SFG1694 V2 REV A Report on Dongxiang Ethnic Minority Development Plan (EMDP) in Hezheng County, Gansu Province Attached to the World Bank Financed Second Gansu Cultural and Natural Heritage Protection and Development Project Gansu Yishan Yishui Center for Environmental and Social Development April 2, 2016 Contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Backgroud of the Subproject ...................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Contents of the Subproject ......................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Objectives of the EMDP.............................................................................................................. 4 1.4 Objectives of EMD of the subproject .......................................................................................... 5 1.5 Research Methods...................................................................................................................... 5 1.6 The World Bank`s Criterion for Definition of Ethnic Minorities .................................................... 5 2. Overview of Ethnic Minorities ................................................................................................................ 7 in the Subproject-related Area .................................................................................................................. 7 2.1 Population and Residential Distribution ...................................................................................... 7 2.2 Religious Believes and Cultural Characteristics ......................................................................... 7 2.2.1 Hui People ............................................................................................................................... 8 (1) Language and Religious Beliefs .................................................................................................. 8 2.2.2 Dongxiang People ................................................................................................................... 9 2.3 The social and economic situation of ethnic minorities in the subproject-related area ............. 11 2.3.1 Economic Situation........................................................................................................ 11 2.3.2 Education Status ........................................................................................................... 11 2.3.3 Poverty Status ............................................................................................................... 12 2.4 Ethnic-Minority-concerning Law, Policy and Management System in Subproject-related Area.12 3. Abstract of Social Assessment (SA) on Ethnic Minority ...................................................................... 17 3.1 Method and Process of Social Assessment .............................................................................. 17 3.1.1 Method of Social Assessment ....................................................................................... 17 3.2 Impacts analysis of the project on ethnic minorities.................................................................. 19 3.2.1 Positive influence .......................................................................................................... 19 3.2.2 Potential Risks............................................................................................................... 20 3.3 Key Suggestions from SA……………………………………………………………………………………………… 4. Minority Public Participation and Consultation .................................................................................... 23 4.1 Process of Early-stage Participation in Ethnic-Minority Communities ...................................... 23 4.2 Outcomes of Ethnic Minority Community Participation ............................................................. 24 4.3 Participation Plan during project implementation stage ............................................................ 25 5. Action Plan of EMDP........................................................................................................................... 33 5.1 Cause and Effect Diagram of "The cause, consequence and solution measures for difficulties in community development" .............................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. 5.2 Logical Frame of EMDP in the Subproject-related Area ............. Error! Bookmark not defined. We drew up the Logical Frame of EMDP in the Subproject-related Area shown as the following table 5-2 based on Cause and Effect Diagram of "The cause, consequence and solution measures for difficulties in community development". ...................... Error! Bookmark not defined. 5.3 Measures to guarantee Ethnic Minorities’ interests .................................................................. 33 5.4 Implementing Agency and Schedule ........................................................................................ 34 5.4.1 Implementing Agency and Capacity Building ................................................................ 34 5.4.2 Implementation Schedule .............................................................................................. 35 5.5 Capital Budget .......................................................................................................................... 36 6. Monitoring and Evaluation .................................................................................................................. 38 It is necessary to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the project in order to ensure that this EMDP is implemented effectively as expected. See detail in Table 6.1Terms of Reference for Monitoring and Evaluation ...................................................................................................................... 38 1. Introduction 1.1 Background to the project In recent years, China implemented a series of policies and measures such as steady growth, structure adjustment, reform acceleration, livelihood improvement, as well as risk control to promote economy transformation and development. In this context, as an open and comprehensive industry and as an important part of modern services, tourism industry is brought out from numerous industries for its distinct advantage in increasing employment and income, in promoting development of mid-west and lifting rural area out of poverty, as well as in promoting stable and rapid economic growth and improving eco-environment. The state introduced a series of policies to promote tourism development, such as Several Opinions of the State Council on Promoting Reform and Development of Tourism Industry, and Vision and Actions on Jointly Building Silk Road Economic Belt and Maritime Silk Road. In the meantime, Gansu Provincial Government also issued a series of strong polices to leverage economy transformation and development, such as Overall Scheme on “Silk Road Economic Belt” Gansu Section, Opinions on Promoting Tourism Industry Reform and Development, Implementation Suggestions on Promotion of Establishment of Chinese Civilization Heritage Innovation Area. Under the background of support from good policies and booming development of tourism industry, proportion of output of cultural and tourism industry in the whole province’s GDP increased from 5.7% in 2005 to 10.24% in 2013. Meantime, Gansu Province actively made overall coordination and introduced various types of funding to develop cultural and tourism industry in the province. In 2004, the province applied RMB38.4 million from the World Bank to implement “World Bank Financed Gansu Cultural and Natural Heritage Protection and Development Project”, implementation of which remarkably improved involving scenic spots’ capacity in heritage protection, institutional capacity building, tourism development, spot operational management and community poverty alleviation. Implementation of the project was also a major impetus for Gansu Province to stand among domestic important tourist destination and also accumulated rich experience for the province in terms of utilization, management and operation of international capital. In light of the results from project implementation, Gansu Provincial Government would like to continue to seek for support from the World Bank and to make new exploration and innovation in heritage protection, sustainable development of tourism industry and lifting community residents out of poverty through tourism. The province applied for World Bank Financed Second Gansu Cultural and Natural Heritage Protection and Development Project in 2013, when the project was included in the pipeline of the Bank for fiscal year 2016. A number of criteria have been used for project site selection. First, the Longdongnan Regional Strategic Planning Study for the Cultural and Natural Heritage Conservation and Sustainable Tourism Development (Longdongnan Regional Study) provided the basis to screen project sites for inclusion in the project. Second, selected sites have a complete set of planning tools to expedite implementation, including heritage conservation and development plans at both county and site level, as well as tourism development plans at both county and site level. Third, sites with higher development potentials, including attractiveness for private sector investments, job creation, and income generation for local communities, were prioritized. Based on the criteria listed above, six sites have been selected for inclusion in the project: 1 Kongtong District: Kongtong Mountain Cluster of Historic Buildings, 5A Jinchuan County: Hundred Mile Grottoes Corridor Conservation 4A Zhuanglang County: Yunya Temple Cultural Heritage and Scenic Area, 4A Tanchang County: Guan’egou Ethnic Cultural and Natural Heritage Conservation, 4A Kangxian County: Yangba Natural Heritage Conservation, 4A Hezheng County: Hua’er Traditional Music Conservation and Inheritance Program 4A The three project components described below would blend investments in sites and communities with capacity building. Component 1: Heritage Conservation and Tourism Services Improvement This component will support carrying out of site conservation and protection activities, construction, upgrading and/or rehabilitation of basic infrastructure and services facilities within project sites, consisting of, inter alia: i.) Protection and conservation of cultural and natural heritage and cultural heritage, including the carrying out of studies on Project-related activities and the design of cultural heritage preservation programs; ii.)Construction, rehabilitation and/or upgrading of tourist roads, footpaths, pedestrian bridges, and scenic lookouts, including associated equipment; iii.) Provision and upgrading of services including water supply, drainage, wastewater collection and disposal, solid waste collection, power, and tourist signage, including associated equipment; iv.) Construction and/or rehabilitation of selected scenic areas’ administration facilities, museums, heritage and service centers, and parking space associated thereto; and v.) Implementation of mitigation measures and works for natural heritage aimed at landslides, floods, and other natural hazards; including associated equipment. Component 2: Community Basic Services Delivery This component will support construction, upgrading and/or rehabilitation of basic infrastructure, and provision of basic services to the communities within and in proximity of areas targeted by Component 1, consisting of, inter alia: (i) improvement of pavement for village access roads and lanes; (ii) provision of water supply, wastewater collection and disposal; (iii) solid waste collection and sanitation improvements; (iv) street lighting; and (v) construction of village classrooms for teaching and practicing local intangible cultural heritage. Component 3: Capacity Building for Project Sites, Institutional Strengthening, and Project Management Support This component consists of: i.) Provision of training to selected project-related staff, scenic area administrators and operators, and residents of local communities in the project sites, as appropriate, on cultural heritage conservation, natural heritage conservation, intangible cultural heritage preservation, scenic area management, tourism development strategies, and tourism products and market development. ii.) Provision of project management support and technical assistance on, inter alia: (i) design review; (ii) project management, monitoring and supervision; (iii) construction supervision; (iv) independent monitoring of the implementation of environmental and social safeguards; and (v) project reporting. 