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Scope: Consultant to Research and Develop a Report on Benefit Sharing in Mining Host Communities
Location: Nigeria/Remote
Application Close: April 13, 2026
1. Background
Nigeria is a strategic player in the global race for critical minerals needed for the energy transition, including minerals such as lithium, tin, tantalum, niobium, graphite, manganese, and other transition-linked resources. As countries and industries shift toward low-carbon technologies, the demand for these minerals has accelerated significantly, positioning Nigeria and other West African countries as emerging supply frontiers in the global green economy.
However, while critical minerals are being framed as essential to a cleaner energy future, their extraction is intensifying long-standing patterns of exclusion, dispossession, environmental degradation, livelihood disruption, insecurity, and weak accountability in many mining-affected communities. Across Nigeria, mining host communities continue to bear the social, environmental, and economic costs of extraction, while remaining largely excluded from the decisions, governance processes, and benefit frameworks that shape the sector.
This challenge is particularly urgent in Nigeria, where the expansion of mining is occurring within a context of weak regulatory enforcement, opaque governance, poor environmental oversight, limited recognition of land and livelihood rights, and inadequate mechanisms for ensuring that host communities derive fair and sustainable benefits from mineral extraction. In recent years, the growth of exploration and mining activities, especially around critical minerals such as lithium, has increased pressure on communities and ecosystems without corresponding safeguards to protect community rights or ensure equitable returns.
Although Nigeria’s mining laws and policies provide some basis for community engagement and benefit-related obligations, including through Community Development Agreements (CDAs), implementation remains weak and inconsistent. In practice, benefit-sharing in Nigeria’s mining sector is often poorly defined, weakly negotiated, non-transparent, and inadequately monitored, leaving many host communities without meaningful access to the economic, social, and developmental benefits associated with mining on their lands.
As Nigeria seeks to expand its role in the solid minerals sector and position itself within the global energy transition, there is an urgent need to ensure that this transition does not become another site of extractive injustice. Instead, it must be grounded in community rights, accountability, environmental justice, and equitable benefit-sharing.
It is against this backdrop that Global Rights is commissioning this consultancy to research and develop a report on benefit-sharing for mining host communities in Nigeria. The report will support ongoing efforts to strengthen the structures, voice, and agency of mining host communities, particularly through collective advocacy platforms such as the Federation of Nigerian Mining Host Communities (FNMHC), and to promote more just, transparent, and community-centered approaches to mining governance.
The report is expected to generate evidence, policy options, and practical recommendations that can inform advocacy, legal and policy reform, stakeholder engagement, and broader efforts to advance a just and inclusive mining future in which host communities are recognized not merely as sites of extraction, but as rights holders and legitimate beneficiaries of the resources derived from their lands.
2. Objective of the Consultancy
The consultancy shall seek to:
Examine the current legal, policy, and institutional framework governing benefit-sharing for mining host communities in Nigeria;
Assess how benefit-sharing is currently conceptualized and operationalized in mining communities, including through Community Development Agreements (CDAs), compensation arrangements, livelihood restoration, infrastructure commitments, employment, royalties, social investments, environmental obligations, and other benefit mechanisms;
Identify key gaps, challenges, and barriers that limit equitable benefit-sharing for mining host communities, including governance, enforcement, transparency, representation, gender inclusion, elite capture, and weak community bargaining power;
Document community experiences, perspectives, and expectations regarding benefit-sharing across selected mining-affected communities;
Generate practical, rights-based, and community-centered recommendations for improving benefit-sharing frameworks and outcomes in Nigeria’s mining sector;
Provide strategic advocacy entry points that can strengthen the collective voice, agency, and organizing structures of mining host communities in Nigeria.
