The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has embarked on training of major stakeholders on Environmental, Social, Human Rights and Gender Impact Assessment (ESHRIA) towards sustainability and management in the Ogoni clean- up exercise.
The training which took place in Visa-karina hotel had participants drawn from the media, civil society organizations and other key stakeholders.
In his welcome remarks ,the CISLAC representative, Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani), welcomed participants and urged them to make good use of the training by ensuring that they put into use every knowledge got from the training.
Similarly, the Chairman of the CSOs coalition on the Ogoni clean-up ,Young Kigbara,emphasized the need for thorough, committed and proactive steps to be taken by HYPREP, while expressing dissatisfaction over the slow pace in the HYPREP activities on the clean-up.
He particularly emphasized the need for the environment and the livelihood of the people to be restored and be taken seriously.
Mr Kigbara called on participants to consider all the issues required for the perfect implementation, sustainability and management of the clean up exercise.
On his part, Comrade Celestine Akpobari, while speaking on HYPREP and the Key Performance Indicators, disclosed successes made by the agency as well as challenges encountered in course of carrying out its activities.
He also explained the ownership of the process and the opportunities required to add value to the exercise as well as input required.
Comrade Akpobari took time to enumerate the way forward, while urging all stakeholders to cooperate with the process to ensure a successful clean-up exercise in the area.
In his presentation on Environmental, Social, Human Rights and Gender Impact Assessment (ESHRIA) monitoring and reporting, Dr Sam Kabari stressed the need for stakeholders to understand the entire ESHRIA process and the linkage to the clean-up.
He also discussed the effectiveness of stakeholders and the oversight role of Civil Society Organizations.
He further dwelt on how media have fared, what can be done to increase awareness at all levels and developing reporting tool for ESHRIA reporting, a data base to domicile them as well as advocacy strategy with information generated, while identifying the key targets.
Participants at the forum during break out session developed key priority activities and locations that should be considered for the ESHRIA engagements and the timeline. They also framed advocacy messages and identified actors.
