The Roles Of Selected Ngos In Economic Empowerment Of Rural Women In Ibadanland, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the roles of NGOs (Farmers Development Union; FADU and Community Women and Development- Nigeria; COWAD) in economic empowerment of rural women in Ibadanland, Nigeria. It determined the factors militating against women economic empowerment, assessed the strategies used by the NGOs and as well identified the constraints facing the NGOs in the study area. Primary data were collected through questionnaire; one hundred and ninety questionnaires were administered in randomly selected twenty-six (26) villages in four local government areas of Ibadanland. Secondary data were collected through the official documents of the NGOs. Collected data were analyzed with descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution and percentages. The study revealed that lack of finance accounted for 20.76% of the total factors militating against women economic empowerment in the study area. Others are lack of access to credit facility (19.87%); cultural practices (19.63%), lack of access to farmland (18.42%) in accessibility to information (17.74%); and uncooperative attitude of their husbands (3.58%).
Strategies such as support services (18.28%); awareness campaign (17.37%); training programme (16.67%); soft loan (16.27%); and capacity building (15.37%) were used by NGOs to empower the rural women in the study area. However, NGOs encountered problems such as insufficient funds (20.2%); high rate of defaults (18.1%); illiteracy (17.2%); misapplication of loans on social functions (15.3%); irregularity in meeting attendance (15.1%) and poor roads (14.1%) in the study area. Notwithstanding, the strategies of the NGOs have been effective in the economic empowerment of rural women in the study area.

Gender & Behaviour Vol. 6 (2) 2008: pp. 1870-1883