i8 | free, prior and informed Mazraat El-Dahr: Active discussion of the expropriation plan Bisri village: Dar team presenting Logistics and organization Two weeks prior to each round, the sessions were advertised in three national newspapers on three consecutive days. Notices were also sent to heads of municipalities and mukhtars (mayors) for posting locally. Each session was held in a village hall or municipal meeting room where maps of the land to be expropriated were displayed. The Dar team gave arriving attendees a handout that described the project and the objectives of the session, and summarized the information to be presented. The Dar team also circulated an attendance sheet to record contact details. After words of welcome by the Project Proponent and a 20-30 minute presentation by Dar’s team, the floor was opened for questions and answers (Q&A). Dar places high value on understanding ProjectAffected Persons’ (PAPs) views 2, and Q&A was allocated more than 75% of the available time. In addition to verbal questions, comment sheets for speakers to record what they had said were circulated. The same sheets were also available for anyone uneasy about speaking in public. Since there are always attendees unwilling or unable to write, a member of Dar’s team noted proceedings, a task inherently difficult when discussion becomes heated or people talk over one another. While all questions were answered verbally on the day, the completed comment sheets were later transcribed and more fully considered written answers given in the final reports. Setting standards for the future To promote further participation and transparency, the press notice, the presentation and the handout each gave a mobile phone number, and fax and email addresses dedicated by Dar to those seeking additional information or wishing to comment. The GBWSAP ESIA and RAP were subsequently approved by the World Bank and publically disclosed on the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR) website and World Bank’s InfoShop, where they remained available for further comment for a period of 120 days. At the outset of the project, Dar’s first deliverable was a consultation and communications program that detailed the steps through which participatory consultation would be achieved. As the Bisri project now moves from design to construction, the Project Proponent will establish a Project Information Center at which PAPs and others can seek information and advice. Thereafter, other public relations initiatives, including an accessible and widely advertised complaints procedure, will maintain the amicable relations established by Dar environmentalists well beyond the day the dam is commissioned. Footnote 2 In addition to the public sessions, in preparing the RAP, each household identified for resettlement had been the subject of a structured interview by experienced social surveyors. 36