ESSENTIAL: Risk-related resettlement and relocation in urban areas

Best Practice / Lessons Learned

ESSENTIAL: Risk-related resettlement and relocation in urban areas

ORGANISER: Indian Institute for Human Settlements, University College London, FLACSO, Makerere University, University of Florida and Overseas Development Institute
AUTHORS: Garima Jain, Cassidy Johnson, Allan Lavell, Shuaib Lwasa, Anthony Oliver-Smith and Emily Wilkinson


July 2017




As one way of addressing disaster risk, national and local governments, often supported by international funding agencies, engage in resettlement and relocation. This can be preventative, or occur after a disaster. While this reduces people’s exposure to hazards, it can lead to other problems, which can leave people more vulnerable or worse o than they were before. We need to understand better the challenges and associated outcomes of such interventions on people and cities.

To reduce disaster risk, the systemic drivers of environmental degradation and inadequate location of human settlements, which contribute to multi- dimensional poverty and inequality, need urgent attention. Resettlement needs to be understood as part of long-term sustainable development, not just as a means for disaster risk reduction.

Key findings

- Resettlement and relocation can reduce people’s exposure to hazards, but in most cases, it leaves people worse off overall in social and economic terms than they were before.
- Planning needs to prevent the location of new settlements in hazard-prone areas, to avoid future need for resettlement.
- Resettlement should always be considered a last resort after all options for on-site mitigation or upgrading have been exhausted. Decision-making authorities may, and often do, understand risks differently from the communities living in environments that they know and understand, and alternative actions to resettlement may be possible.
- Policies and procedures must ensure people’s rights are protected; legal frameworks may need to be strengthened; and international covenants on resettlement must be honoured.