2 iii.) Carrying out of studies on heritage preservation and the culture of local ethnic minorities. iv.) Development of a tourism information system and website to be shared by all Project Sites, and fully integrated with the province-wide Gansu E-Tourism system. The project is to be implemented in Songmingyan- Palaeotherium Fossils Geopark, which are located in Hezheng county.Hezheng County is a highly underdeveloped minority area in Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, and a state-level county for poverty reduction. Hezheng county is characterized by a distinct area of minority, an area of fragile ecological condition and a poverty stricken area, which leads to its less developed. Currently, Hezheng County is a key area of national poverty alleviation. Project activities compose of following 3 components: activities to protect cultural and natural heritage, activities to sustainably develop cultural and natural heritage, as well as activities to enhance value of cultural and natural heritage. Meanwhile, the project focuses on development of poor communities within and surrounding the scenic spots, and hopes to alleviate community poverty through tourism and income generation activities, so as to promote realization of double objective --“reduce absolute poverty and share prosperity”. The project focuses on rights of all stakeholders such as tourists and community residents, and pays special attention to sustainable livelihood and development of community women in project area. After implementation of the project by the year 2023, 5.6944 million of tourists and community residents will directly benefit from the project, among whom 5.5833 million are tourists and 111,100 are community residents, 62,216 of whom are women. Planned completion time of the project is 6 years (2017~2022) and estimated investment is RMB1.0449546 billion. We can ensure by preparing the development report on minority communities that the World Bank's investment construction plan and the project is more suited to each related interest groups, which helps promote policies, plans, projects and engineering more robust and sustainable. We will try to make policies, plans, projects and engineering to be more inclusive through stakeholders and broader and more diverse community participation, know in depth the demand of residents from project-related area thorough through investigation done in minority communities so as to help in fully considering the social problems and avoiding the happening of social contradictions during project implementation, and get firsthand data and public opinions through collecting information and opinion survey, thus make evaluation on social impact of the implementation of the world bank projects making up for decision-making defects of government, providing for the local government an important reference in formulating of policy and plans. 1.2 Contents of the Subproject There are four Ethnic Minority Communities identified as meeting the World Bank IP term requirements in Hezheng County. To address the rights and interests of these ethnic minorities and mitigate negative impacts on them of this project, the following project activities are planned and EMDP is prepared: 3 Table 1.1 Project activities for ethnic minority communities in Hezheng county Project activity Project component Budget Total (‘1000) (‘1000) Intangible culture  Establishment of Hua’er Exercise and 1396.5 2496.5 and heritage Exhibition Halls conservation  Intangible Hua’er cultural heritage 1000.0 resource investigation and research in Hezheng county  Hua’er culture popularization, publicity 100.0 brochures Community  Hardening of rural road and paths 17729.8 52265.6 development  Construction of drainage works and 32855.8 sewage treatment plant  Courtyard solar energy lamps 1680.0 Community  Farmers training 2050.0 68 0.0 development and  Community organization incubation 24.00 capacity building  Monitoring and evaluation of community 30.00 development  Monitoring and evaluation of ethnic 15.00 minority development  Office facilities and performance 68.00 equipment purchase Total 5681.21 The project activities designed for the ethnic minority communities in Hezheng county cover conservation and promotion of heritage, community development and community capacity building, of which ethnic minority community development projects relative to heritage conservation and exhibition are to set up community based Hua’er exercise and demonstration halls, Intangible Hua’er cultural heritage resource investigation and research in Hezheng county and compilation of Hua’er culture popularization, publicity brochures. The budget for those activities are estimated to be RMB2.4965 million. Community development projects consist of hardening of rural road and paths, construction of drainage works and sewage treatment plant and courtyard solar energy lamps. The estimation budget is RMB52.2656 million. Community capacity building and community development project include farmers training, incubation of COs, monitoring & evaluation of community development projects, monitoring & evaluation of ethnic minority development plans, and procurement of office facilities for COs and performance equipment. The budget for this component is RMB2.05 million. The total budget of ethnic minority community development project is RMB56.8121 million. 1.3 Objectives of the EMDP This EMDP is made to encourage ethnic minorities to participate in subproject preparation and implementation, ensure their benefit from the subproject, mitigate their poverty and minimize negative impacts on them. This EMDP illustrates the demographic, social and cultural features of the local ethnic minorities, their needs for the subproject, the subproject’s impacts on them, and measures to 4 ensure that they benefit equally from the subproject and mitigate adverse impacts. 1.4 Objectives of EMD of the subproject The direct beneficiary area of the subproject covers 6 villages: Diaotan , Zhongxin , Dashanzhuang , Ketuo and Cheba, and indirect beneficiary population is 13,311, in which minority population accounts for 39%. The ethnic minority development objectives of the subproject are: (1) providing all subproject-related information through adequate communication and consultation by means of respecting Dongxiang minorities’ needs, their traditions and customs; (2) incorporating their ne eds into the subproject designing; and (3) taking measures to minimize the subproject’s potential negative impacts and social risks on them, and enhance their opportunities to benefit from the subproject in ways acceptable to them. 1.5 Research Methods General Specific Directions Methods Observing the surroundings of project-related area including road condition Direct (length and paths) ,forest, farmland and houses, clothing, appearance and observation mentality of local residents Letting every household know the content of the project in order to get supports, inspire more villagers to participate; then share the collected Villagers information with villagers in the community, make the information available to (community) different groups for modification and supplement, reach consensus on the basic meetings situation, main problems and its reasons and measures, and make the final decision. Semi-structured It is useful for illiterate and semi-illiterate groups. interviews Key person Ethnic minorities, the poor, women, children, seniors and the handicapped interviews people. Collecting and studying the information about women’s income and working Social gender situation with the help of the local women’s Federation and field investigation perspective work; focusing on the gender issue in the individual and family interviewed, the participatory observation and group discussions. Participatory Encouraging local residents think about their living surrounding and discuss it mapping during the participatory mapping. Cover all minority communities supported by the Bank project activities; Minority Questionnaire sampling is not less than 70%, the poverty households samples are no less than inquiry 30%, women representative are not less than 20%, and the elderly sampling is not less than 20%. 1.6 The World Bank`s Criterion for Definition of Ethnic Minorities (1) Self identify as a unique member of the Ethnic Minority groups, and others also acknowledge the identification; (2) The whole group attaches to the residential area or ancestral territory with unique 5 geographical features in the project-related area, also attaches to the natural resources of these residential area and territory; (3) Have unique cultural, economic and social or political system which is different from the mainstream society; (4) Have their own language different from official language in the country or local area; Social impact assessment methods include issuing questionnaires, taking interviews, making participatory mapping and holding community residents consultative conference. We did survey three times including government seminar twice and community forum five times, issued 90 copies of paper questionnaires and 33 copies of network questionnaires in project-related area of Hezheng County. We found out that the surrounding communities were mostly that of Hui, Dongxiang ethnic minority through our survey. We selected Bianpo village, Dashanzhuang village, Ketuo village, Cheba village as community samples composed mainly of the Hui and Dongxiang ethnic minority according to the World Bank`s Criterion for definition of ethnic minority which conforms to the minority community development projects with World Bank loan. So we did investigation and worked out a report on ethnic minority development plan based on these four minority communities. 6 2.Overview of Ethnic Minorities in the Subproject Area 2.1 Population and Residential Distribution Dongxiang minority and Hui minority are the major residents in the above-mentioned four administrative villages in Songmingyan town in Hezheng County. Among these four villages, Dashanzhuang village has 529 households with population of 2,709,of whom 468 households with population of 2,318 are Dongxiang minority people, accounting for 85.6% of total population, and 61 households with population of 391 are Hui minority, accounting for 14.14% of total population; Cheba village has 468 households with population of 2,428, of whom 302 households with population of 1,208 are Dongxiang minority, accounting for 65% of total population, and 150 households with population of 300 are Hui minority, accounting for 12.4% of total population; Bianpo village has 335 households with a population of 1,812, of whom 110 households with a population of 450 are Dongxiang minority, accounting for 33% of total population, and 200 households with a population of 1,010 are Hui minority, accounting for 55.8% of total population; Ketuo village has 389 households with a population of 1,935, of whom 298 households with a population of 1,202 are Dongxiang minority, accounting for 77% of total population and 50 households with a population of 200 are Hui minority, accounting for 10.3% of total population. In conclusion, the representative feature of these four villages is residential distribution of population of Dongxiang and Hui minorities. Table 2.1 Dongxiang Population of Songmingyan Town in Hezheng County Ethnic Ethnic Ethnic Type of population City Househ Popul in the total county town Village househ Populat ethnic olds ation population olds ion minority (%) Dongxi Dashanz 468 2318 85.6% 529 2709 ang huang Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture 61 391 Hui 14.4% Dongxi 302 1208 65% ang Cheba 468 2428 Songming Hezheng 150 300 Hui 12.4% County Town Dongxi 110 450 33% Bianpo 335 1812 ang 200 1010 Hui 55.8% Dongxi 298 1202 77% Ketuo 389 1935 ang 50 200 Hui 10.3% 2.2 Religious Believes and Cultural Characteristics The cultural characteristics of Dongxiang minority in Hezheng County in this report refers to mainly feature of agricultural production, participation, decision-making and the mechanism for mediating social disputes in household and community affairs of Dongxiang and Hui minorities. 