with local partner Equitable Cambodia to develop A Community Guide to Negotiation. This forthcoming resource aims to help communities prepare for negotiations with private companies or government authorities seeking to take their land and/or evict them from their homes. The guide seeks to address the radically asymmetrical power relations in these sorts of negotiations by situating negotiation with a broader advocacy strategy. Through case studies and interactive exercises, this resource will guide facilitators to teach important principles and skills to strengthen the negotiating capability of leaders and representatives of threatened communities. This resource is expected to be published by the end of 2013.
A Community Guide to Defending Housing Rights in PNG
IDI is also working with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to develop A Community Guide to Defending Housing Rights in PNG. This project comes at the request of local partners in Papua New Guinea, who participated in a two-day workshop on housing rights that IDI facilitated in Port Moresby in April 2012. Participants requested IDI’s assistance to develop tailored popular education materials that they could use to raise community awareness about their human rights, constitutional rights, national land and housing laws, community organizing and advocacy skills. IDI is currently developing a resource that will address these needs, which is expected to be field-tested in 2013.