The Role of Non-Governmental Organizations in Rural Transformation in Odukpani Local Government Area, Nigeria

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the roles of non-governmental organizations in rural transformation in Odukpani Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria. The activities they have engaged in and what result they achieved and how this impacted on rural livelihoods and development. A sample of two hundred (200) respondents were randomly selected for the study, data for the study was collected using standardized questionnaire. Three hypotheses were formulated for the study, these hypotheses were stated in the null form: the involvement of Non-governmental Organizations in sexual and reproductive health of the adolescent girls does not enhance rural transformation, the involvement of Nongovernmental Organizations in improving Livelihoods has no significant relationship with rural transformation and the involvement of Non-governmental Organizations in forest conservation has no significant influence on rural transformation. To test these hypotheses the Pearson product moment correlation analysis was used. The hypotheses were tested at .05 level of significance. The result of the analysis revealed that the involvement of Non-governmental Organizations in educational activities, sexual and reproductive health of adolescent girls, and improvement of livelihood and forest conservation significantly influenced rural transformation in Odukpani Local Government Areas of Cross River State. It was gathered that a healthy person can contribute in no small way to rural development in terms of physical labor, mental and social contributions. If one is healthy, he can do some job to fetch him money which he could contribute to the development of his community. The major role of NGOs in this area lies in awareness, advocacy, project monitoring and evaluation, providing checks during projects and programmes implementation.

Keywords: Rural transformation, maternal and child health, nongovernmental organization, sexual and reproductive health.