BENIN CITY – In order to get community feedback and assess the impact of projects executed by Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and other Oil Commissions in Edo State, the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEEJ) and leadership Initiative for Transformation and Empowerment (LITE-Africa) have jointly undertaken a project validation workshop in Benin City.
The workshop held at Zafike Hotel, Benin, attracted participants from several communities within the three senatorial districts of Edo State who partook in the exercise to ascertain the extent of completion of the projects which ANEEJ and LITE-Africa have reported on.

According to the report, a total of 30 projects were assessed in Edo State while the monitoring exercise took place in 11 Local Government Areas of the State. Josemaria Escriva, an independent CSO was responsible for the field visits to communities within the Senatorial Districts.
The Local Governments covered in the monitoring exercise include Esan West, Esan North East, Etsako West and Etsako East. Others are Oredo, Ikpoba-Okha, Egor, Orhionmwon and Ovia North East.
In their welcome address delivered by Sandra Eguagie, Programme Officer, ANEEJ, both Executive Director, ANEEJ, Rev. Ugolor and Executive Director, LITE –Africa, Hon Joel Bisina said during the first phase of the USAID Strengthening Advocacy and Civil Engagement project, ANEEJ and LITE- Africa carried out an assessment of Niger –Delta Institutions(NDIs) such as NDDC, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, EDSOGPADEC, OSOPADEC and DESOPADEC to get a deeper understanding of their mandates and activities.

They said both organizations also conducted a citizen report card survey on the institutions in some of the oil producing communities across the Niger Delta region which led NDDC to adopt some of the recommendations from the CRC report one of which is the publication of the institution’s quarterly reports and involving stakeholders in their activities.
The survey report, according to them, also led to the creation of CSO, NDDC project monitoring committee, inaugurated in 2016 by the Acting Managing Director, Mrs. Ibim Sementari with the task to monitor projects in the nine Niger-Delta States. The committee just completed the first project monitoring which started this year and had sent in its report, hence the need for community inputs and feedback.

The validation workshop robustly afford participants representing different communities within the state where the projects have been monitored the opportunity to validate the report before it is shared with NDDC and the general public, in order to promote transparency and accountability in the report as well as in the institutions.
In the second phase of the project, ANEEJ has developed the Niger-Delta Transparency Index with 49 indicators launched December 15, 2017 which measure the transparency and accountability level of Niger-Delta Institutions and it is hosted on the Dyntra platform, http://www.dyntra.org/en/transparency-indices/Niger-Delta-institutions/ to enable everyone to assess these institutions and give update of the activities of institutions as well as important information of the NDIs.

During the validation workshop, Sandra Egugie, ANEEJ Programme Officer, facilitated the programme for ANEEJ, Ayodele O. Daniel, Associate Programme Manaager, LITE-Africa-Warri, held Sway for LITE-Africa while Comrade Obasanmi Jude represented Josemaria Escriva Foundation.