A one day multi-stakeholder dialogue entitled "Stakeholders Forum on Building Citizen Engagement" will be held on 5 June 2013 in Ughelli, Delta State, Nigeria. The dialogue includes a capacity building workshop and engagement forum for individuals from communities, companies, multinationals, civil society organisations (CSOs) and other stakeholders and will provide an opportunity for reflecting on the role economic and social groups, oil companies, corporate institutions and other stakeholders serve in rural development in the region.
Last September, NDWPD joined participants from around the world in Montreal, Canada for the CIVICUS World Assembly to define a New Social Contract for Citizen Participation.
CIVICUS' 2012 World Assembly theme track on "Building partnerships for social innovation" challenged NDWPD and other civil society actors to initiate a new and creative relationship or dialogue between non-connected organisations, actors and sectors to bring social change at a local level. NDWPD took this challenge and received the 2013 CIVICUS Nelson Mandela-Graça Machel Innovation Award for the aforementioned multi-stakeholder discussions for key actors in the Niger Delta.
The dialogue will bring together representatives of CSO's, community and women's groups, local government representatives and development experts who have expertise, experience and investment in the region. They will discuss and analyse the development challenges in the Niger Delta and national policy, particularly on the impact of oil pollution in the Niger Delta. It will be an interactive dialogue meant to enhance participatory governance among interested stakeholders to foster adequate reforms to increase transparency and accountability and engage citizens, especially women and youth, for better development management through participatory public administration methods.
Further issues to be discussed are the importance of citizen's participation in future development efforts through citizen engagement in the Niger Delta and the use of new innovations like Information and Communications Technology (ICT). These dialogues will identify the needs for capacity development and build alliances between existing women and youth groups in targeted communities for project sustainability and ownership.
The main activity will be a one-day capacity building workshop and engagement forum to form a mobilization committee on rural engagement. Participants will be expected to hold town hall meetings in their communities to engage rural women, community leaders, members and other stakeholders and share the experiences of the skills learnt from citizen engagement and participation forum.
Post dialogues, the community representatives and action committee members will be expected to hold regular meetings to continue to dialogue around the importance of citizen engagement and participation around the issues brought to light through the dialogue.
Note to Editors
The "Stakeholders Forum on Building Citizen Engagement" is being held as part of the Civic Space Initiative, implemented by CIVICUS in partnership with the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, ARTICLE19, and the World Movement for Democracy, with support from the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida).