7 2.2.1 Hui People The Hui peoples in Songmingyan scenic spot of Hezheng county live concentrated in 4 villages in the project areas including Dashanzhuang, Cheba, Bianpo and Ketuo. The population of Hui peoples account for about 21.4% of the total population in the 4 villages. (1) Language and Religious Beliefs Hui people who live in project-related area use Chinese in their daily life. However, they also use native language in internal communication, religious ceremony and religious sutra teaching& learning and exchanging ideas. Hui people generally believe in Islam. Men usually go to mosques for pray for 5 times daily, but women do pray at home for five times daily. Mosques are not only religious places, but also important communities for message communications, social affairs discussions, etc. (2)Cultural customs Hui men wear mandarin white shirt with blue or black waistcoat, white dome cap. Women usually wear scarf. Special national costumes make Hui peoples distinguish from the general Han Chinese residents, which make people easily tell them form other peoples. At the same time, the Hui nationality clothes also become one of the symbols of their self-identify. The Hui peoples in the project area usually abide by internal marriage without marrying other peoples such as Han who have different religion and cultural background. If other peoples marry with Hui peoples, they believe in Islam and accept Hui people’s tradition and customs. Generally, Hui women get married earlier with marriage age between 16 and 19 years old. After marriage, family division of labor is mainly that men are responsible for external issues including communications but that women are responsible for domestic affairs. Women usually abide by their husbands. The distinctive features in community of Hui people is Mosque that not only play an important role in religious beliefs but also in wedding ceremony, regulating contradiction, charity and education. (3) Production and live Mode Hui people who live in project-related area of Songmingyan in Hezheng County mainly engage in agricultural production. The major crops they plant are wheat, corn and canola. They also engaged in animal husbandry mainly raising cattle and sheep, some of them do business. Their production mode is similar with that of Han people, but their life style is quite different from Han people especially in wedding, funeral, religious beliefs, diet and so on. Economically, Hui peoples are good at business. For instance, Hui peoples are engaged in catering service such as beef noodles. 1/4 of laborers in the project area manage beef noodle restaurants outside of Linxia, forming a specialized beef noodle economy. The income generated from the beef noodles account for about 50% of a farmer’s family income. The ancestors of Hui people originated from businessmen and religious persons of Persian empire and Xiyu (an ancient country called West Region) and Hui peoples have lived in the region for centuries. The affected Hui peoples in the project area reach 1,901, accounting for 21.4% of the total population in the 4 project villages. (4) The mechanism for negotiation, decision-making, management and mediating community disputes Men and women of Hui people both actively take part in various meetings held by the village committee, consultation of community affairs, decision-making and management. The village 8 committee takes the responsibility of mediating various community contradictions without any deviation caused by national differences. The elders play an important role in regulating in the family disputes. Public figure of religion generally don't involve in community affairs. 2.2.2 Dongxiang People The Dongxiang peoples living in Songmingyan project area of Hezheng county concentrate in 4 villages including Dashanzhuang village, Cheba village, Bianpo village and Ketuo village. Dongxiang peoples account for 58.3% of the total population in the 4 villages. (1) Language and Religious Beliefs Dongxiang people have their native language which is the principal tool of their communication in production and daily life. Cadres and working staff of Dongxiang minority also mostly use their native language when performing official duties and making daily communication besides of having a meeting. Statistics collected by Research Society of Dongxiang Culture show that Dongxiang people have their own national characters and its utilization rate is not low. Some researchers believe that the word of “Mini Sutra” should be an expression in Dongxiang language. However, young people of Dongxiang nationality who live in project-related area of Songmingyan in Hezheng County can speak Chinese and write Chinese characters, and most Dongxiang people who live in the project-related area believe in Islam. (2) Culture and Customs The most important festivals of Dongxiang people are the same as other ethnic groups who believe in Islam namely "Lesser Bairam", "Corban Festival “ and “Maulid al-nabi". Maulid al-nabi is generally held in mosques which contains chanting sutra, praising Mohammed, narrating life story of Mohammed, etc. Lesser Bairam is a traditional festival of Dongxiang people. According to provisions of Islam, each September in Islamic calendar is Ramadan. Muslims who keep with Islamic tenets have to stop eating and drinking from dawn to sunset every day of this month. The beginning and the end of the month of Ramadan should be fixed from the moment when Muslims see the crescent Moon, and the first day after this month is Lesser Bairam. Therefore, it is ethnic holiday and religious festival. Dongxiang Muslims clean their body and wear minority costumes, make a pray in the mosque and listen to imam’s preaching during the festival just like other ethnic Muslims do, after that, they will mourn the deceased at the graves. Dongxiang people also celebrate the Lantern Festival that is Han people’s traditional holiday. In the evening of the festival, teenagers hold their torches and run out of the village. It is a spectacular scene that torches held by the youth form a queue of the fire looks like a fire dragon that is dancing around in the dark night. The elders and women watch this activity at the end of village. It is said that brighter the color of the fire is, a better harvest of wheat and flax they will have. (3) Mode of production and residential distribution Dongxiang people mainly engage in agricultural production and animal husbandry raising sheep. They live a way of self-sufficiency. The major crops they plant are wheat and corn. Dongxiang people who live in project-related area have limited amount of cultivated land, most young adults go out to do migrant work. Most young men of Dongxiang minority don't wear the minority dress but white hats in daily life. The elders and women wear the minority costumes. In terms of diet, the priority is given to food made of wheat, millet and potatoes. They like eating chicken, beef and mutton especially mutton eaten with 9 hands is very delicious, and also making “Youxiang” that is local cruller. At the feast of festivals, they offer fried local food to the guests. They avoid eating pork strictly, and prohibit from eating meat of dead animals, , animal's blood, meat of the animals that is slaughtered before imams and Muslim prayers reciting the sutra for killing them, meat of horses, donkeys, mules, dogs, cats, and all ferocious birds and beasts. The food diet tradition is as same as other minorities who believe in Islam They all are not allowed to make jokes with fasting food and eat reproductive organs of male cattle, sheep and camels. Other people are forbidden to use Muslims` cooking utensils. Women are not allowed to smell food when they are cooking. One has to break the food into small pieces rather than eat it wholly when eating steamed bun, pancakes, fried food. Dongxiang peoples have lived in the region for centuries. Dongxiang peoples formed from a mix of many different ethnic compositions. The ethnic origin source constitutes the main component of Islamic Semu and Mongols. The affected Dongxiang peoples in the project area consist of 5,178, accounting for 58.3% of the total Dongxiang population in the project are. Picture 2.1 Sheep pen Picture 2.2 A farmer’s House (4) Social Status of Women Women of Dongxiang minority usually stay at home and look after the elders and children in the above-mentioned four minority villages which had been investigated. They seldom go out for migrant work. We found out in field survey that Dongxiang women in Dashanzhuang village are still rather conservative, rarely present themselves when men are there, only a few young women are open-minded. Women of other ethnic minority communities under investigated are relatively more open-minded and easy to communicate with. Generally speaking, women’s education level is lower than that of men. (5) The mechanism for negotiation, decision-making, management and mediating community disputes Dongxiang ethnic group have their own traditional community culture especially there is Menhuan organizations in the tribe (different Islamic schools) which playing an important role in the community management such as mediating community contradiction, but the management of Menhuan organization and the government have no contradiction yet. Instead, it helps to a certain 10 extent the government management. Dongxiang people have to follow the management system of village committee and the government. 2.3 The social and economic situation of ethnic minorities in the subproject-related area 2.3.1 Economic Situation The annual income per capita in the four ethnic communities in the subproject-related area are: Bianpo village RMB3,230, Dashanzhuang village RMB2,180, Ketuo village RMB2,900, Cheba village RMB3,230, respectively. They are all lower than the same period average level of Gansu province and China. Table 2.1 Social and economic situation of Hezheng County Years Index Unit 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Population Thousand 201.0 208.1 209.8 215.7 220 223.0 GDP Billion 0.741 0.847 1.016 1.141 1.300 1.456 Per capita RMB 3688.71 4069.63 4840.75 5287.67 6398.50 6530.80 GDP General 107.100 financial Million 63.0600 77.0800 100.5300 121.3076 130.6488 0 rev-enue Total financi 772.840 1217.650 2238.400 2497.220 al Million 956.9600 1548.2800 0 0 1 8 expenditure Fixed asset Billion 1.449 1.782 2.495 2.673 3.500 4.872 investment The per capita net RMB 2230.00 2520.00 2962.00 3394.00 4258.67 4646.05 income of rural areas 2.3.2 Education Status The county issued the preferential policies in terms of birth and graduation for these four ethnic minority communities under investigated. We found that there are about 4 to 5 people in one Dongxiang and Hui family. Together with the fragile local ecological environment, graduation rate among minority community residents is not high. Young people choose to go out to do migrant work, thus, family income mainly relies on working and doing business. At present, although young couples attach great importance to child's education problem, due to the lack of national kindergarten in Dashan village. There are lots of school-aged children who are not able to go to school. Women’s education level in Dongxiang and Hui communities is generally lower than that of men. Most family still seriously holds the idea that men are better than women in many aspects 11 2.3.3 Poverty Status Hezheng is one of the national poverty reduction counties, four minority communities have poverty problems at different degrees, basic poverty situation of each community is shown in table 2.2. The cause of poverty problem of Bianpo village includes village-entrance bridge collapse, no hardening of road, no lighting equipment and other infrastructure construction problems. It is believed that local poverty is also caused by that the villagers' overall quality is not high, that planting & breeding scale is not big, and that employment is difficult. The cause of poverty problem of Dashanzhuang village includes lower education level of the villagers, the information blocking and employment difficulty, etc. The causes of poverty problem of Cheba and Ketuo villages are the imperfect community infrastructure and the lower education level of residents leading to the lack of professional skills. Table 2.2 General Poverty Situation of Four Ethnic Minority Communities Number of the elders over Minimum Living Standard Minimum Living Standard Number of young people Number of Households Number of people Number of the Poor under 15years old Number of Poor Number of rural per capita 60 years old households households restaurants Name of income of people Village Disabled ones last year/RMB Dashan 529 2709 131 548 260 600 108 2180 148 548 2 zhuang Cheba 476 2425 10 60 524 420 34 3230 144 551 0 Ketuo 389 1935 35 154 435 500 56 2900 126 453 0 Bianpo 335 1812 48 219 207 311 41 3230 122 426 0 Data sources: Hezheng Development and Reform Bureau 2.4 Ethnic-Minority-concerning Law, Policy and Management System in Subproject-related Area. The development of the ethnic minority development plan (EMDP) is mainly based on the relevant laws and regulations of the People's Republic of China, the national support policy,Gansu provincial government’s laws and regulations, the policy and regulations promulgated by Hezheng county government as well as the World Bank's ethnic minority policy (OP4.10, BP4.10) .The specific policy framework please refers to Table 2.4. 