少数民族发展计划 Ethnic Minority Development Plan (emdp) 新疆维吾尔自治区吐鲁番地区水利局项目办 Turfan Water Conservation Bureau, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region March 12, 2010 Table of Contents

2 Summary of Social Assessment

2.1 Methodologies of Social Assessment

The Framework of Social Assessment was designed according to the Bank’s safeguard document of OP4.10 and the annexes as well as the objectives and components of the project, and further adapted appropriately to the realities after arriving at the project areas. Successively in Turfan City, Shanshan and Tuokexun Counties, in addition to the collection of and review on the relevant policies, documents and data, the workshops were held at the prefecture and county/city levels. The Agro-ecological and Socio-economic zoning exercises were made, the number and location of survey villages determined and stakeholder analyses made.

The SA survey was conducted together with EM community consultation in the investigated villages. Through the workshop of the village and group leaders, the differentiations among villagers’ groups and farm households, and the representatives of every party were identified, to ensure the poorer communities, EM groups, the poor and women to participate in SA and community consultation process, to exert their rights of to be informed, participation, expression own problems, needs and opinions, etc. The interviews with the household questionnaires have a certain functions of the consultation, and the collection of data and information as the important bases for SA and identification of M&E indicators as well as the benchmarks. The Chinese version the report described the detailed procedures and methods applied.

2.2 The main findings and conclusions of Social Assessment

1. 
   The policy environment of the nation, autonomous region, Turfan prefecture and the project counties/city on irrigation management, water management reform, EM groups, poverty alleviation, women, etc. is favorite for the EM communities and farmers to participate in the project and be equally benefited, for the application of the Participatory project planning, implementation and management, and for the establishment, operation and development of the mechanisms and organizations such as WUA for EM community consultation and expression of own needs and concerns.
   
2. 
   Among the stakeholder institutes to the realization of the project’s social objectives and protection of EM groups’ interests and rights, the county magistrates responsible for the project and the leading groups play very important roles of decision-making. The project has the Water Resource bureaus as the main institute for planning, implementation and management. However, it has no enough knowledge and skills of the Participatory development and project approach. The other relevant institutes could play their respective roles to the project.
   
3. 
   The population and leaders’ compositions have EM groups as the main in the project villages, among whom Uygur dominate or the only EM group in the villages. Hui has only small amount and comparatively concentrated residence. The other EM groups are very few and only the individuals. Therefore the project has Uygur as the main beneficiaries, and SA and community consultation had them as the main participants, which is in accordant with the requirement of WB for the work.
   
4. 
   There are obvious differences in the conditions of arable land, irrigation water use and the other development elements among the sub-villages or villagers’ groups and the farm households within an administrative village.
   
5. 
   The composition of the farm household livelihood systems in Turfan Prefecture has very strong interdependency on the natural resources and infrastructures such as water and irrigation. Plus the factors of arable land acreage per capita, soil quality, etc. four kinds of systems were formed, including the ones with the surface water as the main irrigation type and grape as the main crop, with underground water wells (a few with surface water) as the main irrigation type and cotton inter-cropping with cumin or melons as the main cropping pattern, and with pure well irrigation, and of livestock grazing. Such compositions and differences among them are rational naturally, and reflected the rational selections and long time experiences of local farmers. The activities of farm livelihoods have obvious seasonality. Women play very important roles in the productions and livelihoods of the farm households.
   
6. 
   The framework and methodology of Social Assessment were effective. The resident distribution of EM groups in the project areas and the differences among the villages/groups and farm households were identified. It ensured the participation of EM communities and farmers, esp. the poorer communities and households as well as women in the process of SA and consultation, to exert their rights to be informed, participate, express, etc. The inter-dependent relations between the farmers’ livelihoods and the conditions of irrigation water use and the other natural resources have been concretely analyzed and understood.
   

3 Summary of the results of the free, prior, and informed consultation with the affected Indigenous Peoples’ communities

3.1 Process of EM community consultation

EM community consultations were conducted mainly through the workshops of the representatives of every type of EM groups and farm households, and women, to assess the effects of the project and analyze the countermeasures to overcome the possible negative effects.

At the beginning, the SA consultant introduced the objectives and contents of the project, the importance and methods of SA and EM community consultation, and the concerned WB requirements and policies of central government, to mobilize the representatives to participate and disseminate the information to the villagers. Then, the village and group leaders presented the maps, tables and calendars produced from their workshop, to have the participants feel the relevance of such participatory methods and the outputs to their own interests, and strengthen their enthusiasts to participate in the consultation and express own wills. The discussions were conducted by 3 groups of the poor, the other households and women separately, to analyze the situation and problems in water use, the causes and solutions, and the possible positive and negative effects, against the main project components, and the countermeasures. In the villages with fewer participants, the workshops were conducted with or without division of men and women for separate discussion. The discussions were moderated by the consultant and the members of SA team. It paid particular attention to the use of EM language and characters. When using Uygur, the writing sequence was from the right to the left. The topics include:

• 
  The situation and problems of the village/villagers’ groups and the households in irrigation water use, the causes and the countermeasures willing to adopt; and
  
• 
  The positive functions and negative effects of the proposed project components on EM households’ livelihoods, the problems possibly happening during or after the project implementation, and how to avoid or mitigate and resolve them.
  

After the group discussions, the plenary presentations were made to communicate, revise and improve the discussion results; and tried as much as possible to reach the consensus among the participants through consultation.