Bank Information Center
The World Bank Inspection Panel began its investigation into the Bank-funded Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP) in Cambodia last week, following a complaint that World Bank safeguard policies were disregarded during the $28.8 million project, leading to more than 20,000 forced displacements.
The complaint was filed in September by the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), with the support of Bridges Across Borders Cambodia (BABC), on behalf of representatives of more than 4000 families living around Boeung Kak who have suffered or are currently threatened with forced eviction. It alleges that the Bank breached its operational policies by failing to adequately supervise the Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP), which denied land titles to the Boeung Kak families shortly before the area was leased by the Government to a private developer.
The LMAP was established with the stated aim of improving security of tenure for the poor and reducing land conflicts in Cambodia by systematically registering land and issuing titles across the country. However, a report released last year by BABC and COHRE[1] found that land-grabbing and forced evictions have escalated significantly over the last ten years, while many vulnerable households have been arbitrarily excluded from the titling system. This exclusion has denied these households protection against land-grabbing and adequate compensation for their expropriated land, often thrusting them into conditions of extreme poverty.
Despite strong evidence to prove their legal rights to the land, Boeung Kak residents were excluded from the titling system when land registration was carried out in their neighbourhood in 2006. Shortly thereafter, the Cambodian Government granted an illegal 99-year lease over the area to Shukaku Inc, a company chaired by Lao Meng Khim, a Sentator from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party and close associate of Prime Minister Hun Sen. Residents of the area covered by the lease – many of whom have lived lawfully in the area since the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 - were suddenly accused by the Government of being illegal squatters on State-owned land.
The World Bank Inspection Panel is investigating whether the Bank breached its operational policies by failing to supervise the Government’s implementation of social and environmental safeguards tied to the project that were intended to ensure that a Boeung Kak scenario would not unfold. “These safeguards were essential for such a high-risk project in a country that is renowned for its lack of good governance and law enforcements,” said Bret Thiele, Senior Litigation Expert at COHRE.
The World Bank acknowledged in August 2009 that the safeguards had been breached and approached the Cambodian Government to discuss measures to bring the project back into compliance. The Government responded by abruptly ending its agreement with the World Bank on LMAP, citing the Bank’s “complicated conditions” as the reason for its move.
David Pred, Executive Director of BABC, highlighted similarities to a World Bank Inspection Panel case in Albania last year, in which a Bank-financed project was also implicated in forced evictions. At that time, World Bank President Robert Zoellick promised "the Bank would move promptly to strengthen oversight, improve procedures and help the [affected] families." Zoellick added that "the Bank cannot let this happen again."
“They let it happen again,” said Pred, “and this time it is 4000 families losing their homes. The Bank must find a way to repair the harms suffered by the people of Boeung Kak. Safeguard policies are not optional - if the Cambodian Government refuses to comply with its contractual obligations to respect these safeguards, then it should not be entitled to any new financing from the World Bank.”
Read the inspection panel report:
Inspection Panel report and recommendation on request for inspection Re: Cambodia LMAP (PDF, 65 KB)
Contact
■David Pred
Executive Director
Bridges Across Borders Cambodia
david@babcambodia.org
+855 92 285954
■Bret Thiele
Senior Expert – Litigation
bret@cohre.org
+1 218 733 1370
Background on Boeung Kak and forced evictions in Cambodia
Spanning 90 hectares in central north Phnom Penh, Boeung Kak lake is one of the only large open spaces left in Cambodia’s capital city. Prior to the recent evictions, approximately 4000 families lived on and around the lake with many depending on the lake for their livelihood. Families have been living around the lake since the early 1980s when they returned to the city following the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. Most of these families have legal rights to their land under Cambodia’s 2001 Land Law.
Despite the legitimate claims to the land of many of the residents around Boeung Kak, when the titling team from the World Bank-financed Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP) adjudicated the area in early 2007, the residents were denied title en masse. In the same month, the Cambodian government entered into a 99-year lease agreement with a private developer, Shukaku Inc., over 133 hectares including the lake and surrounding areas. Shukaku Inc. is headed by Lao Meng Khin, a Senator and major donor to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, who is also director of the controversial logging company Pheapimex.
Families living in the development zone began facing pressure and intimidation to leave the area in August 2008, when the developer commenced filling in the lake as part of its development plans. While few details about the development have been made public, it is estimated that approximately 20,000 people will be displaced. Included in this figure are the more than 1000 families that have already been evicted without their land rights being properly adjudicated and acknowledged. In the absence of any legal protections, these families accepted woefully inadequate compensation under conditions of duress. This was in direct violation of the World Bank’s Policy on Involuntary Resettlement, which the Cambodian government was contractually bound to respect in conjunction with LMAP.
Background on the Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP)
The multi-donor supported Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP) began in 2002 as the first phase of the Government’s land reform program and was established to give effect to key provisions of the 2001 Land Law. The project was originally envisioned as the first phase of a program of land reform to be implemented over a 15-year period, with the objectives of strengthening land tenure security and land markets, preventing or resolving land disputes, managing land and natural resources in an equitable, sustainable and efficient manner, and promoting equitable land distribution. LMAP intended to focus on the development of the legal and regulatory framework; institutional development; land titling and registration; strengthening land dispute resolution mechanisms; and land management.[2]
The primary donors to the project were the World Bank (pledging $28.83 million), GTZ ($3.5 million in technical assistance), and the Government of Finland ($3.5 million in technical assistance).[3] The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) joined the project in 2004 committing more than CN$10 million in both funding and technical assistance through to 2012.[4]
[1] Available at www.babcambodia.org/untitled
[2] World Bank, 2002. Project Appraisal Document for a Land Management and Administration Project.