12 Table 2.4 Regulations and Policies for Ethnic Minorities in Hezheng County Category Title of Policies and Regulations Main Content and Points of Policies ①Minority autonomous regions enjoys same power as same local government. In addition, organs of power in State laws and regulations: Constitution autonomous regions also enjoys following rights: autonomous legislative power; independently management of local of the People's Republic of China, Law political affairs, local economy and financial affairs, local scientific, educational and cultural affairs, organization of of the People's Republic of China on local security forces, as well as right to use and develop their own spoken and written languages, etc. Regional National Autonomy, Organic ②All citizens of the People’s Republic of China shall have freedom of religious belief. The state and organs of Related Law of the Villagers Committees of the self-government in national autonomous areas safeguards citizens of all nationalities enjoy freedom of religious state laws People's Republic of China, Regulation belief. and on Administrative Work of Nationality ③ The state develops regulation on administrative work of nationality to promote economic and cultural development regulations Townships of the People's Republic of in nationality townships. The state guarantees the lawful rights and interests of the minority peoples and strengthen and China, Twelfth Five Year Plan for ethnic unity. related Ethnic Minority Business ④All citizens aged eighteen but people deprived of political rights by law, regardless of nationality, race, gender, regulations Related Regulations of Gansu occupation, family background, religious belief, educational background, property status and length of residence, of Gansu Province: Regulation on National have a right to vote and to be voted. Province Commonly-Used Language and Scripts ⑤The state helps all ethnic minorities to accelerate development of economy and culture in terms of finance, in Gansu Province, Regulation on resources and technical. Town/Township People’s Congresses ⑥ The state persists in the principle of equality of all national languages and scripts; ensure that all nationalities have in Gansu Province the freedom to use their own languages and scripts; and promote and encourage all nationalities to learn from each other’s languages and scripts. ①Among 55 ethnic minorities, support will be provided to 28 ethnic minorities with population less than 300 Plan for Supporting Development of National thousand. Duration of the plan is 2011-2015. Ethnic Minorities with Less Population supporting ②Development goal: By 2015, ethnic-populated administrative villages with less population basically achieve ‘five 2011-2015 policies open and ten have’ and ethnic-populated areas with less population basically achieve “one decrease, two 13 achievement, three improvement”. Poor people in ethnic-populated areas with less population decrease by more than a half; net per capita income of farmers and herdsmen reach or exceed local average level; net per capita income of farmers and herdsmen in about one half of nationalities reach or exceed national average level; infrastructure level, people's livelihood level and self-development capacity significantly improve. By 2020, ethnic-populated areas with less population will develop more harmoniously, live a richer life, enjoy better environment and more harmonious society, and will build a comprehensive well-off society. ③Main tasks: strengthen infrastructure and realize a sharp rise in the development of support capability; promote the development of advantageous industries to increase the masses’ income; protect and improve people's livelihood to promote the equalization of basic public services; develop cultural undertakings and cultural industries to make national culture flourish; enhance human resource development and enhance the capabilities of self-development; facilitate national unity and build a harmonious home. ④ Policy measures: enhance investment, finance service, counterpart assistance, talent team construction, and implementation of existing policies and regulations ① To realize the importance of supporting economic development of Gansu Province, we should take solving of the rural poverty problem and improvement of living standard of people of all nationalities as the starting point and ultimate goal, and should focus attention to livelihood issues which are most directly, most concern, and most realistic interests for people. ② Supporting goal: By 2015, the gap of per capita GDP with average level of western area is narrowed. Income of Several Opinions on Further Supporting urban and rural residents reach average level of western area. Poor population sharply decline. Infrastructure Economic and Social Development in conditions improve significantly. Environmental deterioration tendency is effectively controlled. Advantageous Gansu Province, by the State Council industries grow rapidly. Circular economy forms a large scale. Energy consumption of per unit GDP reaches expected objective. ③Key work: strengthen ecological conservation and construction; intensify efforts to alleviate poverty through development and make tangible improvements on production and living conditions of agricultural and pastoral areas; increase income of farmers and herdsmen; energetically develop all social undertakings and provide better public services; strengthen infrastructure and improve the supporting ability of regional development; promote the 14 development of advantageous industries and foster new sources of economic growth. Regional Outline of the 12th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development in Gansu Province, Developm Comprehensive Transportation Development Plan of Gansu Province during the 12th Five-Year Plan ent Plan World Bank’s policy on ethnic minority aims to ensure fully respect to dignity, authority, economy and culture of ethnic minorities during project development process. Main content of the policy include the following aspects: ①World Bank is aware of the fact that features and cultures of ethnic minorities are always closely related to the land and the natural resources that they live on. These special cases exposed ethnic minorities under different types of risks and different degrees of impacts brought by project development, such as loss of ethnic characteristics, cultures and traditional livelihoods, as well as disease attacks. The gender and generation problems are also complicated problems for ethnic minorities. As a social group which has significantly different features from mainstream society, ethnic minority are always the most marginalized and fragile group in local population. Meanwhile, World Bank also realizes that ethnic minorities play a crucial role in sustainable development. National World Bank’s Policy on Ethnic Minority and international laws attach increasing emphasis on protection of their rights. World Business (OP4.10) and Its Procedures ②Interventions of World Bank financed projects include: 1) to avoid potential adverse impact to ethnic minority Bank (BP4.10) communities, or 2) if inevitable, the impacts should be reduced and mitigated or be compensated. Meantime, World Bank financed projects aim to make sure that ethnic minorities get social and economic benefits that are appropriate for their cultures, and are gender and generation inclusively. ③If project affects ethnic minorities, project team of World Bank should assist borrower in conducting indefinite pre-phase informed-consultation with affected communities with regard to the newly established project in whole project circle. During all phases of project preparation and implementation, all project information should be provided to ethnic minority communities in a manner that is in line with cultural customs of ethnic minorities. Besides, whether affected ethnic minorities provide wide support for the project is determined upon results of social assessment and the indefinite pre-phase informed-consultation. ④ Development of Ethnic Minority Development Plan (EMDP) should be flexible and pragmatic. As required, EMDP is composed of following elements: law and institutional framework applicable to ethnic minorities; population, social, 15 cultural and political features of affected ethnic minority communities, information of land and territory that ethnic minority own, use or possess and of natural resources they live on; summary of social assessment; outline of results of indefinite pre-phase informed-consultation conducted in ethnic minority communities in project preparation phase, which wins widespread support from communities for the project; identification of framework for indefinite pre-phase informed-consultation with affected ethnic minority communities in project implementation phase; identification of action plan to ensure that ethnic minorities get social and economic benefits that are in line with their culture; appropriate action plan to avoid, or to maximum reduce and mitigate impacts, or to compensate impacts, after potential adverse impacts to ethnic minorities are identified; budget summary and financing plan of EMDP; appropriate procedures to process ethnic minority appeals caused by project implementation; monitoring, evaluation and reporting mechanism and indicator system for execution of EMDP which fits the project. 16 3.Abstract of Social Assessment (SA) on Ethnic Minority Free prior informed consultation was used to do SIA and field survey in the 4 villages located around the Songmingyan scenic spot of Hezheng county including Dashanzhuang, Bianpo, Cheba and Ketuo villages where ethnic minority groups concentrate. Following approaches were also adopted including consultation meetings with local government officials, farmers representative meetings, PRA approaches for farmer representative meetings based on gender sensitivity, and semi-structural interviews for illiterate and semi-illiterate groups. Questionnaires were used for community literate people. 3.1 Method and Process of Social Assessment 3.1.1 Method of Social Assessment (1)Consultative seminar: An official meeting was held by the team of SA. The Poverty Alleviation Office, the Tourism Bureau, the Culture and Sports Bureau, the Development and Reform Bureau, the Religious Bureau and the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of Hezheng County sent delegates to exchange ideas about the current situation and potential problems in the tourism development. In addition, data were collected from the officials of different functional departments . (2)Village representative meetings. Village meetings were held in Dashanzhuang, Bianpo, Cheba and Ketuo ethnic minority communities. Community resource mapping, seasonal calendar and other PRA approaches were adopted when consulting with farmers. 38 farmers with 75% of ethnic minority peoples from Dashanzhuang attended the meeting. 28 farmers with 60% of minority peoples from Bianpo village attended the consultation meetings. In addition, 20 farmers with 80% of ethnic minority peoples from Cheba and 25 farmers with 80% of ethnic minority peoples from Ketuo attended the consultation meetings. Male and female accounted for 82.1% and 17.9%, respectively of farmer representatives who attended the consultation meetings. (3)Semi-structured interviews: The team of social assessment interviewed four ethnic minority communities in Dashanzhuang Village, Bianpo Village, Cheba village and Ketuo Village , 9 households of Dongxiang minority and 8 households of Hui nationality from Dashanzhuang and Cheba Villages, 8 households of Dongxiang minority and 8 households of Hui nationality from Bianpo and Ketuo Villages took part in the interviews. Among all participators, 82.1% were men and 17.9% were women. The interviews were mainly designed to know the demand of the community residents. (4)Key figure interviews: The team of SA interviewed the officials from the Poverty Alleviation Office, the Tourism Bureau, the Culture and Sports Bureau, the Development and Reform Bureau, the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau and the residents in poverty, women and ethnic minorities in Hezheng county trying to know mainly the development of the ethnic minorities and women in the communities, the relevant policies, implementation of this project and the proposal for this project . (5)Questionnaire survey : The working units dealing with SA report issued paper questionnaires to the residents around the Songmingyan scenic spot in Hezheng county, managers in 17 the scenic spot aiming at knowing the degree of their satisfaction and suggestions about the future of this scenic spot. 90 paper questionnaires and 33 internet questionnaires were issued. 