Short-term risk experience of involuntary resettled households in the Philippines and Indonesia

Involuntary resettlement often impoverishes the displaced households. Cernea argued that impoverishment can be avoided with his Involuntary Risks and Reconstruction Model (IRR). The IRR Model has been widely utilized in resettlement studies and identifies nine interlinked potential risks inherent to displacement. Nonetheless, in assessing the risks as well as the effectiveness of interventions, most attention is directed at the institutional context. This paper argues that factors that mitigate risks of impoverishment are much more wide ranging. It covers the period of a year before and a year after resettlement. It investigates the manifestation of eight risks brought about by involuntary resettlement episodes in the Philippines and Indonesia as well as the factors that increased or decreased them. The findings in the study of two different resettlement contexts show the multi-dimensionality of resettlement risk causes. The study furthermore shows that institutional context alone is not enough to explain the risk outcome. Culture, physical location, individual and household characteristics should be factored in during the examination of impoverishment risks.