Assessment of the Impact of Women’s Organisations on Sustainable Rural Environment and Livelihood in Nigeria

Abstract

Worldwide, women organisations have contributed greatly to sustainable development, promoting development and encouraging progress, which help in reducing or eliminating poverty. The paper focuses on women in rural areas to examine the effort of women organisations (NGOs) in improving environmental education and economic empowerment of people in rural area sin Oyo State, Nigeria. Primary and secondary sources of data collection are used. This paper covers 50 rural settlements with 250 structured questionnaires distributed across same number of purposively-selected respondents in the study area. The result shows that 2% of respondents can read, write and understand Yoruba and English languages. They lack funds, special training to improve their practical indigenous expertise and talents in local economies. Nearly 47% have access to telephone but less than 25% have access to radio or television and none belongs to any registered governmental or non-governmental organisations. The study recommends the provision of viable infrastructure through government developmental assistance and funding from international partners to educate rural women on how to increase yield on their farms as well as undertake adult, community and environmental education, trainings in health and family planning. These are crucial to government’s drive to break the cycle of poverty and reverse environmental degradation.