This thesis explores the potential and practicality of incorporating multi-stakeholder participation into the legal and institutional frameworks for managing Nigeria’s oil and gas. Despite the natural resource wealth embedded in the Niger Delta, her people suffer greatly from social, economic and infrastructural underdevelopment and this thesis argues that failure to respect the right of the Niger Delta communities to participate in Nigeria’s oil and gas management and in developmental projects that affect their lives is the foundation of the resource curse besetting the region. As a solution to the resource curse problem of the Niger Delta and in response to the incessant conflicts, environmental degradation, social, economic and infrastructural underdevelopment and military injustice perpetrated in the region, this thesis promotes the enforcement of the right to participation of the Niger Delta peoples through the incorporation of the United Nations promoted Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue Approach (MSDA) and this argument is based on the Participatory Development Theory (PDT). The thesis proposes legal and institutional frameworks to ensure the effective incorporation of the MSDA into Nigeria’s oil and gas regime. Other than the human rights basis for promoting the participatory development of the Niger Delta peoples, the thesis examines the business case for participatory development as an incentive to encourage oil and gas companies operating in the Niger Delta to inculcate the values of the MSDA. This thesis establishes that incorporating the MSDA into Nigeria’s oil and gas legal and institutional regime in furtherance of the participatory development of the Niger Delta communities will promote environmental sustainability, peaceful coexistence, better informed decision making processes and economic and social sustainability among others. Though there are other rights infringement issues that bear on the development of the Niger Delta communities, it is anticipated that recognition of the Niger Delta peoples as stakeholders and their effective participation in Nigeria’s oil and gas management will give them a voice and opportunity to significantly address other human rights issues and to hold other stakeholders accountable.

The dynamic information context is challenging school communities to calibrate their ways of understanding information literacy. However empirical research reports a lack of shared understanding and vision around information literacy that is negatively impacting its development. The solution it is argued is to increase the level of multi stakeholder dialogue about the information literacy phenomenon. The purpose of this study was to create a platform for dialogue within an international school community by identifying and comparing conceptions of information literacy across multiple stakeholder groups to proactively inform information literacy practice. Working within the qualitative paradigm and invoking a phenomenographic methodological approach the research drew from a trans-disciplinary theoretical background in the information, management and education sciences. Using recorded focus group discussions stakeholders including students, parents, teachers, library staff, IT personnel, administration and leadership shared their perceptions of the information context as a stepping stone to sharing their conceptions of information literacy. The findings show that stakeholder groups perceived the information context to be characterised by environmental, social human and affective dimensions; that stakeholders did not hold one singular conception of information literacy but rather they shared a series of conceptions of information literacy to varying degrees, and that the variation in the ways information literacy was conceptualised prevailed across three continuums namely the individual-collective, affective-cognitive and competency–personal mastery continuums. Furthermore, the comparative analysis of the series of conceptions of information literacy created the opportunity to develop a model of the common ground of conceptual understanding of information literacy thereby making an original contribution to knowledge. The study provides compelling insights for information literacy practitioners recommending that a shared conceptual understanding of information literacy requires accommodating its complex socio-contextual nature and anchoring that understanding in the philosophical, pedagogical and strategic thinking of the learning community.

The Sub-Saharan African country of Ghana is growing at a rapid pace. The construction industry is striving to keep up with the increasing demand for housing and commercial and industrial space while simultaneously protecting the physical environment and social well-being of the country – a challenge becoming known in the industry as ‘sustainable construction.’ This paper proposes a strategic approach to manage these twin challenges, consisting of two parts: a building rating system and a participatory method called multi-stakeholder dialogue. The combination rating system and MSD process was presented to the industry to determine its potential effectiveness in assisting the industry to move towards sustainability. The industry’s response indicates that the proposal could be of value to the industry, with certain noted limitations. This paper describes the rating system-MSD proposal, the industry’s response, and implications for the construction industry in Ghana moving forward