Management Meetings The Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD) facilitated BMI Management Meetings to review and discuss the general implementation of the Bodo Clean-up with a view to highlighting the issues that may impede progress and resolve them as appropriate. The Management meeting also identifies and flags potential areas to watch out for in order to troubleshoot issues that could act as clogs in the wheel of progress of the Bodo Clean-up. The management meeting is usually attended by different stakeholders including Bodo Community represented by the Bodo Contact Committee (BCC), Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), the Bodo Mediation Initiative (BMI) Secretariat and Directorate Office, CEHRD.
The meetings provided the platform for the BMI Management team to be updated on the progress of the clean-up. At the Management meetings operational, technical and community issues are deliberated upon and resolved. A total of 6 Management meetings were conducted in the third quarter of this first year of the project. It is important to note that in a bid to curb the spread of Covid-19 and the new Omicron variant,  all the Management meetings held within the quarter were virtual.

	Framework developed for the participation of CSOs in Chemical sampling;
	Successful reconstitution of membership of Technical Working Groups (TWG2 &  TWG3).  
	Setting of consensus dates in consultation with stakeholders, for the conduct of TWG2 & TWG3 meetings respectively. 
	Commitment received from Bodo community to fast-track processing of Batch 3 community workers list;
	Renewed commitment from Gokana Local Government for support on issues of security, re-pollution and the success of the clean-up.
	Commendation received from the Local Government for the contribution of the BMI clean-up in the reduction of youth restiveness and its attendant fall-outs in the region. 
	Approval of Mangrove contracts by NAPIMS. To update, discuss  & resolve  emerging  issues in the course of implementation in order to advance the clean-up. The Management meetings were attended by the primary stakeholders being Bodo Community and Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) as well as the Mediation Co-Chairpersons, CEHRD and Bodo Mediation Initiative (BMI) personnel.
Total Number of Participants: 15 (13 males and 2 females)
Total Number of Meetings within the reporting period: 6 The oil rich Niger Delta in Nigeria suffers from severe environmental degradation. The region is lacking socially inclusive development and has experienced perennial conflicts. In 2009, the Federal Government of Nigeria granted amnesty to armed militants in the Niger Delta with ancillary livelihood package (the Amnesty Programme) to appease the militants, but this is not a sustainable solution. Some youths, including ex-militants, engaged in oil theft and artisanal oil refining, which aggravates oil pollution in the Niger Delta. Artisanal oil refining causes re-pollution of remediated lands and black soot that compromise air quality.  Environmental management, particularly clean-up and remediation of oil pollution has been grossly ineffective due to weak regulation and use of contextually inefficient technologies (UNEP, 2011) .  Meanwhile, deeply held generational frustrations continue to brew in Niger Delta communities. The loss of traditional livelihoods, agitation for resource control, contract corruption, piecemeal regulation and poorly enforced regulations, and a profound failure of service delivery continue to fuel decades of accumulated tensions. 
In 2008 and 2009, the Bodo Creek was polluted by operational oil spills from Trans-Niger pipelines traversing the creek. The impacts of both spills have been exacerbated by numerous spill incidents caused by oil theft and artisanal refining. Both operational spills were litigated in the UK Court in London which lasted four years (2011 – 2014). The litigation initially stalemated clean-up of the heavily polluted creek. Mid way into the litigation (that is, 2013), the Netherlands Embassy in Nigeria with the support of a local CSO coalition, NACGOND, initiated the Bodo Mediation Initiative (BMI) to mediate between the parties (the Bodo community and SPDC) and facilitate the clean-up, remediation and restoration of the Bodo Creek.  The BMI is a multi-stakeholder platform involving Bodo community, SPDC, regulatory agencies, CSO and the BMI Directorate. The BMI facilitated clean-up has progressed from the initial free-phase cleaning (2017-2018), to the current final phase of remediation and restoration. Being a participatory, multi-stakeholder led platform, it is anticipated that the BMI would deliver robust, inclusive and sustainable restoration outcomes that will offer direction for the wider Ogoni clean-up.  Bodo people are the primary beneficiaries of the Bodo clean-up process. There is need to mainstream and optimize decision making and benefits of the clean-up in Bodo in such a way that vulnerable groups (e.g., women) would actively participate in and benefit directly from the clean-up process.