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Tool Summary Tool Characteristics Tool Application Source of Tools Opinion of Tools

Tool application

Name of the tool
Social Impact Assessment

Who applied the tool in the case?
Khulna_Jessore Drainage Rehabilitation Project in Bangledesh.

Time taken to fully apply the tool
Not specified

Any other interesting information about the tool
It is common for the SIA process to be divided into at least 8 (or 9) steps:
1. Scoping;
2. Formulation;
3. Profiling;
4. Projection;
5. Assessment;
6. Evaluation;
7. Mitigation (if needed);
8. Ongoing monitoring;
9. Ex-post audit.
(C.J. Barrow, 2000).

Activities comprising SIA
SIA comprises most of the following activities. It:
• participates in the environmental design of the planned intervention;
• identifies interested and affected peoples;
• facilitates and coordinates the participation of the stakeholders;
• documents and analyses the local historical setting of the planned intervention so as to be able to interpret responses to the intervention, and to assess cumulative impacts;
• collects baseline data (social profiling) to allow evaluation and audit of the impact assessment process and planned intervention itself;
• gives a rich picture of the local cultural context, and develops an understanding of local community values, particularly how they related to the planned intervention;
• identifies and describes the activities which are likely to cause impacts (scoping);
• predicts (or analyses) likely impacts and how different stakeholders are likely to respond;
• assists evaluating and selecting alternatives (including a no development option);
• assists in site selection;
• recommends mitigation measures;
• assists in the valuation process and providing suggestions about compensation (non-financial as well as financial);
• describes potential conflicts between stakeholders and advises on resolution processes;
• develops coping strategies for dealing with residual or non-mitigatable impacts;
• contributes to skill development and capacity building in the community;
• advises on appropriate institutional and coordination arrangements for all parties;
• assists in devising and implementing monitoring and management programs.
Frank Vanclay (March 2003)

The tools of SIA/techniques include:
• brainstorming
• desk study
• checklists and matrices
• network analysis
• systems analysis
• Delphi technique
• Flow charts
• Surveys and interviews
• Questionnaires
• Expert opinion and key informants
• Participant observation methods
• Public meetins
• Stakeholder analysis
• Modelling
• SWOT analysis
• Trend analysis
• Venn-type diagrams
• Simulation techniques
• Workshops
• Focus groups
• Aesthetic impacts
• Cognitive mapping
• Identifying and assessing indirect and cumulative impacts
• Computer assisted SIA – expert systems and logical framework analysis.
(Barrow, 2000)

SIA is applied in a wide range of locations:
• Developing Countries
• Displace people
1. Permanent or sem-permanent socio-economic migrants
2. Short-term and seasonal migrants
3. Relocatees (people who involuntarily leave their homes as a result of social unrest)
4. Resettlement e.g. there have been a number of studies in the last 40 years associated with large dam projects.
• Refugees
• Indigenous people in New Zealand, Caribbean, South America, North America (In North America, SIA’s of tourism development impacts have take place to find out the affects on the local and indigenous people)
• Small communities and small islands
• Boomtowns and company towns
• Crime and justice
• Gender issues
• Family strife and civil unrest
• Social and religious movements.
(Barrow, 2000).

Case study/ies where tool is in use