Nigeria's Niger Delta: An Update

Designed to help address the long-standing and complex development issues that affect communities and our operations in the region, Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) signed Global Memoranda of Understanding (GMOUs) with eight community groups and state governments in the Niger Delta in 2006.

The GMOUs are intended to gradually shift control over the design, planning and execution of community development programs from CNL to the communities through newly created Regional Development Councils (RDCs). Together, the GMOUs reach more than 400 individual communities, involving approximately 600,000 community members.

The RDCs consist of management, project, accounting and conflict-resolution committees with representatives from the communities, CNL, state and federal government, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). CNL supports the RDC process by providing initial funding for governance, administration, project and NGO partner costs.

Local Nigerian-based NGOs are essential to the process. They chair many of the committees, provide technical assistance and help resolve conflicts that arise from time to time in the communities. In 2006, 30 NGOs performed Sustainable Livelihood Assessments (SLAs), evaluations of livelihoods that document, with community input, information such as demographics, income sources and patterns of conflict. Preliminary SLA findings indicate that improved livelihoods are likely to come from private-public partnerships that leverage existing assets rather than from introducing new programs.

Using input from the SLAs, the RDCs are now preparing three-year development plans that they will implement once the plans are approved. The plans will also be presented to other development organizations in the Niger Delta in the hope that these organizations will cofund selected projects.

In 2006, milestones included the following:

• Training was completed for more than 300 RDC leaders and NGOs.
• More than 40 comprehensive SLAs were completed to guide the preparation of community development plans for each RDC.
• Small pilot projects were initiated by the RDCs in select communities to test their internal execution capabilities. Accounts were produced for financial transactions.

With many projects in the Niger Delta vying for support, an ongoing challenge of the GMOUs is balancing the communities' desire for quick results with the goals of promoting sustainable initiatives. A second challenge is nurturing the partnerships needed to resolve multiple development issues in the region. CNL remains hopeful that communities will use this model to design and implement projects that strengthen their capacity and address the development needs they face.