THE CONSEQUENCES OF DEVELOPMENT-INDUCED DISPLACEMENT ON THE SOCIAL CAPITAL OF THE RESETTLED COMMUNITIES: THE CASE OF CONDOMINIUM RESIDENTS OF AYAT II, TAFO SITE, ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

There are studies which had examined about livelihood issues of resettlers although they gave insignificant attention to the resettlers’ social capital. The main objective of this research was investigating the consequences of development-induced displacement on the social capital of the households who were displaced from Dejach Wube, Senga Tera and Aroge Kera sites of Addis Ababa in 2014/15 and resettled to Ayat II, Tafo condominium site as a result of the millennium development goal. Mixed research methods with Cross-sectional, descriptive survey approaches were employed to explore the results gained from the study area. Both purposive and random sampling techniques were also used. The results of the survey questionnaires which were collected from 341 sampled households were analyzed quantitatively. Percentage and frequency statistical measurements with the help of version 20 SPSS program were applied to analyze the results of the questionnaires. Whereas, interviews, focus group discussions, and personal observation results were explored qualitatively to reflect the overall realities, consequences and rejuvenation ways of the social capital of the sampled households. Secondary data were gathered from documents’ review to validate the primary data. The results of the investigation indicated that the resettlers’ current living situation exposed them to individualism way of life because they always run to cover their hand to mouth income so that the neighbors do not know well and trust each other. As a result, the Tafo site condominium households were disrupted and lost their former social capital so that they faced problems to rejuvenate their prior social capital. Besides, they face the problem of meeting each other and getting the attention of maintaining their social capital. The resettlers who were helpless and had low income were more disadvantageous. The study recommended that the resettlers should construct and/or continue their trial to rejuvenate new social capital sphere as rejuvenating mechanisms in the current site. In addition, concerned bodies should consider the resettlers’ social capital, and set guidelines and evaluation strategies to check the reality after resettlement. This will help to reduce the resettlers’ social crisis and related failures.