3. Scope of Work
The consultant will be expected to undertake the following tasks:
Conduct a desk review of relevant literature, laws, policies, institutional frameworks, and existing reports on mining governance, host community rights, Community Development Agreements (CDAs), and benefit-sharing practices in Nigeria;
Carry out Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and other relevant stakeholder consultations with selected actors, including mining host community representatives, government institutions, civil society actors, industry stakeholders, and other relevant experts, to assess the current state of benefit-sharing in mining host communities in Nigeria;
Examine existing benefit-sharing frameworks and practices within Nigeria’s mining sector, with a view to identifying legal, policy, institutional, and implementation gaps that undermine equitable access to mining benefits by host communities;
Analyze the lived realities, experiences, and concerns of mining host communities in relation to benefit-sharing, including challenges relating to exclusion, weak accountability, limited participation, and inadequate community returns from mining activities;
Identify policy, legal, and institutional options for addressing gaps in benefit-sharing and strengthening community access to social, economic, and developmental benefits arising from mining activities;
Document practical and context-relevant recommendations and best practices for promoting equitable, transparent, and effective benefit-sharing in mining host communities in Nigeria;
Develop a comprehensive report that presents the findings of the research and provides clear recommendations and strategic advocacy entry points to support policy engagement and collective advocacy by mining host communities and other stakeholders.
4. Deliverables
The consultant shall be expected to deliver the following outputs:
An inception note/workplan outlining the consultant’s understanding of the assignment, proposed methodology, and timeline for implementation.
A draft report on benefit-sharing in mining host communities in Nigeria, presenting: the current state of benefit-sharing; key legal, policy, and implementation gaps; stakeholder perspectives and findings from the research; policy options and recommendations for reform; best practices for promoting equitable and effective benefit-sharing in mining host communities.
A final report, revised based on feedback from Global Rights and submitted in both Word and PDF formats.
A PowerPoint presentation of the report findings to be delivered during a consultation/engagement meeting convened by Global Rights with the organized media, policymakers, and other relevant stakeholders, aimed at advancing dialogue and identifying a practical roadmap for strengthening benefit-sharing for mining host communities in Nigeria.
5. Timeline
The consultancy is expected to last 8 weeks
6. Intellectual Property Rights
All intellectual property rights arising from the consultancy will be the property of Global Rights. The research team will not disclose or use any confidential information obtained during the consultancy for any other purpose without the written consent of Global Rights.
7. Confidentiality and Ethical Considerations
The research team will ensure that all data collected during the consultancy is treated with the utmost confidentiality and in accordance with ethical principles. In particular, the team will obtain informed consent from all participants before collecting any data and will ensure that data is stored securely and only accessible to authorized personnel. The team will also comply with any relevant legal and ethical standards and will report any ethical concerns or violations to Global Rights immediately.
8. Expected Qualifications
The consultant should possess an advanced degree in Law, Human Rights, Development Studies, Public Policy, Political Science, Sociology, Environmental Governance, Natural Resource Governance, Extractives/Mining Governance, Social Sciences, or any other related field.
The consultant should also have at least 5–7 years of relevant experience in research, policy analysis, or consultancy work relating to extractive sector governance, mining and host community relations, benefit-sharing, natural resource governance, community rights, environmental justice, or community development.
The ideal consultant must demonstrate:
Strong knowledge of Nigeria’s solid minerals sector and the legal, policy, and institutional frameworks governing mining and host community relations;
Proven experience in producing high-quality analytical reports, policy papers, research studies, or advocacy documents;
Excellent research, analytical, facilitation, and report-writing skills;
Experience engaging with communities, civil society, public institutions, and other relevant stakeholders;
A sound understanding of rights-based, gender-responsive, and conflict-sensitive approaches.
Prior experience working with mining host communities in Nigeria or West Africa, as well as familiarity with Community Development Agreements (CDAs), compensation frameworks, environmental and social safeguards, and advocacy or policy reform processes, will be considered an added advantage.
9. Reporting Line
The consultant will report directly to the the Executive Director or the designates.
10. Proposal Submission:
Interested qualified consultants are invited to submit a proposal that includes the following:
An understanding of the requirements
Methodology and work plan for performing the assignment
Project delivery plans
Relevant services undertaken in the past with detailed reference list indicating the scope of similar assignments
Budget
At least one smple of similar work
How to apply
https://forms.gle/y8Cq2MLZJpmFzsFc7