Resettlement projects require a dedicated cross-functional team, including strong project management skills and resettlement expertise. To ensure a resettlement project is adequately resourced, a resource plan must be developed for resettlement planning, implementation and close-out. The resource plan must be commensurate to the size, potential impact and risk of the project. The team structure, as well as roles and responsibilities must be clearly defined.
If adequate resources and resettlement expertise are not available internally, engagement of external experts with suitable local knowledge is required.
To ensure strong project management, a project management framework (PMF) must be established that is aligned with the requirements of the . The must include as a minimum:
- Communication protocols;
- Cross-functional work breakdown structure (WBS), including the critical path, dependencies between activities, inputs or decisions by external stakeholders, and when land access is required;
- Budget and schedule, aligned with the ;
- Progress reporting procedure and requirements,
- Record keeping and document management procedure;
- Change management plan;
- Human resources plan; and
- Risk, legal and commitments register.
The must also define the governance structure for the resettlement project. As a minimum, a multidisciplinary Steering Committee (SteerCom) must be in place, and include representation from the resettlement project team, operations team and the General Manager, BU and Group SP. BU functions represented on the SteerCom must include, as a minimum, CR, Legal, Mine/Asset Planning, Strategic Planning, Technical/Projects, and Finance. The SteerCom will play a high-level advisory and oversight role for the resettlement project, will be responsible for senior level stakeholder engagement and will instigate independent reviews as required. The SteerCom requires a well-defined mandate and become operational once resettlement planning commences (see 4F.2 Guidance, Task 7).