Town Hall Meeting   -   Year 2, Q4 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 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 as well as the Civil Society representative, CEHRD.
The Town hall meeting provided the platform for the BMI to interact directly with the community on the leadership crisis and the role of some the youths in the violence/destruction that followed.  The action of these youths effect this has had on the project were condemned and the people encouraged to embrace dialogue and peace in the resolution of the leadership tussle.  Part of the outcomes of the Town Hall include the expression of remorse by the youths for their actions and the  commitment to send letters of apology to the contractors affected by the incident. 
A total of 6 Management meetings, including 2 Emergency meetings were conducted in the third quarter of this second year of the project.  The two Emergency meetings focused on the leadership crisis in Bodo community which not only impacted negatively progress of work but ultimately disrupted the clean-up. To share update the community as well as hear their views on the leadership tussle in the community and possible suggestions for its speedy resolution. A large population of Bodo community participated in the Town Hall Meeting including the chiefs and traditional rulers as well as the women and the youths. Also in attendance were some remediation contractors, BMI Co-Chairpersons and the BMI Directorate represented by the Deputy Project Director. 
Total Number of Participants: 40 (25males and 15 females)
Total Number of Meetings within the reporting period: 1 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) . 
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, the BMI is delivering robust, inclusive and sustainable restoration outcomes that will offer direction for the wider Ogoni clean-up, despite the challenges that may exist.  BMI continues to partner with Bodo community, who are the primary beneficiaries of the clean-up, to promote project ownership and  sustainability.