RURAL POVERTY IN AFRICA – MITIGATION
Rural poverty in Africa has always been the topic of discuss among researchers who seek best strategies to eliminate rural poverty in Africa.
This work analyzed the roles women play in combating rural poverty in Ohaozara L.G.A of Ebonyi state, Nigeria.
RURAL POVERTY IN AFRICA
According to International Poverty Line, poverty can be defined as a state of living below 1.90 US dollars daily. Many steps to combat poverty have been advocated.
To analyze this, a study was conducted in Ebonyi State, Nigeria to see what roles rural women play to combat poverty.
METHODOLOGY
A total of 120 women were randomly selected through multi-stage sampling technique method whereas data were collected using questionnaire and interview schedule.
Inferential and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the obtained data.
FINDINGS
The result showed that majority (29.17%) were between 31 – 40 years old while 45.83% had household size of between 6 – 8 persons.
Also, it was observed that 53.33% had farm size of between 0.5 – 1.0 hectare while 38.33% had earned between ₦50,000 – ₦80,000 from their farms with a mean annual saving of N33,500.
Poverty prevalence among the women in the area was (0.692) representing 69.2 percent.
Consumption expenditure level was below the poverty line with poverty depth at 0.419 representing 42.00% whose average consumption expenditure was below the poverty line.
The attention of world bank is needed with the severity of poverty index at 0.1567 due to extreme lack of health care services, clean water and income generating activities.
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The roles of women in combating rural poverty were; helping in their husbands’ business, assisting in income generation, engaging in menial jobs, and helping to coordinate labour for farm work.
The challenges rural women faced in combating poverty were; Poor acquisition of education and poor access to credit.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, there is evidence that rural poverty in Africa is on alarming stage as experienced by the rural women in the study area.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Among the recommendations were that;
- World Bank Intervention Projects should focus on eliminating rural poverty in Africa through dissemination of sustainable development practices.
- Farmers should be funded to increase their production
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