[3] Cambodia Land Management and Administration Project summary, September 2009 (PDF, 30 KB)
[4] CIDA Website, Cambodia: CIDA funded projects, March, 2010
The complaint was filed in September by the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), with the support of Bridges Across Borders Cambodia (BABC), on behalf of representatives of more than 4000 families living around Boeung Kak who have suffered or are currently threatened with forced eviction. It alleges that the Bank breached its operational policies by failing to adequately supervise the Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP), which denied land titles to the Boeung Kak families shortly before the area was leased by the Government to a private developer.
The LMAP was established with the stated aim of improving security of tenure for the poor and reducing land conflicts in Cambodia by systematically registering land and issuing titles across the country. However, a report released last year by BABC and COHRE[1] found that land-grabbing and forced evictions have escalated significantly over the last ten years, while many vulnerable households have been arbitrarily excluded from the titling system. This exclusion has denied these households protection against land-grabbing and adequate compensation for their expropriated land, often thrusting them into conditions of extreme poverty.
Despite strong evidence to prove their legal rights to the land, Boeung Kak residents were excluded from the titling system when land registration was carried out in their neighbourhood in 2006. Shortly thereafter, the Cambodian Government granted an illegal 99-year lease over the area to Shukaku Inc, a company chaired by Lao Meng Khim, a Sentator from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party and close associate of Prime Minister Hun Sen. Residents of the area covered by the lease – many of whom have lived lawfully in the area since the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 - were suddenly accused by the Government of being illegal squatters on State-owned land.
The World Bank Inspection Panel is investigating whether the Bank breached its operational policies by failing to supervise the Government’s implementation of social and environmental safeguards tied to the project that were intended to ensure that a Boeung Kak scenario would not unfold. “These safeguards were essential for such a high-risk project in a country that is renowned for its lack of good governance and law enforcements,” said Bret Thiele, Senior Litigation Expert at COHRE.
The World Bank acknowledged in August 2009 that the safeguards had been breached and approached the Cambodian Government to discuss measures to bring the project back into compliance. The Government responded by abruptly ending its agreement with the World Bank on LMAP, citing the Bank’s “complicated conditions” as the reason for its move.
David Pred, Executive Director of BABC, highlighted similarities to a World Bank Inspection Panel case in Albania last year, in which a Bank-financed project was also implicated in forced evictions. At that time, World Bank President Robert Zoellick promised "the Bank would move promptly to strengthen oversight, improve procedures and help the [affected] families." Zoellick added that "the Bank cannot let this happen again."
“They let it happen again,” said Pred, “and this time it is 4000 families losing their homes. The Bank must find a way to repair the harms suffered by the people of Boeung Kak. Safeguard policies are not optional - if the Cambodian Government refuses to comply with its contractual obligations to respect these safeguards, then it should not be entitled to any new financing from the World Bank.”
Read the inspection panel report:
Inspection Panel report and recommendation on request for inspection Re: Cambodia LMAP (PDF, 65 KB)
Contact
■David Pred
Executive Director
Bridges Across Borders Cambodia
david@babcambodia.org
+855 92 285954
■Bret Thiele
Senior Expert – Litigation
bret@cohre.org
+1 218 733 1370
Background on Boeung Kak and forced evictions in Cambodia
Spanning 90 hectares in central north Phnom Penh, Boeung Kak lake is one of the only large open spaces left in Cambodia’s capital city. Prior to the recent evictions, approximately 4000 families lived on and around the lake with many depending on the lake for their livelihood. Families have been living around the lake since the early 1980s when they returned to the city following the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. Most of these families have legal rights to their land under Cambodia’s 2001 Land Law.
Despite the legitimate claims to the land of many of the residents around Boeung Kak, when the titling team from the World Bank-financed Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP) adjudicated the area in early 2007, the residents were denied title en masse. In the same month, the Cambodian government entered into a 99-year lease agreement with a private developer, Shukaku Inc., over 133 hectares including the lake and surrounding areas. Shukaku Inc. is headed by Lao Meng Khin, a Senator and major donor to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, who is also director of the controversial logging company Pheapimex.
Families living in the development zone began facing pressure and intimidation to leave the area in August 2008, when the developer commenced filling in the lake as part of its development plans. While few details about the development have been made public, it is estimated that approximately 20,000 people will be displaced. Included in this figure are the more than 1000 families that have already been evicted without their land rights being properly adjudicated and acknowledged. In the absence of any legal protections, these families accepted woefully inadequate compensation under conditions of duress. This was in direct violation of the World Bank’s Policy on Involuntary Resettlement, which the Cambodian government was contractually bound to respect in conjunction with LMAP.
Background on the Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP)
The multi-donor supported Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP) began in 2002 as the first phase of the Government’s land reform program and was established to give effect to key provisions of the 2001 Land Law. The project was originally envisioned as the first phase of a program of land reform to be implemented over a 15-year period, with the objectives of strengthening land tenure security and land markets, preventing or resolving land disputes, managing land and natural resources in an equitable, sustainable and efficient manner, and promoting equitable land distribution. LMAP intended to focus on the development of the legal and regulatory framework; institutional development; land titling and registration; strengthening land dispute resolution mechanisms; and land management.[2]
The primary donors to the project were the World Bank (pledging $28.83 million), GTZ ($3.5 million in technical assistance), and the Government of Finland ($3.5 million in technical assistance).[3] The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) joined the project in 2004 committing more than CN$10 million in both funding and technical assistance through to 2012.[4]
[1] Available at www.babcambodia.org/untitled
[2] World Bank, 2002. Project Appraisal Document for a Land Management and Administration Project.
[3] Cambodia Land Management and Administration Project summary, September 2009 (PDF, 30 KB)
[4] CIDA Website, Cambodia: CIDA funded projects, March, 2010
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