Communities in the Niger Delta have borne the brunt of the negative impacts of the oil and gas industry while seeing little benefit in return. Pollution from the industry has led to the loss of traditional livelihoods in fishing and agriculture, and severe health impacts. Unemployment rates in some Niger Delta states regularly reach 40% (Nigerian Bureau of Statistics data), and it is estimated that children in the Niger Delta are twice as likely to die in their first month of life if their mother lived near an oil spill before conception (Bruederle & Hodler, 2017). The massive oil wealth generated by the region has created economic dependency, and undermined the social contract between citizens, elected leaders and government more broadly; public funds are often misused and service provision is poor – in 2019, SDN worked with six communities to track 133 NDDC-funded projects, and found that half of these had been abandoned or could not be found.

However, at SDN we know that through collective action by citizens and working with progressive leaders in communities, civil society, the private sector and government, change can happen. The creation of Host Community Development Trusts (HCDTs) under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in 2021 presents significant opportunities to support the equitable distribution of benefits from the industry and to meet development priorities of host communities.