Who is involved in environmental and social impact assessment public participation? Observations on urban and rural practices in Malawi

Lwesya Sibale, Juwo Juwish and Fischer, Thomas Bernward ORCID: 0000-0003-1436-1221 (2023) Who is involved in environmental and social impact assessment public participation? Observations on urban and rural practices in Malawi. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 41 (4). pp. 1-13.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14615517.2023.2220152

Abstract

In this paper, the authors reflect on public participation (PP) in environmental impact assessment (EIA) processes in Malawi, where EIA is implemented as Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA). Who is invited and who is actively contributing to PP meetings is explored. In this context, 12 ESIAs are examined, six from rural and six from urban areas. While PP principles ask for a balanced approach towards the inclusion of both interested and affected individuals and bodies, in the 12 projects, participants were mostly development and planning experts in urban projects and traditional leaders (chiefs) in rural projects. People without societal positions that were directly affected by developments only represented 15% of those being present in PP meetings. Based on these findings, the authors suggest that PP policy needs to be improved and enforced in order to allow ordinary people potentially directly affected by development to be better represented.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	public participation, inclusiveness, ESIA, EIA, involvement of affected individuals
Divisions:	Faculty of Science and Engineering > School of Environmental Sciences
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	20 Jun 2023 09:17
Last Modified:	02 Aug 2023 11:58
DOI:	10.1080/14615517.2023.2220152
Open Access URL:	https://doi.org/10.1080/14615517.2023.2220152
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3171129