Women Participation In Rural Development Programmes: A Case Study Of Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area

ABSTRACT

Governments introduce certain rural development programmes to

improve the living standard of women in the rural areas. This is on the belief

that the rural areas would be better developed if the economic and social status

of women are improved since this group constitutes the majority of the rural

population. What is evident is that most often, the rural women fail to

participate in the development programmes designed for them. The

introduction, failure and replacement of Operation Feed the Nation, Better Life

Programme, Family Support Programme, Family Economic Advancement

Programme etc are traceable to lack of participation by the beneficiaries

(women). So the work was motivated by lack of effective participation of rural

women in programme activities in Nigeria. The research work investigated the

participation of women so as to discover the factors that militate against

effective participation and thereafter, make good recommendations for

improvement. Based on the findings of the research, the researcher

recommended that women should be encouraged to organize themselves in

groups and association since these can convince or compel members to be

active partakers in programme activities. Too, governments should increase

capital allocations for programmes, establish an effective framework to check

corruption and finally, involve rural women sufficiently in the planning and implementation processes of development programmes.