Ecological damage, human rights and oil: local advocacy NGOs dialogic action and alternative accounting practices

Abstract

This study explores why local NGOs in the Niger Delta integrate dialogic action and accounts into their campaigns to protect the human, economic and environmental rights of indigenous communities. The NGOs considered their alternative-accounts effective in problematising the need for greater accountability, giving greater visibilities to unsustainable practices, building the capacity of the indigenous people, creating networks of engagement, giving voice to indigenous communities and addressing some of the power imbalances in this region. NGOs and local community representatives asserted that the production and communication of accounts of their suffering were making a difference and creating hope for future change. HIGHLIGHTS Pollution from oil production has led to the destruction of agricultural land, pollution of drinking water, mangrove forest, rivers and creeks and the relocation of communities from their ancestral homes. The absence of appropriate accountability, transparency and good governance facilitated the production of alternative accounts. Local NGOs in the Niger Delta integrated dialogic action and accounts into their campaigns to protect the human, economic and environmental rights of indigenous communities. Local NGOs considered their alternative accounts as effective in problematising the need for greater accountability and in creating visibilities to unsustainable practices. Local NGOs use distinctive strategies to build the capacity of the indigenous people, build coalition and networks of engagement that enabled the indigenous people to address the power imbalance in the region.