Better community development

Efforts to improve the effectiveness of SPDC’s community development programmes made some headway, despite the difficult conditions. In 2007, the first two Global Memoranda of Understanding (GMOU) with communities next to the joint venture’s facilities began delivering their first projects. GMOUs define a strategic five-year development plan for a cluster of communities, in line with NDDC and government efforts, and then aim to provide stable funding. They give local communities the structure needed to decide how the money is spent and line up NGO support to help local communities deliver the projects effectively. GMOUs are a clear step forward. In the past, SPDC had negotiated hundreds of individual community projects village-by-village each time it needed access to a pipeline or flow station, leading to ad hoc demands and weak delivery.

Implementing more of the GMOUs that SPDC signed in 2006 and 2007 is a clear priority, despite funding and staffing constraints. SPDC continued its work with the UN Development Programme, Africare and USAID to support health and agriculture development programmes; it also moved ahead with electrification, road building and micro-credit projects in the Delta in close co-ordination with the NDDC.