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The paper presents an analysis of the concept of Social Impact Assessment (SIA) focusing on the approach, importance, challenges and the policy implications of conducting SIA. The research was conducted by reviewing relevant journals related to SIA accessed through library and internet sources. The stages involved in conducting SIA include description of proposed project, scoping, establishment of baseline, assessment and evaluation of cumulative social effects, formulation of alternatives, development of mitigation plan and course of actions. The SIA process is approached by mostly using the cause-effect model backed by a variety of data collection tools like expert opinion and community consultations. The realisation of the benefits of SIA depends on a well organized consultation process and the implementation of mitigation measures supported by a clearly defined conceptual framework and well established institutions.
Keywords: SIA, Cumulative effects, Community participation, Mitigation measures, Assessment process.
Introduction
The emergence of sustainable development has moved the true benefit of development beyond only economic gains to include things such as social, environmental and trans-generational viability. Assessing the cumulative impacts of projects helps in ensuring the balance between economic, social, environmental and trans-generational benefits whiles putting in measures to minimise the cost. The increase in the demand for a variety of services and facilities by humanity which is influenced by technological advancement and rapid population growth necessitates government and policy makers throughout the world to respond to the service needs of their citizenry. The implementation of programs and projects to meet these needs normally include development projects such as construction of dams, high ways and mining activities whose social impact could be either positive or negative.
There is therefore the need to assess the impact of these activities during and after their implementation to minimise the cost to the society whiles maximising the benefits. SIA can be defined as the process of assessing or estimating in advance, the social consequences that are likely to follow from specific policy actions or project development particularly in the context of appropriate national, state, or provincial environmental policy legislation (Burdge & Vanclay, 1996). It ensures that development maximises its benefits and minimises its costs by putting mitigation measures in place to deal with adverse societal impact whiles at the same time ensuring the overall sustainability...