30 questionnaires were distributed to local residents of ethnic minorities and the recovery rate was 100%. The Male interviewees accounted for 56.7% and the female accounted for 43.3%. Picture 3.1 Interview of residents Picture 3.2 Interview of residents 3.1.2 Process of SA The SA process of the subproject consists of the preliminary preparation, fieldwork, data analysis, report preparation and revision stages as shown in Table 3-3. 18 Understanding the project Referring to local economic, social and demographic data Preliminary preparation Preparing terms of reference (Qr, outline), and SA handbook Organizing and training staff Discussing with the PMO to further understand the project and identify the project area Investigating the project route, identifying survey sites, and adjusting the survey plan Discussing project impacts with township officials, and identifying villages (communities) to be surveyed Fieldwork Holding FGDs in villages (communities), and conducting interviews and questionnaire survey Conducting a special survey on AHs, stores, enterprises, etc. Interviewing truck/coach company and government staff Questionnaire entry and data analysis Data analysis Entering and classifying interview and FGD data Compiling relevant documents and policies Report preparatio n Report Holding a discussion meeting with stakeholders to finalize the SA revision report Fig 3-3 SA Flowchart 3.2 Impacts analysis of the project on ethnic minorities 3.2.1 Positive impacts (1) There is no other way for the local residents to involve in the development of museum tourism besides of being hired as museum exhibition explainer and ticket seller. The residents of the ethnic minority communities in Songmingyan scenic area can benefit through participating in community 19 organizations or service industry after this project is implemented especially 40 unemployed women and 390 poor people who live in the project-related area can improve their capability, obtain employment opportunities and improve their living conditions through the activities such as culture poverty alleviation, skills training and job training, etc. organized by ethnic minority community. (2) The impacts of the project on the development of local religious culture shows that the number of people participating in the Buddhist activities increases at the same time. Local residents hope to attract more visitors to come here through the implementation of this project. As to another local culture - "Hua`er", the implementation of this project will stimulate and accelerate the development of cultural tourism in the region, get a wider range attention from the public for the Songmingyan "Hua`er", at the same time, the plan of establishing the “Hua`er” Inheriting Center will play a positive effect on the protection and inheritance of this intangible cultural heritage— "Hua`er". (3) The number of tourists will reach 300,000 each year and working chances of extra 100 farmhouse restaurants and more than 40 commercial vendors will be created after the implementation of this project. The successful establishment of “Hua`er” Inheriting Center will further expand service capacity of local cultural tourism and indirectly drive the development of minority community economy. (4) The implementation of this project will improve the traffic and living environment for local residents, save traffic time and costs, and make it more convenient than before shopping, seeing a doctor, going to school and participating in social activities. It is believed that implementation of the project will improve their quality of life. (5) Minority residents will enjoy more smooth connections with the outside and minority women will have more nonagricultural job opportunities and higher social status after the completion of the subproject. 3.2.2 Potential Risks (1) Dust, noise and waste generated during the implementation of this project will affect the local environment and cause traffic inconvenience temporarily for minority residents. Engineering vehicles, solid waste and wastewater may threaten the personal safety of local minority residents especially old people, children and pregnant women. (2) During the construction period, migrant workers may have some impact on local security. During construction period, some potential infectious diseases and disease carriers might increase, which would bring about a serious health hazard to project staff and local communities. For example, the construction team is intensive, they live together, thus it is easy to cause epidemic diseases. Moreover, they need to know how to prevent HIV and strengthen advocacy of the AIDS prevention. (3) In the process implementation or after the completion of this project, different ethnic groups and migrant workers who may have a totally different living habit and diet habit from the local Hui and Dongxiang ethnic group will come to the community, making the local ethnic minority feel discomfort even cause conflict because of different living customs. (4) More and more tourists will be attracted with the development of the scenic spot. The influx of the external culture may make some residents in surrounding communicates of the scenic spot raise the price of goods intentionally or even sell their goods by force in order to increase income. There will emerge the issues of value and moral degradation. (5)Risk of weak community participation. It is found that there is only one Professional Farmers’ Co-operatives on Tourism Service . There are few community organizations (Cos) in Hezheng county project area, which restricts COs from playing their roles in community development. The risk of weak community participation is likely to be one of the major social risks of the project, 20 which would result in failure in achieving the Bank's "Twin Goals". (6)Risk of a large proportion of poverty population. Hezheng county project area and the surrounding ethnic minority region is a rather impoverished region in China with the densest poverty population. The region is marked by bad social and economical conditions, vast and severe poverty, ecological venerability, geological calamity frequency, the backwardness of the protection and exploitation of local heritage. Community poverty and scenic spot prosperity contrast sharply. How to coordinate the poor communities to share the fruits of the development in scenic spots is not only a challenge for the project, but also an opportunity for project innovation. (7) Risk of lagging development in minority communities. Due to negative impact of geographical location, natural conditions, infrastructure, education and other factors, the region where the ethnic minorities live in Hezheng has been one of the poorest region in southeast of Gansu. The region had lagged behind in social and economic development for a long term, making higher poverty population and more difficulty in poverty alleviation. (8)Risk of less gender equality. Due to the unbalanced social and economic development level, most farmers leave home for migrant work, causing imbalance of local labor structure. As a result, the community labor forces mainly comprise left-behind women and the elderly. And women have much lower educational level than men, which causes them to lack participation right, expression right, decision-making right and the right to be heard in community affairs. (9) By project appraisal construction of all planned civil works will not need land acquisition or resettlement. All civil works will be conducted on existing public land. In case land acquisition occurs during project implementation, the RPF will be strictly followed. (10)Community residents might not know how to address their grievances during project implementation. 3.3 Main Actions Recommended by Social Assessment Social assessment offered the following suggestions for action taken under the project: (1)Strengthen Intangible cultural conservation in ethnic minority communities. The conservation activities will cover establishment of Hua’er exercise and performance halls, investigation and research on intangible cultural resource and modern heritage of Hua’er, and compilation of Hua’er cultural promotion and publicity information booklets. (2)Improve community infrastructure. This consists of road hardening, construction of drainage works and sewage treatment plant, community solar energy courtyard lamps. During project implementation, noises and pollution might occur. It is recommended to arrange proper timing of operation and timely dispose construction waste and life rubbish and minimize any road accessible or other inconveniences caused to local communities. (3) Strengthen community resident’s skill and know-how training such as integrated tourism training, professional training of home stays. Capacity building in local specialty products development and services, especially women's employment capacity and poor households in reducing poverty. (4) Provide support for incubation of community organizations (CO). It is planned to set up four COs in Hezheng County. In addition, capacity building will be carried out for the COs including peer mentoring, communications among COs in capacity, experience, public participation, etc. (5) Conduct monitoring and evaluation of EMDP implementation. It shall include internal and external monitoring and evaluation, 1-2 times annually. Professional and experienced external monitoring and evaluation consulting institute will be hired to conduce EMDP monitoring and evaluation and submit report to the PMO and World Bank. (6) Prevent and tackle cultural shocks and value system conflicts between tourists, migrant workers and ethnic minority people. Awareness training and campaign shall be offered for local ethnic residents, tourists and migrant workers on relevant regulations promulgated by government on ethnic minority and respecting cultural customs of Hui and Dongxiang peoples. Local residents should be guided to maintain the correct values and culture of ethnic minorities. (7) In case of additional land requisition during project implementation, selection of project sites should 21 avoid land expropriation by making full use of existing public land. If land acquisition is inevitable, the RPF should be strictly followed. (8) Organize training to assist local residents in project sites to know their legal rights, grievance and appeal procedures and responsible agencies. Local resident’s grievance shall be handled in a culturally appropriate way. Project promotion and advocacy should be conducted in the project areas so as to engage local residents and communities for thorough understanding of and broad support to the project. (9)Strengthen integrated development between scenic spots and their surrounding ethnic communities. The specific project activities can be seen in the action plan of the social assessment report. 22 4. Public Participation of and Consultation with Ethnic Minority 4.1 Process of Early-stage Participation in Ethnic-Minority Communities The working units dealing with feasibility study report, social impact assessment, resettlement plan & EMDP, environmental impact assessment shall conduct free and fully informed public participation and consultation preparation aiming at information and request of the subproject in minority communities of Hezheng County in the preparation stage. The formulation of the developmental plan for ethnic minorities is based on the participatory rural assessment (PRA) method including home interviews, consultative seminars, semi-structured interviews, map-drawing of the community's resources, seasonal calendar, household type classification, villagers' representative meetings and key informant interviews, etc. (1) Field Investigation. The World Bank expert panel, the working units dealing with feasibility study report, SA report and environmental impact assessment report conducted a number of field investigations in the subproject-related area. They visited and communicated local officials and residents in townships and communities in 2014. (2) Questionnaire survey. The working units dealing with SA report issued paper questionnaires to the residents around the Songmingyan scenic spot in Hezheng county, managers in the scenic spot from October 1st to 14th in 2015 aiming at knowing the degree of their satisfaction and suggestions about the future of this scenic spot. 90 paper questionnaires and 33 internet questionnaires were issued. 