ID: 1678
Presenting Author: Edward Uche Omeire
Session: 615 - Public trust in regulatory systems and environmental assessment.
Status: pending
Weak compliance and poor communication erode public trust in Africa’s impact assessments. Stronger enforcement, clear information, and inclusive engagement are key to restoring credibility.
The adoption of impact assessment framework in Africa was driven by the need to achieve responsible development that protect citizens from adverse developmental outcomes. However, there seems to be a wide gap between the ideal and manifest realities across the continent. The outcome of impact assessment has always been damaged by weak compliance and fragmented communication. Weak compliance has meant that well-defined protocols are often ignored or unevenly enforced, thus turning key requirements into mere suggestions. Whereas openness is an essential in assessment, in Africa the very people they are meant to protect are often excluded. Vital information about project risks, compensation, and mitigation are difficult to access, often written in technical language that ordinary people cannot understand. This obscures the process and allows for speculation, misinformation, tension and a credibility crisis. Drawing from literatures, interviews and case studies in extractive industries and infrastructural projects in Nigeria, this paper examines how two pathologies – systemic weak compliance and fragmented communication – interact to dent the integrity of assessment outcomes. It argues that these issues are not disjointed but symbiotic pathologies that reinforce each other and weaken impact assessment outcomes. This study concludes that restoring impact assessment credibility in Nigeria and by extension Africa requires holistic reforms that support improved transparency, stronger regulatory compliance, inclusive engagement and institutional capacity for accountability.
Dr. Edward Omeire is a rural sociologist at CE-sPESS, FUTO, Nigeria, with research interests in community engagement, ethno-ecology, and sustainable rural development.
Coauthor 1: Cletus Ikechukwu Anah