ABSTRACT PAPER219s1
The Bodo clean-up project encompasses remediation and revegetation of a mangrove habitat covering 1000 ha in Ogoniland in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The project managed under the Bodo Mediation Initiative (BMI) since 2015 touches on aspects both technical and socioeconomic in nature. Project management in the Niger Delta is beset with difficulties including varying and often conflicting interests from multiple stakeholders. The stakeholders in the BMI range from Federal and State regulatory agencies, community, technical experts, project personnel, contractors, security agencies to Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to ensure widespread buy in, delivery of project objectives and the safety and security of over 1000 personnel on board daily.
The overarching project management team handles strategic decision making and sets the direction for the project and is composed of representatives from the community, SPDC, the mediator, Project Directorate leadership and the secretariat. Technical working groups (TWG) were established to handle technical, social and security aspects of the project.
The Project Directorate is responsible for overall delivery of the technical objectives including setting goals, monitoring progress, and performance reporting. These technical aspects are agreed at the TWG1 comprised of regulatory agencies, BMI project management team and CSOs. TWG2 is charged with identifying measures and relevant players to engage to prevent project area re-pollution from on-going crude theft and illegal refining. TWG3 is to guide and monitor the utilisation of a social grant to the community.
Over 800 community workers, boat providers and ancillary staff are involved under remediation contractors who are responsible for providing the workers the right equipment and PPE to work safely. The contractors are managed by SPDC for the contractual aspects whereas the Project Directorate manages project delivery aspects. The community representation on the project leadership provides the community interface, ensuring that the community is embedded in the decision-making process and can take ownership of the project for long term sustainability.
Communication of project updates is handled by the project directorate through weekly, quarterly, and other periodic publications. Scientific publications and conference presentations are utilized to provide visibility and share learnings. Regular meetings between the project management team, contractors, working groups and plenary sessions are scheduled to further engage the stakeholders, identify issues, solve problems, and manage performance.
Multi-stakeholder interfaces are integral to the project and the ability to manage the various interactions is a key driver in the successes recorded so far but are not without challenges.