A workshop on Management of Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation (MLARR) was held from 16-22 November 2013 at Sri Lanka. It was organized by University of Peradeniya and sponsored by the World Bank. Dr. Ferdous Jahan, Director, Centre for Resettlement Studies (CRS), BRAC University was invited as one of the trainers in the workshop. There were participants from five countries: India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Among Thirty three selected participants, five were Bangladeshi and three were from BRAC Development Institute (BDI).
The main workshop commenced and facilitated by Chaohua Zhang, Lead Social Development Specialist of the World Bank. Three different sector specific presentations were held in first two days of the workshop. The workshop was designed to bring together the sector specific experiences and considerations on resettlement issue. Reshmy Nair, Associate Professor, Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hydrabad, started the presentation on road sector. Followed by that presentation the Principal Expert & Resettlement Engineer of National Engineering Services Pakistan (Pvt.) Limited (NESPAK), Imran-Ul-Haq presented on hydropower sector. Finally, Dr. Jahan discussed about urban resettlement. The trainers effectively focused the important issues of each sector and explained their country experiences to explain the scenario more clearly.
The main objective of this workshop was to share and enrich knowledge. There was a group exercise after the presentations. This exercise actually gave the participants the option to design their project on the given facts reflecting their own experiences and their learning from the presentations.
Thus, a weeklong workshop worked as a platform to share existing knowledge and generate new ideas on different sectors where resettlement experts need more focus.