ANEEJ-LITE 2-DAY INAUGURAL/STRATEGIC PLANNING MEETING

The Strengthening Advocacy and Civic Engagement, SACE, 2-Day Inaugural/Strategic Planning Meeting for the NDDC Independent CSOs Committee held at the Aldgate Congress Resort, Port Harcourt on the 12^th to 13^th of September, 2017. The meeting was co-organised by the Africa Network for Environment & Economic Justice, ANEEJ, and the Leadership Leadership Initiative for Transformation and Empowerment (LITE-Africa). It was attended by 14 CSOs representatives from the 9 Niger Delta regions comprising of 4 females and 10 males.

Objectives which the committee meeting sought to achieve included the following:

• Develop a standard operating procedure for regional and state level activities of the committee
• Develop project monitoring reporting template requirements,
• Identify possible funding opportunities to support the entire work of the committee
• Agree on reporting timeline with the NDDC

PRESENTATIONS

1. A background of the inauguration of the NDDC Independent CSOs Monitoring committee was made by ANEEJ
2. Report of the first meeting of the committee and the work plan was presented by Lite- Africa
3. Harry Udoh made presentation on the draft structural framework of the CSO coalition committee. (see the presentation here: DRAFT STRUCTURAL FRAMEWORK OF CSOs ENGAGED IN MONITORING)
4. ANEEJ made a presentation on the project monitoring reporting template (see presentation here: ( CREATING A WORKABLE JOINT MONITORING MODEL)

GROUP DISCUSSION

• Standard operating procedure for regional and state level activities of the committee.
• Identifying possible funding opportunity to support the work of the committee and the proposed meeting with the leadership of NDDC

OBSERVATIONS

Participants suggested the following:

• Monitoring should uncover information on projects such as: date of award, amount involved, name of contractor and contracting agency, duration, and location of the project to be monitored.
• Monitoring should begin from the procurement process
• Monitoring should cover both regional and state projects of the NDDC, MNDA, and other development agencies in states where available.
• Monitoring of projects awarded within 5 years.
• Identify the types of projects in 3 communities in 3 senatorial districts in the 9 Niger Delta States.
• Identify regional and state projects.
• Identify projects which contribute to the attainment of the sustainable development goals, SDG.
• The draft structural framework of the CSOs Coalition committee needs to be further worked on.
• Committee should work as a coalition of NGOs with single objective of project monitoring having a steering committee and a rotational secretariat.
• In the interim, LITE-Africa to serve as the Secretariat.

AGREEMENT REACHED/OUTCOME STATEMENT

At the end of the session, participants recommended the following standard operating procedures:

• Monitoring should uncover information on projects such as: date of award, amount involved, name of contractor, and contracting firm, duration, and location of the project to be monitored.
• Monitoring should begin from the procurement process, and project to be monitored should be those awarded within the last five years, (from 2012-2017).
• Letters of engagements to be sent to the Board members of the NDDC and Commissioners representing the various states.
• The 2017 work plan has been reviewed starting from September.
• The draft standard operating procedure was developed by the Committee.
• The Committee agreed to expand the scope of monitoring beyond NDDC.
• Members of the Committee to source for funds from other sources beyond SACE, such as PIND, EXXON Mobil,  and other international donors such as Ford Foundation.
• The five organisations which attended the inauguration should form the leadership at the state level with the state rep as a coordinator.
• The 5 organisation to work to expand the membership.
• LITE-Africa and ANEEJ continue to play a regional coordinating role.
• The process to engage a consultant to develop the monitoring tool and reporting template is ongoing.

 

Year 2017 (Reviewed Work plan)

S/No	Year One Activities	Timeline
1	One Consultative Engagement with New Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Leadership in Port Harcourt, Rivers State – 2 LITE Africa staff, 2 ANEEJ staff & 2 CSO Coalition member from Port-Harcourt	Ongoing/Anytime
2	2-day Inaugural/Strategic Planning meeting in Port-Harcourt for 9 CSOs Project committee members, 2 NDDC representatives, 2 LITE Africa staff and 2 ANEEJ staff.	September 12th-13th
3	Year 1 – 2017 Independent CSOs monitoring of NDDC projects in 3 senatorial districts in each of the 9 Niger Delta states.	October
4	Year 1 – 2017: Project Committee Validation Workshops in 2 Niger Delta States (Imo & Rivers) 20 participants including 2 LITE Africa staff and 2 ANEEJ staff.	October/November
5	One meeting with NDDC Officials on Project Monitoring Report in Port Harcourt, Rivers State – 9 CSO Coalition members, 2 LITE Africa staff and 2 ANEEJ staff in 2017	November
6	One day Annual Committee Meeting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State – 9 CSOs/participants, 2 LITE Africa staff and 2 ANEEJ staff in 2017	December 1st week
7	Printing of Project Monitoring Report	December