article · Social Responsibility Journal
This research evaluates the corporate social responsibility programmes of multinational oil companies in Nigeria, specifically assessing how the global memorandum of understanding model influences capacity development for rural female entrepreneurs in the Niger Delta. Drawing on survey data from 768 women across the region, the investigation applies propensity score matching alongside a logit model to determine real outcomes. The analysis reveals that only a small proportion of corporate social responsibility interventions focus directly on empowering women. Despite this limited target, the interventions achieved modest but statistically meaningful gains. These benefits include improving educational attainment, reducing socio-economic obstacles, enhancing access to credit, assisting women in launching personal enterprises, securing paid work, and generally strengthening rural livelihoods. Failing to target women directly risks weakening broader poverty reduction and sustainable development initiatives across host communities.
Corporate community investments in developing regions often fail to reach marginalised groups. By assessing the actual outcomes of corporate social responsibility for women in the Niger Delta, this work demonstrates how targeted private sector resources can directly foster enterprise creation, improve access to credit, and support sustainable poverty reduction in rural communities.
This research provides applied insights for multinational companies, corporate social responsibility directors, and development agencies designing community development frameworks. It offers an evidence-based evaluation of the global memorandum of understanding model rather than a market product, indicating applied readiness for immediate operational adoption in corporate social investment and rural enterprise support strategies.
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the multinational oil companies’ (MOCs) corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in Nigeria. Its special focus is to investigate the impact of the global memorandum of understanding (GMoU) on capacity development for small-scale women entrepreneurs in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach This paper adopts a survey research technique, aimed at gathering information from a representative sample of the population, as it is essentially cross-sectional, describing and interpreting the current situation. A total of 768 women respondents were sampled across the rural areas of the Niger Delta region in Nigeria. Findings The results from the use of a combined propensity score matching and logit model indicate that though, a meagre part of the CSR intervention is targeted specifically for capacity empowerment of women, the CSR of the MOCs using the GMoU model has recorded little but significant success in building capacity of women in the areas of enhancing educational status, reduction in socio-economic barriers, access to credit, starting personal business enterprises, undertaking paid employment and generally enhancing means of livelihoods. Practical implications This suggests that if CSR interventions are not tailored to enhanced opportunities for women, they may contribute towards reducing the participation of women in economic, political and social development and, by extension, damping efforts of reducing poverty and achieving the sustainable development goals in the Niger Delta. Social implications This implies that the private sector, generally, can play an important role in addressing some of the logistical and cultural challenges that face rural women, and promote gender diversity and more equal access to economic opportunity through the CSR programmes in host communities. Originality/value This research contributes to the inequality debate in small-scale entrepreneurship and inclusive growth literature from the CSR perspective. It concludes that business has an obligation to help in solving problems of public concern.
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DOI: 10.1108/srj-03-2024-0199
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