EDIAIS : Conference papers

Social Impact assessments of the proposed upgrading of two roads in Central and Southern Ethiopia were carried out by the author. To place transport needs and aspirations in the context of people's livelihoods, a Sustainable Livelihoods approach was used as a conceptual framework. The paper describes how this worked in practice, methods used and how this fitted with Economic and Environmental Impact assessments run concurrently. Potential advantages of using a Sustainable Livelihoods Approach in carrying out a Social Impact Assessment were seen as: i) clarifying the goal of road improvements as the improvement of people's livelihoods and thus setting the proposed road improvements in the context of being a 'tool' designed to bring benefits to people. ii) enabling a focus on assessing impacts likely to be experienced by the more vulnerable members of society while maintaining a consideration of other levels of influence iii) presenting an analytical framework that could be shared across disciplines, thus providing an analysis that linked potential social impacts to other likely impacts and the integration of qualitative and quantitative approaches. The paper provides an example of how links between social and economic assessment were developed with regards to the role of non-motorised transport. However, to ensure that social factors are fully taken into account in the consideration of alternative options, new tools that more fully integrate social, economic and environmental factors are needed. Constraints in using a Sustainable Approach were encountered. Important amongst these were constraints on time, a constraint not uncommon in carrying out Impact Assessments. Approximately one third of time available was allocated to consultation but where overall time is limited, consultation will inevitably be superficial. Due to time and capacity constraints, flexibility to follow up issues raised during consultation was also limited. The paper describes the approach used in undertaking Social Impact Assessments for two roads. Although superficially similar in their goals and context, the roads under consideration differed with respect to political motivation, key social issues, methods adopted and lessons learnt. The paper compares the lessons learnt on each of these proposed roads using a livelihoods approach and draws out recommendations for the future.

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