Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has been named recipient of the maiden Ford Foundation Jubilee Transparency Awards.ERA/FoEN along with the Nigerian Popular Theatre Alliance/Theatre for Development Centre, a network of organizations that use performing arts as a means to improve participatory development process, were announced as winners, at an event held Monday night in Abuja.Ford Foundation initiated the Jubilee Transparency Awards as part of activities to mark its 50th year of operation in West Africa. Each of the winners will receive $500,000 to enhance the scale and impact of its work.The two organisations that made the selection process were arrived at through an open call managed by the Development Initiatives Network (DIN), a development organization working on public interest issues in Nigeria. A nine-member National Awards Committee chaired by highly respected Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah worked with DIN to screen over 100 nominations.Dr. Adhiambo Odaga, representative for Ford's West Africa office, said: 'These exemplary organizations demonstrate the pivotal role that citizen involvement and good governance play in securing a just, sustainable and democratic future for Nigeria and West Africa,'''They are a shining example of the potential for West Africa to leverage its extraordinary human and natural resources for the common good.'The Ford Foundation explained that the Transparency Award was launched to achieve two objectives: first, to recognize innovative projects and programs that promote transparent, effective and accountable governance at the community level in Nigeria; and second, to showcase the impact of these projects as models for deepening democracy, good governance and anti-corruption across the country.ERA/FoEN Director, Corporate Accountability and Administration, Akinbode Oluwafemi, who received the award on behalf of the organization, said: 'Ford's recognition of our efforts at challenging corporate rule and mobilizing oppressed communities to demand environmental justice, transparency, accountability and good governance will only inspire us to do more' .The environmental group was founded in 1993 and operates on the tenet that 'environmental rights are human rights.' It has two key priorities: campaigning to change governmental, nongovernmental and commercial policies that are not in the best interest of local communities, and helping people to defend their environmental human rights.ERA/FoEN is the Nigerian chapter of Friends of the Earth International and has campaigned vigorously for transparency and accountability in oil revenue management in the country.The Ford Foundation transparency award adds to a list of honors accorded ERA in recent time.In 1998 ERA/FoEN became the premier winner of the Sophie Prize, the international award in environment and development. In 2009 it also bagged the Bloomberg Awards for monitoring and publicizing tobacco industry activities intended to increase tobacco use and undermine tobacco control efforts. ERA/FoEN is also the initiator of the recently passed National Tobacco Control Bill.ERA/FoEN Director, Nnimmo Bassey is the first African to Chair the Friends of the Earth International, a federation of environmental, grassroots activists in over 72 countries.Last year he was among the four winners of the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize'. He was also named an Environmental Hero by Time Magazine in 2009.
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