Oil Extraction and Poverty Reduction in the Niger Delta: A Critical Examination of Partnership Initiatives

Abstract

development, poverty reduction, partnerships, Shell, Exxon, Mobil, Total,

MNC Reporting on CSR and Conflict in Central Africa

“…A recent study on MNCs in Nigeria found that CSR activities concentrated on the locations where companies had operations, with a variety of themes being covered, such as health care, manpower development, capacity building, sports and education, and infrastructure development (Ojo, 2008). Also interesting was the conclusion that CSR activities undertaken by companies in Nigeria follow a rather philanthropic model which corroborates other studies' findings on Shell community investment projects (Boele et al, 2001;Idemudia and Ite 2006;Idemudia, 2008;Ite, 2004;Ite, 2005;Wheeler et al, 2002).…”

“…Visser (2006b) argued that the economic responsibilities of MNCs in Africa should be at the core of their CSR priorities, followed by philanthropic, legal and ethical responsibilities. The second place attributed to philanthropy is somewhat surprising given the criticism directed at MNCs' CSR activities based on the philanthropic model (Boele et al, 2001;Wheeler et al, 2002;Ite, 2004;Ite, 2005;Idemudia and Ite, 2006;Idemudia, 2008). As much of FDI in Africa is in the extractive industries with well-documented negative environmental and social impacts, it may be more important to know how these implications are taken into account than pure philantropic efforts (Hamann and Kapelus, 2004;Ite, 2006;Newell and Frynas, 2007).…”

“…In that light, it must be noted that CSR activities undertaken by MNCs in developing countries in general and Africa in particular have been criticised, for not addressing the root causes of (under)development (Idahosa, 2002;Hamann and Kapelus, 2004;Idemudia, 2008) and/or failing to improve relationships with local communities (Idemudia, 2008;Idemudia and Ite, 2006;Omeje, 2006). Another point of critique has been the asymmetry between African governments (especially in the case of small, relatively poor countries) and huge oil MNCs, sometimes exemplified by comparing company's (local) tax contributions to total government budget of a particular country, or company's profits to an economy's gross domestic product (cf.…”

Enhancing the Impact of Cross-Sector Partnerships

“…Some studies have taken a more critical perspective: for instance presenting the effects of PPPs as the outcome of a struggle between a variety of actors (Lund-Thomsen 2009), observing that little is known about their contribution to wider goals (Utting and Zammit 2009), demonstrating that community development partnership initiatives have only limited positive impacts (Idemudia 2009), or noting that companies are not adequately monitoring partnerships to see whether they actually enact their strategic investment (Esteves and Barclay 2011). Critical studies tend to reiterate the importance of context (Rein and Stott 2009) and of taking the consequences for communities into account.…”

Inequality and ecosystem services: The value and social distribution of Niger Delta wetland services

“…The general rule of thumb is that, the "lighter" and "sweeter" the oil, the more valuable it is. However, despite the region's vast oil resources, regarded as the best quality crude oils in the world, the region remains poor, with high levels of unemployment (Agbogidi and Ofuoku 2006;Idemudia 2009 (Forest and Sousa 2006). These are viewed as a response of the local people to the perceived injustice in the distribution of costs and benefits of oil exploration.…”