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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 improving gender responsiveness of the cassava value chain (CVC) in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

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 780 rural women respondents were sampled across the Niger Delta region.

The results from the use of a combined logit model and propensity score matching indicate that CSR of the MOCs using the GMoU model has recorded little but significant success in enhancing rural women’s participation in the CVC in the Niger Delta.

This implies that if CSR interventions are not tailored to enhance 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 sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the Niger Delta.

This suggests that MOCs’ CSR interventions in the CVC should consider gender relations to benefit men and women and alleviate household poverty.

This research contributes to the inequality debate in the agrifood value chain and inclusive growth literature from the CSR perspective in developing countries and the rationale for demand for social projects by host communities. It concludes that businesses has an obligation to help in solving problems of public concern.

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the multinational oil companies’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in Nigeria. Its special focus is to investigate the impact of the global memorandum of understanding (GMoU) on gender in the facets of palm oil value chain in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

This paper adopts an explanatory research design using both descriptive and inferential statistics to answer the four research questions. We generated cross-sectional primary data from a sample of 1,200 women selected from the nine states of Niger Delta region using multiple sampling techniques.

Results from the estimation of a logit model and use of propensity score matching to determine the mean difference between variables in the treatment and control show that significant efforts have been made by the MOCs through their CSR in the areas that will help the women compete favourably in the oil palm value chain.

This study implies that MOCs’ CSR interventions that enhanced women acquisition of improved mechanized meals, accompanied by awareness creation and demonstration of value of improved processing technologies and practices to female processors, will lift many women out of poverty in the Niger Delta.

This implies that fostering gender access to credit through GMoU interventions will improve extraction efficiency of female primary processors and enhance linkages between women producers/processors and large mills in palm oil value chain deliveries in the Niger Delta.

This research contributes to gender debate in the agricultural value chain from a CSR perspective in developing countries and rationale for demand for social projects by host communities. It concludes that business has an obligation to help in solving problems of public concern.