In West Africa, in the month of January, the Focal points have been busy writing and submitting their 2009 activity reports and I worked on them to summarize them into one single report that will be release on the list serve so that the members will be aware of what was achieved in 2009. We have also been busy creating new partnerships in order to get funding and collaborations for our programmes in 2010. In January, we started with drawing work plans that will guide our work in 2010 and help us to achieve better results. Therefore January 2010 has been more of 2009 activities’ review and planning for 2010.

On 25 to 26 November 2009, I will be on the United Nations Development Programme Team attending the Second National Consultation on Environment in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State Nigeria. The consultation is being hosted by Environment Rights Action/Friends of the Earth (ERA/FoEN) in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health.
The National Consultation on environment commenced in 2008 as an annual event to stimulate broad-based national discourse on the state of the environment with the view to identifying and recommend remediating policies and actions. This year consultation with the theme “Envisioning a Post-Petroleum Nigeria” will examine the growing impact of fossil fuel extraction on the climate and issues around oil as a sustainable economic backbone.
OBJECTIVES
This year’s consultation will
 Stimulate a structured debate about a post oil economy
 Examine critical issues like gas flaring and climate change and recommend immediate actions
 Examine eco-friendly alternatives for the Nigeria economy, and
 Produce work plan for sustained engagement for policy intervention to promote alternative economics.
The participants for this year’s consultation are drawn from local communities, government agencies, environmental groups, the academia, economists, and opinion leaders among others. I will send an update on the outcome of the event later.
Veronica Ugwu
RFP GYCA Western African Region.