Facilitating Dialogue in the Niger Delta through Participatory Evaluation

Published October 9th, 2008
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From June through August 2008, a diverse group of community, government, NGO and company representatives came together to conduct an evaluation of a core component of Chevron Nigeria Limited’s community engagement strategy in the Niger Delta.

This Participatory Stakeholder Evaluation analyzed the Global Memoranda of Understanding (GMOUs) that for the past three years have governed many aspects of Chevron’s relationship with communities impacted by onshore oil operations.

The stakeholder group developed the goals of the evaluation, a data collection strategy and interview protocol. A data collection team then used the protocol to conduct interviews and focus groups with more than 1,000 individuals in all five Niger Delta states where the GMOUs are present. The evaluation group reconvened to analyze the data collectively.

CBI led the facilitation of this participatory process and prepared the evaluation report. The report is intended to provide credible, public information for future decision-making and improvement of the GMOU process.

The evaluation group expressed a strong willingness to continue using dialogue and joint problem solving to strengthen the engagement between Chevron and its Niger Delta stakeholders through the GMOU process.