Resettlement and Rehabilitation Unit

RESETTLEMENT AND REHABILITATION DIVISION

MONITORING SYSTEM ON R & R

Monitoring Guidelines: Resettlement and Rehabilitation Projects of ADB

ADB's Involuntary Resettlement Policy requires the preparation of resettlement plans for projects that engender resettlement. Considering that, even the best-laid plans may face several problems during implementation; the significance of monitoring the implementation of these plans was sensed.

ASK team members have been received by the ADB to develop Monitoring Guidelines that could be effectively and flexibly adopted both by the Executing or Implementing Agencies and the External Monitoring agencies in the ADB supported Projects involving R&R to make necessary adjustments and adopt appropriate corrective measures during project implementation
With the objective of timely identification of problems in implementation, factors leading to those problems and timely correction of the same, the Monitoring Guidelines offer approaches to: -

Strengthen the means of measuring the ongoing results of actions on Resettlement, along with measuring progress in completion of Project activities;

Promote participation of project team, project partners including representatives of affected communities in the monitoring process; and

Enhance the quality and timeliness of reporting.

The key monitoring issues suggested in the guidelines comprise of Economic rehabilitation; Consultation and grievances, participation of affected persons (AP) and especially of vulnerable groups, Budget and institutional aspects, and Delivery of entitlements.

The guidelines suggest the use of various tools for effective monitoring which comprise of Surveys & analysis, Logical Framework Analysis (LFA), Performance Measurement Framework (Annual Work Plan), Management Information System (MIS), Assumptions & Risk Measurement framework and Indicators. The guidelines are being reviewed internally within ADB before its final publication.

APTRACK: Software for Monitoring and Evaluating Resettlement and Rehabilitation Activities

One of the major challenges in the realm of R&R continues to be with regard to the management of resettlement issues and concerns during Project implementation. Another major challenge is associated with Project Monitoring in terms of - creation of a comprehensive database; limited mechanisms of reaching out to each project Affected Person (AP) to evaluate the impact of the Project on his/her quality of life; and lastly monitoring mechanisms to examine implementation of the Resettlement Plan during as well as after the Project. The availability of limited monitoring mechanisms thus, impedes the executing agencies from effectively monitoring and tracking project affected persons.

To address these challenges, ASK team member in collaboration with Asian Development Bank (ADB) has come out with APTRACK, user-friendly software for enabling the Executing Agencies and external monitors to maintain a database for each AP with special focus on gender and vulnerable population and to maintain an MIS for proper monitoring of the Resettlement Plan (RP). The software is designed to retain accurate socio-economic information of each AP in the database and would be beneficial for project monitoring both at the time of Project implementation as well as at the time of benchmark survey. The special feature of the software is that at the press of a key the user would be able to get complete information/data about individual AP's.

In addition, the software also helps to generate various statistical reports to facilitate the implementing agencies, take better charge of the problems faced by the displaced people and to meet their commitment. All in all, APTRACK is a useful tool for maintaining a comprehensive database of affected persons for effective Project monitoring. For details visit - http://www.adb.org/Resettlement/resources.asp