Session Description
Impact assessment is overwhelmingly front-loaded. Prediction, mitigation design and disclosure cluster at the start of the project lifecycle, when instruments are active and attention is highest. But impacts, and the grievances they generate, do not respect the project calendar. Livelihood restoration can falter years after resettlement is declared complete and the project has closed. Indigenous Peoples' commitments outlast the teams and projects that agreed to them. Residual and cumulative effects surface long after monitoring lapses and grievance mechanisms close.
This session looks back at what emerges once the formal instruments have expired, and asks what that reveals about the assumptions built into assessment at the front end. Grievances are the organising lens: because a grievance is where an unresolved impact becomes visible, tracing grievances that outlive the project draws livelihoods, resettlement, Indigenous rights and residual impacts together as one connected problem rather than four separate ones.
The session will feature three to four short, focused case presentations, drawn from diverse sectors, financing contexts and regions, so that the discussion reflects the breadth of settings in which impacts and grievances persist beyond project closure. A facilitated 20–25 minute discussion follows, inviting participants to contribute their own post-closure experience. The session will produce a short synthesis of recurring post-closure gaps and emerging responses, shared with participants afterwards.
In the spirit of Ka mua, ka muri, it looks back at closed projects not to audit failure, but to let what we have learned reshape the practice ahead.
Session Summary
Impacts and grievances do not respect the project calendar: livelihood gaps, unmet commitments and residual effects often surface after formal instruments expire. Using grievances as its organizing lens, this session looks back at closed projects to examine what persists beyond closure and what that reveals about assumption
Additional Information
The session is designed as a chaired paper session with an extended interactive component: presentations will be kept short and focused to protect a 20–25 minute facilitated discussion, allowing participants to contribute their own post-closure experience. The chair will actively recruit presenters across sectors, financing contexts and regions following acceptance, to ensure the cases reflect the breadth of settings in which impacts persist beyond closure.
Session Chair
Alexandra Niesslein
World Bank
Vietnam
Session Co-chair
Quynh Thuy Hoang
World Bank
Vietnam