Socio-Economic Impact Study Validation Workshop Following the conduct of a research on the Socio-Economic Impact of the Bodo Clean-up, the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD) hosted a Validation Workshop to scrutinize the findings of the research and speak to any area that needs to be corrected or reviewed. 
 The Validation Workshop was attended by different stakeholders including the National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), the Rivers State Ministry of Environment, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and the Bodo Mediation Initiative (BMI) Project Directorate. Also in attendance were the contractors working on the goodwill fund projects, and the Bodo community represented by the Bodo Contact Committee (BCC), the Research Team and the field Assistants as well as the BMI Secretariat CEHRD. An important outcome of the workshop is the harnessing of inputs on the draft report to improve the quality of the report.
The Validation workshop was held within the fourth quarter of the second year of the project (Dec.,2022 – March, 2023). The essence of the validation workshop is to share with stakeholders the research findings on the socio-economic Impact of the Bodo clean-up, scrutinize these and speak to any area that needs to be corrected or reviewed. Participants at the Validation workshop included representatives of Bodo Community called the Bodo Contact Committee (BCC), Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC). Also, in attendance were the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD), representatives of the four remediation companies, the BMI Project Directorate, other BMI personnel and the Co-Chairs.
Total Number of Participants: 28 (22males and 6 females)
Total Number of Meetings within the reporting period: 1 The oil-rich Niger Delta in Nigeria suffers from severe environmental degradation caused by oil spills from various sources, including conventional and artisanal oil refining activities. This has been attributed to the lack of socially inclusive development, which has occasioned perennial suspicion, anger, and conflicts in the region. The involvement of youths, including ex-militants, in oil theft and artisanal oil refining, aggravates oil pollution in the Niger Delta. Environmental management, particularly clean-up and remediation of oil pollution, has been grossly ineffective due to weak regulation and the use of contextually inefficient technologies (UNEP, 2011) .  
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 stalled clean-up of the heavily polluted creek. Midway into the litigation (that is, 2013), the Netherlands Embassy in Nigeria with the support of a local CSO coalition, the National Coalition for Gas Flaring and Oil Spills in the Niger Delta (NACGOND), initiated the Bodo Mediation Initiative (BMI) to mediate between the parties (the Bodo community and the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, SPDC) and facilitate the clean-up, remediation, and restoration of the Bodo Creek.
The BMI is a multi-stakeholder platform involving the Bodo community, SPDC, regulatory agencies, CSOs, 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, BMI is on its way to delivering robust, inclusive and sustainable restoration outcomes that will offer direction for the wider Ogoni clean-up.  Currently, the clean-up is at 86% completion.   The BMI continues to partner with key stakeholders, primarily the Bodo community and SPDC, to promote sustainability of the gains of the clean-up.