30 questionnaires were distributed to local residents of ethnic minorities and the recovery rate was 100%. The Male interviewees accounted for 56.7% and the female accounted for 43.3%. (3) Consultative seminars. An official meeting was held by the team of SA. The Poverty Alleviation Office, the Tourism Bureau, the Culture and Sports Bureau, the Development and Reform Bureau, the Religious Bureau and the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of Hezheng County sent delegates to exchange ideas about the current situation and potential problems in the tourism development. In addition, data were collected from the officials of different functional departments from October 1st to 14th in 2015. The team of SA conducted community consultations in four ethnic minority communities including Dashanzhuang Village, Bianpo Village, Cheba village and Ketuo Village by adopting the methods of PM&E such as drawing the map of the community's resources, seasonal calendar etc. from late November to middle of December in 2015. 38 representatives from Dashanzhuang Village among whom the ethnic minority representatives accounted for 75%, 28 representatives from Bianpo Village among whom the ethnic minority representatives accounted for 60%, 20 representatives from Cheba Village among whom the ethnic minority representatives accounted for 80% and 25 representatives from Ketuo Village among whom the ethnic minority representatives accounted for 80% attended community consultations, expressing their supportiveness and demand for the project. (4)Semi-structured interviews.The team of SA issued questionnaires to the surrounding residents and other related groups, conducted semi-structured interviews towards the illiterates and semi-literates among them from October 1st to 14th in 2015. Totally 90 paper questionnaires were handed out with 80% recovery rate. The semi-structured interviews towards the ethnic minorities accounted for 85%. The questionnaire was designed to study the degree of their satisfaction and suggestions about the future of the scenic spot. 23 The team of social assessment interviewed four ethnic minority communities in Dashanzhuang Village, Bianpo Village, Cheba village and Ketuo Village from late November to middle of December in 2015, 9 households of Dongxiang minority and 8 households of Hui nationality from Dashanzhuang and Cheba Villages, 8 households of Dongxiang minority and 8 households of Hui nationality from Bianpo and Ketuo Villages took part in the interviews. Among all participators, 82.1% were men and 17.9% were women. The interviews were mainly designed to know the demand of the community residents. (5)Key figure interviews. The team of SA interviewed the officials from the Poverty Alleviation Office, the Tourism Bureau, the Culture and Sports Bureau, the Development and Reform Bureau, the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau and the residents in poverty, women and ethnic minorities in Hezheng county trying to know mainly the development of the ethnic minorities and women in the communities, the relevant policies, implementation of this project and the proposal for this project from October 1st to 14th in 2015. The team of SA interviewed the key figures such as impoverished residents, women and ethnic minorities from those four ethnic minority communities including Dashanzhuang Village, Bianpo Village, Cheba village and Ketuo Village to clarify their major needs and recommendations for community development from late November to middle of December in 2015. 4.2 Outcomes of Ethnic Minority Community Participation The community consultation was completed with kind assistance of all representatives of villagers from four ethnic minority villages in the survey of the Songmingyan subproject area. Firstly, the representatives were divided into two teams of men and women by gender, then the representatives held the group discussions about the current problems in the development of the communities; then they made their respective results known to others and continued to discuss the problems the community are facing and the possible solutions. The process of discussion is listed in the following Table 4.1. Table 4.1 Process and results of Dongxiang community consultations Name of Participants Content of consultation Result of consultation village Bianpo Representati problems: Consultation with famers on their ves of -infrastructure construction is not needs. Dongxiang, perfect(village entrance bridge、 Needs will be met: Hui, Han garbage disposal、drainage and Hardening 20.5 km of road in cadres and flood control facilities) villagers -capital shortage(breeding, Diaotan, Zhongxin, Bianpo, farmhouse restaurants, house Dashanzuang, Ketuo, and Cheba repair) villages. -lack of training and work Installation of sewage drainage opportunity pipe network (25.076 km). Newly -lack of flood control facility 24 Dashan Representati problems: establishment of a sewage zhuang ves of -lack of ethnic kindergartens treatment plant. Dongxiang, -Employment difficulties Installation of 240 street solar Hui, Han -capital shortage(breeding energy lamps. cadres and industry, shop operation) villagers -Difficulty in getting loan and its Incubation of 4 COs including high interest Diaotan village tourism service Ketuo Representati problems: association, Zhongxin village ves of -infrastructure construction not tourism service association, Huaer Dongxiang, perfect(water pipe laying, road Performance Team, and Hui villagers hardening, lighting facilities, garbage disposal) Dashanzhuang and Cheba -capital shortage(breeding, house Tourism and Community repairing, farmhouse restaurant , Development Association. greenhouse for planting ) Needs that will not be met: -lack of training and work Lack of flood control facilities; opportunity Cheba Representati problems: Children have no access to basic ves of ——infrastructure construction not education; Dongxiang, perfect(road hardening, lighting No ethnic minority kindergartens. Hui villagers facilities, water pipe laying, These needs will be resolved by drainage and flood control domestic projects. facilities, garbage disposal) ——capital shortage(breeding industry) ——lack of training and work opportunity ——imperfect of flood control facility 4.3 Participation Plan during project implementation stage The participation and consultation of Dongxiang people and Hui people during project implementation should be composed of the community organizations, the regulations and the rules of procedure based on the results of SA and ethnic minority community consultations mentioned above. The outline of the participation of the ethnic communities in the project is presented in Table 4.2. (1)The community organization should be established by the local villagers. The capable villagers should be elected as the organizers who are responsible to hold regular meetings to consult the different problems in the community development and its corresponding solutions. The organization should hire some community organization experts to help enhancing the capacity building and fostering the development of this organization. (2) The role of community organization should be strengthened because the community organization is a self-management organization established by the villagers and its managing staff is selected by the villagers. The election of the managing staff should be transparent with credibility and representatives. Therefore, community organizations should be authorized to take part in consultation and discussion on project planning and project management representing different ethnic groups, 25 genders, peasant households and villager groups and provide program and reach a consensus, and submit it to all the villager meetings or each village group for further discussion, modifying and voting. (3) The representativeness of community organizations should be improved by electing 1 representative from 5 to 15 households, such proportion of the representative election should be assigned to each villager group in proportion to the number of households. The women should account for above 1/3 of total number of the representatives, and the number of representatives of ethnic minorities and impoverished households should be kept the same proportion as that of those households in total. If the number of representative(s) from ethnic minority is too few, their representative should also be ensured. It is better for ethnic minorities, women and impoverished families to elect representatives among themselves. (4) The supervisory body of community organization should be established through villagers meetings or villagers' representatives meetings. A supervisory committee should be recommended and elected by the villagers or the villagers' representatives meetings. Village committee and members of the different ethnic groups should not be the members of the community organizations and their close relatives should be excluded from the supervisory body of community organization. 4.4 Complaints and appeals handling mechanism To better maintain the interests of the ethnic minority communities and residents, the project will establish a convenient, effective public complaint mechanism. The victim of the developmental project of the ethnic minorities can lodge his/her complaint at any time. The principles of the mechanism are as follows. ⑴ The mechanism should guarantee the establishment and operation of the framework of the ethnic minorities participation and consultation, the benefit for the ethnic minorities from the project, the avoidance or mitigation of the negative impacts and minimization of the problem and social risk. ⑵ Based on the World Bank’s opinions on the project and Chinese governmental demands for the complaint reporting system, along with the relative successful experience at home and abroad, the project should make a good use of the current complaint reporting system, establish, better and operate the mechanism of the opinions and demands about the project in the Project Office and some relevant government departments. ⑶The leaders in the committees of subproject villages should improve and perfect their consciousness of ethnic policies and their awareness and methods of the services for the mass in a democratic way. Besides, the local leaders should open to the public opinions, solve the problems and disputes fairly and reasonably, or report the issues to the higher authority and ask for the earliest responses. ⑷Every community in each ethnic minority village should establish their own community organizations. Under the guidance of the community organization and the village committees, the specialized agency mainly composed of members of these two groups in charge should be founded to report and deal with the public opinions and demands of the project. It is necessary to point out that the COs will only deal with grievances and appeals from the members of COs, but the village committee will deal with all grievances from villagers. (5) Imams in the communities of Hui and Dongxiang peoples are respectful persons who have obligations to coordinate issues relatives to ethic moral, cultural customs and internal affairs. Grievances about the project are none of their business. Grievance Redress. A mechanism has been established for grievance redress for affected people. Grievances can be filed both orally and in writing. Starting at village and neighborhood committee level and COs, the 26 grievances can be elevated to county/district, city and provincial level if they are not satisfied with the resolution at the lower level. The affected people could also file their cases in court if they are not happy with the resolution by the project authority. All grievances and their resolution will be recorded. This mechanism has been disclosed to the local population and will be further disseminated through the Resettlement Information Booklets. The mechanism are addressed in detail as follows. I. The institution of complaints acceptance The primary institution of complaint acceptance should be the community organizations and the village committees that principally cope with the residents’ problems during project implementation. When encountering the problem beyond their capability, the village committees and community organizations should hand it over to township government. If the township government is unable to deal with the grievances, they will be delivered to the county PMOs; in turn, the grievances could be delivered to city (prefecture) PMOs and finally to provincial PMO. If the provincial PMO cannot resolve the grievances, civil law court will be used to deal with the grievances. II. The complaints procedure The first stage. When generating some comments or dissatisfaction of the project, the villagers and households in the subproject area can appeal to the community organization and the village committees in oral or print. After getting oral appeal, the organization should cope with the complaints and make the written record. In general, the reasonable request should be dealt within 2 weeks. The second stage. If the complaint is still unsatisfied with the decision made by the level, he or she can appeal to the township government when receiving the decision. The township government should make a decision within 2 weeks after receiving the appeal. The third stage. Discontent with the decisions or solutions of the community organization, the complainant could appeal to the Project Office in county. The Project Office in county should deal with the complaints in 2 weeks. The fourth stage: If the complaint is still unsatisfied with the decision made by the county level PMO, he or she can appeal to the city (prefecture) government PMO when receiving the decision. 