AES Partners NOGO for Transparency, Accountability in Implementation of HCDT

By Ekemini Simon 

Accountability in Extractive Sector (AES) Cluster and Niger Delta Open Government Observatory (NOGO) Cluster have agreed to partner towards ensuring transparency and accountability in the implementation of Host Communities Development Trust.

Accountability in Extractive Sector (AES) Cluster and Niger Delta Open Government Observatory (NOGO) Cluster are all part of the Nigeria Strengthening Civic Advocacy and Local Engagement (SCALE) project implemented by Palladium and funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The inter-cluster collaboration was agreed upon at the one day workshop on strengthening CSOs Awareness and Capacity for Local Engagement on Oil Host Community Development held in Uyo by Accountability in Extractive Sector (AES) cluster, in collaboration with the Niger Delta Open Government Observatory (NOGO) cluster. 

In his remarks, Mr. Munachi Ugochukwu, the Senior Program Officer, Environment and Conservation of Nature program, Civic Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC (anchor organisation of AES) said in the partnership, NOGO would be amplifying and providing sustainability mechanism for the AES work which in the long run will help open up governance at the community for accountability and transparency on the implementation of Host Community Development Trust Fund as captured in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) for the overall development of the Niger Delta region.

Ugochukwu noted that NOGO has agreed to provide its NOGO Portal, openningerdelta.ng, a go-to-tool and informational open data source portal to warehouse AES information on extractive governance at the community and local government levels. 

He said such information will include but not limited to all Host Community Development Trust (HCDT) formed, approved Host Community Development Plans (HCDP), 3 percent paid to HCDTs, implementation and monitoring reports. 

The Senior Program Officer added ” Making these documents and others available and easily accessible will increase community members participation and interest to demand accountability and transparency on how the funds for the host community are utilized for the benefits of all. 

“Furthermore, because the NOGO portal was designed to outlive SCALE project funding period, the portal will serve as awareness and sustainability platform and repository of fiscal governance data among other data to encourage citizen continuous participation and demand for accountability and transparency for the common good of all citizens in the region while blocking corruption leakages and misappropriation of resources that have perpetually kept the region underdeveloped.”

He said that it is the believe of the clusters that the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) whose mandate is to supervise the implementation of HCDT will provide AES Cluster the information/data that will be uploaded onto NOGO portal for ease of access and retrieval for legal and productive use by relevant stakeholders to hold to account the community handlers of HCDT in their respective communities.

On his part, the Project Lead of the Niger Delta Open Government Observatory Cluster, Koko Udo explained that NOGO Cluster, anchored by Policy Alert, is a consortium of nine organizations comprising six CSOs, one media, one civic tech and OGP National Secretariat, Abuja.

He said the cluster is working to improve uptake and implementation of open government partnership (OGP) in six states of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Imo and Rivers.

 Udo noted that collaboration/partnership and alliances are one of the key drivers that the SCALE clusters get greater project impact/results hence the initiative.

He said in recognition of this, NOGO through scanning of SCALE 23 clusters discovered that AES Cluster is working to entrench accountability and transparency in the extractive sector, which coincidentally is part of what NOGO is working on from a broader OGP perspective. 

The NOGO Project Lead added “NOGO found AES cluster a good ally to collaborate with in the area of extractive transparency and accountability governance, one of the many policy areas of OGP. Together, we hope to achieve greater impact.”