Extractive360 has concluded plans to convene community workshops and townhall meetings to sensitise and educate community members in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region about the country’s Energy Transition Plan (ETP).
The events are scheduled to hold in Abak, Akwa Ibom State on Thursday February 2, 2023 and Warri, Delta State, on Thursday, February 9, 2023, respectively.
The community convenings part of the project titled ‘From ‘Exclusion to Inclusion in National Just Transition Plans,’ implemented in partnership with Spaces for Change (S4C), with support from Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP).
The Exclusion2Inclusion project is being implemented in five oil and gas-rich states which include Delta, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Imo and Rivers States. It aims at integrating the perspectives of marginalized voices, such as women and artisanal refiners, into Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan (ETP).
During the events, findings of research conducted by the partners under the project, which was launched on December 9, 2022, titled ‘Energy Transition in Nigeria’s Oil-rich Communities,’ will be broken down and presented to community members. Furthermore, a simplified handbook developed by Extractive360 which draws from the findings of the research, will be formally unveiled and presented to participants and community members. Copies of the simplified handbook will also be presented to selected secondary schools in both Delta and Akwa Ibom states to support science lessons.
According to the editor of Extractive360, Juliet Ukanwosu, the objectives of the project is to support oil-rich community members to better understand what just energy transition means, how it will impact them, what alternative livelihood they want, what role they can play in the conversation and provide them with new knowledge and tools with which to push for redress for social and economic injustices associated with fossil-fuel extraction in their local settings from a rights-perspective.
“The community convening is part of efforts to create new spaces at the local levels for integrating the needs and priorities of marginalised voices in oil and gas-rich communities to take part in the deliberations as well as the implementation of the national just transition plans at the local and national level,” Ukanwosu added.
Expected at the events are paramount rulers, village chiefs, community leaders, women and youth leaders, artisanal refiners, students and other stakeholders.
