Putting a price-tag on humanity: Development-forced displaced communities' fight for more than just compensation

The impoverishment commonly associated with development-induced displacement often occurs because of developing agencies' reliance on the compensation principle as the resettlement remedy. Thus, to analyze the impoverishment commonly caused by development-induced displacement I focus on two key aspects: first, the inadequacy of compensation use in development-induced forced displacement and resettlement, combined with development agencies and governments' over-reliance on it as a tool for resettling displaced populations, and second, the power of human agency in fighting for what the displaced communities rightfully deserve and in the struggle of stopping forced displacement from occurring at all. From the fifty analyzed projects, I highlight two case studies to show the political reasons behind a project's initiation, the process of forced displacement, the faulty compensation methods, subsequent impoverishment and local community action in defending human rights. Such a study aims to enable increased understanding and action to lessen the impoverishing effects of development-induced displacement.