27 Fig 4.2 Appeal and grievance mechanism. The fifth stage: If plaintiff is still discontent with the decisions of the Project Office at city level, the complaint is allowed to appeal to the Project Office in Gansu Province. The sixth stage: If plaintiff is still discontent with the decisions of the Project Office in Gansu Province, the complaints could appeal to the civil court, according to the civil procedural laws. The complaint handling procedure illustrated above will be informed the villagers in the subproject area by meetings and other ways, making them understand their own right of complaints. At the same time, the media would be recruited to publicize it on news report. Besides, different opinions and suggestions on the ethnic minority developmental plan should be organized in information items which should be timely studied and responded by governments at all levels. The agencies of complaints acceptance are not allowed to charge. III. Complaints feedback mechanism 28 The mechanism of complainant’s feedback is the internal monitoring mechanism founded in the process of complaint by the project. The significance of establishment of such mechanism are: ⑴ The complainants would get the feedback as early as possible, implying the project executor’ attention to the affected families. As a result, the residents deserved rights and interest can be well protected and their activeness in participation can be preserved. ⑵ Presenting the problems and deficiencies in the developmental plan, the timely feedback would reach to the owner of the project and operators who would attach great importance to the problems and deficiencies and make improvements. The effective mechanism of complaints feedback consists of the standardized system of recording, tracking and regular reporting. (1)The standardized system of recording. A standardized record is the precondition of the collection, classification and organization of the information. The complaint record primarily includes the basic information of the complainer, his/her complaints, the responder and situation checking. (2)The system of tracking. Chances are that a complaint covers many a situation, which cannot be fully solved by the members of the community organization. Therefore, the complaint should be assigned to the relevant professionals to reply. The assignment results in the tracking which is an assurance of the reply reaching to the complaint before the official deadline. (3)The system of regular report. The report is the final step in the procedure of feedback. In fact, the tracking mentioned above has basically realized the feedback to the owner and operators of the project. But the basic feedback just covers every single complaint without a whole picture. As a result, it is significant to analyze, summary and report the whole situation of all the complaints during a certain period of time. The report is supposed to cover the current situation of the unfinished processing of complaints in the last period of time, the major problems uncovered by the complaints in the current period, the recommended solutions and rectification measures, etc. These aspects can be formulated as a single report or contained in the regular internal monitoring report. 29 Table 4.2 The framework of the ethnic minority communities’ participation in project implementation in Hezheng County Personnel/organizatio The method of Time Activity Participant Requirements n in charge monitoring Formulating the documents in the plain and localized language Formulating and distributing with detailed contents; “Guidelines for the Implementation of Persons designated by the producing documents as Current - the World Bank Loan Project in Gansu Project Office in Linxia Project Office in Gansu portable, wear-resistant and May 12, 2016 Province” and other related City Province and Hezheng strong (in binding) as possible ; documents to every household Monitoring the County Timely distributing to the progress by the households in the subproject Project Office in area Gansu Province The team founded by Founding the project management negotiation and election; team in Dashanzhuang Village, Project Office in every household in the list of representatives from every Bianpo Village, Cheba Village and Hezheng county the participants of the project ethnic minority; more than 3/1 Keduo Village women representatives Adopting participatory negotiation method; focusing on Hiring the Formulating developmental plans for the community residential independent ethnic minorities and communities; Project Office in Every household in the demands; Establishing monitoring establishing various community Hezheng county subproject area community organizations in organization organizations based on the community At the voluntary or negotiation; adopting the reality and villagers’ willingness beginning of Electing the person in charge in method of PM&E the implement every community organization of the project Hiring the Establishing the community independent corporation participated by different Project Office in Representatives from the Electing 5 to 9 capable monitoring ethnic minorities Hezheng county community organization administrators in community organization organizations adopting the method of PM&E 30 Personnel/organizatio The method of Time Activity Participant Requirements n in charge monitoring the residential representatives participating the community Standard and feasible organizations; Formulating agreement of rights and regulations; Hiring the residential team leaders and obligations and working procedures of Distinct responsibilities and independent members of management the coordinate/management groups Project Office in authorities; monitoring groups joining the village with ethnic minorities in three levels of Hezheng county Decisions made by farmers in organization organizations ; community organizations, village and participation and publicized in adopting the representatives of village town written form method of PM&E organizations and members of township groups going in the town organizations Focusing on the reasons for the Hiring the Project Office in Examining and approving the appealing of village independent Hezheng county; community organizations and organizations and farmer monitoring village committee; Farmer households developmental plans for the ethnic households organization community minorities Listing grounds clearly if revising adopting the During the Organization needed method of PM&E implement of Hiring the the project Allocating funds under the guidance of staff in concerned area from Auditing and presenting the bill Project Office in independent the World Bank’s ethnic village project Project Office of different of expenses in terms of the Hezheng county monitoring operation levels capital supportability program organization Hiring professionals of the business as the trainers Regarding the training as a Hiring the Gradually organizing trainings in non-profit program All residents of the ethnic independent support of operating of the project of Project Office in Setting each class in scale of 15 minority communities monitoring ethnic villages Hezheng county to 30 students organization Making some presentations in class Encouraging questions and 31 Personnel/organizatio The method of Time Activity Participant Requirements n in charge monitoring discussions Making a rational proportion of genders and ages Participatory implementing and Conducting a whole-process Hiring the supervising the project construction in Project Office in supervision on the community independent Dashanzhuang Village, Bianpo Village committees Hezheng county infrastructures and capacity monitoring Village, Cheba Village and Keduo Community organizations building organization Villag Staff in concerned area from Hiring the Project Office; Project Offices all Hiring independent agencies; independent Once in 2 years Conducting in-process inspection on Social assessment experts; levels; Making decisions by the joint monitoring after the the project construction in in Management groups in the Agency of social consultation of the World Bank organization initiation of the Dashanzhuang Village, Bianpo subproject villages; assessment and the Project Office in Gansu adopting the project Village, Cheba Village and Keduo Farmer households Province method of PM&E Villag representatives in the ethnic villages 32 5. Action Plan of EMDP A number of specific actions and activities are planned for general ethnic minority development and specific community development. 5.1 General actions (1) Road hardening, layout of community sewage pipeline network, newly installation of flush toilets and rubbish trucks, etc. (2) Training under this project will be gender sensitive. Technical training such as repairing, pulling noodles and driving mainly will be mainly for men, craftsmanship such as Dongxiang embroidery which can be commercialized should be held for women. In addition, those who involved in the vocational skills training and community consultation will use local languages in order to ensure the benefit and participation of ethnic minority people. (3) Job opportunities will be offered for minority residents and priorities will be given to disadvantaged ethnic groups. The following principles should be obeyed while allocating local residents work opportunities: (a) 40% of the non-technical posts will be provided for minority ethnic groups, women and poverty stricken groups where applicable. (b) The employment will be in accordance with labor law, the provisions on salary and personal safety. At the same time, ethnic women will be encouraged to engage in a haircutting and the third industry such as food and beverage service in order to increase their income. (4) Promoting the development of minority communities through project activities in project-related area: (a) Improving traffic infrastructure and the environment of local minority communities such as drainage facilities, broadening of road; (b) Giving priority to local minority communities in local ethnic minority development projects such as developing minority embroidery for local residents to increase income. (5) Promoting the participation of minority women at all stages of the Subproject. Listening to minority women’s needs and suggestions at the design stage of project. 