Corporate Social Responsibility and Community Development Outcomes in the Niger Delta: An Empirical Analysis of the SPDC Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU)

Abstract

As corporations adopt innovative ways to secure business interests, they seek to influence social space. Stakeholder’s increasing awareness of their rights serve to hold corporations responsible for their actions and inactions to foster sustainable development in their operational areas. While not all stakeholder demands can be met by corporations, managing stakeholder expectations of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) outcomes proves difficult partly due to the ambiguity of defining the content of development investments. This study evaluated the nature and types of development projects and outcomes implemented through the GMOU in selected clusters in Rivers and Bayelsa States. The study disaggregated the programme and project content of the SPDC GMoU in selected Rivers and Bayelsa State clusters. The study relied on the qualitative approach with the adoption of key informant interviews and focus group discussions as methods of data collection. A key finding of the study was that CSR and Community Development outcomes in the Niger Delta indicates a preference for quick win infrastructural projects over other forms of human development programmes such as income, poverty, health, education, and individual socio-economic development.  The paper concludes that at every stage of development, people know what their needs are and can prioritise according to expediency, available resources and future development needs. While there are no pre-ordained paths to development, the study makes a case for expansion of development focus beyond infrastructural projects to accommodate human capital development and other forms of interventions in a broader community framework in order to meet more stakeholder needs in a sustainable way.