Overly prescriptive approaches limit the scope for adaptive management of livelihood restoration programs for project-affected people. Clear recognition of the many risks associated with implementing a complex project in partnership with a relatively inexperienced and limited-capacity government led to a concerted effort to “get everything right,” as it were, before the project even started. That is reflected in the negotiation of a comprehensive and highly detailed concession agreement, a 1,362-page legal document. Again, with the benefit of hindsight, it appears that the minutely detailed and prescriptive nature of this instrument limited the scope for adaptive management of a variety of issues that arose in the course of implementation. Specifically, while NTPC appears to have attempted diligently to implement the requirements of the concession agreement, the rigidity of its requirements seems to have driven a top-down strategy to developing livelihood restoration measures that was at variance with past lessons about the desirability of bottom-up approaches, which were introduced only very late in the implementation stage.
Greater Mekong Subregion - Nam Theun 2 Hydroelectric Project