40% of the non-technical posts will be allocated to minority ethnic groups, women and poverty stricken groups. The equal pay for men and women for the same work will be ensured. The related clauses of Law on personal safety in the Labor will be obeyed. (6) Monitoring & evaluation of EMDP. It will be conducted by both internal and external organizations so as to make sure that the project will be well implemented and that the ethnic minority groups will really benefit from the project. (7) Capacity Building for the EMDP implementing agency Training will be provided on subproject management including project overview and background, the World Bank and the domestic relevant laws and regulations, public participation method, the details of the ethnic minority development plan of the project, management, reporting procedures, monitoring and evaluation, reporting and complaint handling, etc. in order to facilitate capacity building of the implementing agencies. 5.2 community level activities (1)Intangible cultural conservation in ethnic minority communities. The conservation activities will cover establishment of Hua’er exercise and performance halls, investigation and research on intangible cultural resource and modern heritage of Hua’er, and compilation of Hua’er cultural promotion and publicity pamphlets making. 33 (2)Improvement of community infrastructure. This component consists of road hardening, construction of drainage works and sewage treatment plants, community solar energy courtyard lamps. (3) Community skill and know-how training such as integrated tourism training, professional training of homestay s. capacity building in specialized products development and services, which will not only enhance community residents especially women's employment capacity but also assist poverty households to lift themselves out of poverty. (4)Incubation of community organizations (COs). It is planned to set up four COs in Hezheng county, of which one CO will be given priority in incubation so as to ensure that at least one CO will function after the project is terminated. In addition, capacity building will be conducted for the COs including peer mentoring, communications among COs in capacity, experience, public participation, etc. so that the capable COs will assist backward COs to develop. (5)Peer mentoring training. Capacity, experience, public participation relative to COs will be communicated in a way of peer mentoring so that capable and experienced COs would help the newly born COs develop. Table 5.1 Incubation planning of COs in Hezheng county. Project Village Name of COs No. of CO area Songming Diaotan Diaotan village tourism service association (including Yangko 1 yan Scenic performance) spot Zhongxin Zhongxin village tourism service association 1 Dashan Dashanzhuang and Cheba tourism service and community 1 zhuang development association. Ketuo “Hua’er Cultural Performance Team 1 Total 4 5.2 Implementing Agency and Schedule 5.2.1 Implementing Agency The PPMO, established under the Gansu Provincial Development and Reform Commission (GDRC), will have overall responsibility for the implementation of this plan. This PPMO has good experience in implementing World Bank supported projects in the past. Hezheng County PMO will be responsible for daily management and implementation with the support of the project township government and village committees. The PMO will hire an experienced professional social consulting team to provide technical support in providing regular and timely advice on, and monitoring and evaluation of, the EMDP implementation. The coordination group mainly be responsible for the overall work of the project implementation for world bank project has been established in Hezheng County. See Coordination Leading Group in table 5.1: Table 5.2 The Coordination Leading Group for World Bank Project post Name Responsibilities Original administrative post director Directing the overall Peilin Chen Director of DRB work Vice-director Zhanming Er Project work Vice-director of DRB Vice-director Shengli Jiang Hua`er project Vice-director of CBC Vice-director Tao Dong Fossil project vice curator of museum Vice-director Zhi Kang Fossil project Vice-director of geological park 34 planning and building department Bidding section procurement, Wenhai Zhang engineer of DRB chief engineering technology Project management, Officer Dongze Li DRB officer contract management Engineering data Xuepeng Officer and document DRB officer Zhang management Officer document managem Bo Yang DRB officer ent accountant Jianyun Zhao accounting DRB officer 5.2.2 Implementation Schedule The implementation schedule of the EMDP has been drafted (see Table 5-4), and may be adjusted based on implementation progress. The main stages of project are as follows: (1) Preparation stage: The EMDP contains: identification of impacts on minority population, minority attitude survey, EMDP preparation and consultation, distribution of the EMDP information booklet, etc. (2) Implementation stage: Internal and external monitoring will be conducted, the internal monitoring will be performed by the Project Management Office (PMO) semiannually and reported to provincial project management agency and project working team for World Bank, and external monitoring will be performed annually by an independent agency until subproject completion and EMDP monitoring reports will be prepared. An overall monitoring and evaluation report at the completion of EMDP implementation will be submitted to World Bank within half year after implementation finishes: Table 5.3 Implementation Schedule Stage Activity Time Schedule Identifying the Subproject’s impacts on minority Oct. 2015 population Public participation of minority population Whole process Survey on attitudes of minority population Nov. 2015 Preparation stage Preparing the EMDP and soliciting comments Nov. – Dec. 2015 from minority population EMDP disclosure Jan. 2016 EMDP approval Feb. 2016 EMDP information booklet Feb. 2016 1-2 times a year of internal monitoring and evaluation report submitted to the provincial Implementation stage Monitoring &Evaluation project office and the world bank project office; External monitoring report by the independent 35 monitoring and evaluation of institutions each year submitted to the provincial project office and the world bank project office Within half a year after Submitting an ethnic minority development Completion monitoring & Evaluation implementation finishes completion & evaluation report 5.3 Budget The capital budget of the ethnic minority communities mainly includes: (1) Cost of project monitoring & evaluation, completed by an independent monitoring and evaluation organization. The main monitoring content includes all project construction components and community development projects. (2) The monitoring fee of the EMDP. (3) The development of ethnic minority communities. Main activities cover ancient village protection, community infrastructure, skills and service training, incubation of community organizations and procurement of goods. The project activities and budget of Hezheng EMDP can be seen in Tables 5.4 and 5.5. Table 5.4 Annual plan of CO development in Hezheng county Project area 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Guan’e Gou 0 0 1 1 1 1 36 Table 5.5 The EMDP activities in Hezheng county Project Item Project activity Budget(’1000) Total(’1000) Implementation Agency Remark Intangible Establishment of Hua’er exercise and 1396.5 2496.5 Design institutions, cultural performance Halls construction units and PMOs conservation Investigation and research on intangible 1000.0 cultural resource and modern heritage of Hua’er. Compilation of Hua’er cultural promotion 100.0 and publicity pamphlets making. Community Road hardening 17729.8 52265.6 Ditto infrastructure Construction of drainage works and 32855.8 sewage treatment plant Community solar energy courtyard lamps. 1680.0 Community Integrated tourism training 30.00 120,000/CO*4COs= PMO and villages Detailed budget can be skill and Professional training of home stays. 40.0 480,000 seen in the appendix 5 of know-how capacity building in specialized products 50.0 SA report training development and service Incubation of Incubation fees of COs 240.0 44 Incubation organizations, COs Peer mentoring 200.0 PMOs and Village committees Goods Village folk cultural team basic 480.0 68 PMO and relevant Detailed budget can be procurement configuration fee (clothing, props, etc.) organizations seen in the appendix 5 of Basic operation fees of COs including 200.0 SA report office facilities Project monitoring & evaluation 30.00 30 Internal supervision unit and external monitoring unit Monitoring & evaluation of EMDP 15.00 15 External independent org. 37 6. Monitoring and Evaluation It is necessary to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the project in order to ensure that this EMDP is implemented effectively as expected. Table 6.1 elaborates the monitoring and evaluation methods, indexes and relevant issues. Table 6.1 Monitoring and Evaluation Framework in Hezheng county Monitoring Methods Monitoring Indexes PM&E Interval and agency reporting ① M&E methods ①Quantity of ethnic minority people Internal Semiannual include field survey, out of poverty. Overcoming monitoring internal sampling survey, Inspection poverty population; change of will be monitoring and computational on poor family income; degree of performed evaluation reports analysis and overall long-term farmers` participation in the by the will be submitted expert assessment; goal scenic spot affairs PMO and by the PMO to the ② The field survey will ②Poverty population employed in community provincial project be conducted Scenic spot organizatio office and the comprehensively on ③ Quantity of ethnic minority n, external world bank project the implementation of community people employed by M&E by a office; External the EMDP, availability the scenic spot. qualified monitoring report and effectiveness of ④ Quantity of employed ethnic independe prepared by the funds, institutional minority people. nt M&E independent and management ⑤ satisfaction degree of minority agency. monitoring and aspects; ethnic and women evaluation agency ③ Family (from the ⑥Community infrastructure will be submitted project favored area construction improvement each year to the and project impacted ⑦The development of provincial project area especially association cooperative office and the project impactsarea ⑴ building new road world bank project family and the ⑵number of village health center office minority family) Inspection ⑶construction of waste water sampling survey. on Sampling survey treatment facility and its operation planning in good condition using classification objectives methods such as ⑷multi-channel of income random sampling, the increase (breeding industry, going typical sample points out to work for others, farmhouse tracking investigation restaurant, providing service in of ethnic minorities. scenic spot ) instead of traditional ④ The sampling ratio grain production shall not be less than ⑸training for residents 20% of the affected ⑹Number of times of training population, in which (7) satisfaction degree of the proportion of community residents’ to ethnic minority alternative livelihoods and scenic households shall not spot management. be less than 40% of (8) Number of ethnic minority all sample community organizations; households; a (9) number and types of ethnic socio-economic minority tourism cultural products. (10) number of ethnic minority 38 survey and a women who attended training. resettlement survey shall be conducted. ⑤ In addition to written materials, photos, videos, audio records and physical objects shall also be collected to establish a testing the Community residents satisfaction database of public results on community infrastructure participation and construction; results. Community residents satisfaction on community skills training; Community residents satisfaction about the construction of community organization ability; Community residents’ participation in project training; Community residents’ participation in management of community organizations. It is suggested to use the method of PM&E to regularly collect and inspect relative quantitative data. Minority communities, the masses, especially the community organization representatives should jointly participate in monitoring & evaluation as well as effect evaluation. Minority monitoring includes internal and external monitoring. Internal monitoring will be performed by the PMO and community organizations. External monitoring will be performed annually by an independent agency, focusing on the minority development activities of the whole project, until the project completes. The minority internal monitoring will be conducted 1-2 times per year, and the external monitoring is done once per year, and EMDP monitoring reports will be prepared. 39