Interrogating the influence of social equity on poverty alleviation in Puntland Somalia

Abstract

Eradicating poverty calls for young people being identified as agent of transformation in society. With the prolonged conflict in Somalia since the late 1980s that led to the collapse of the central government in 1991 and the weakening of the political institutions the country has witnessed a complete state of poverty. The study therefore examines the extent to which social equity influences poverty alleviation in Puntland, Somalia. The study adopted the Marxist theory of poverty. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The target population was 28079 households from Puntland, Somalia. A sample size of 394respondents was selected using both stratified and simple random sampling methods to ensure representation of all the age groups in the study sample. Data were collected using questionnaire and in-depth interview. The researchers used both descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze the data., The mean, standard deviations and skewness were used while for inferential statistics, Pearson’s correlation, analysis of variance and regression coefficient were used. The results shows that there is a significant positive correlation between social equity and poverty alleviation in Puntland Somalia. The results shows that Social Equity has a moderate but statistically significant correlation with poverty alleviation (r = .566**; P < 0.05). Further analysis revealed that a 1% change in social equity would lead to a 31.8% change in poverty alleviation. The study concludes that NGOs should put emphasis on encouraging the youth to engage in social equity activities in order to enhance poverty alleviation in Puntland Somalia. The study recommends that NGOs through the support of the government should embark on social equity programs to empower the youth to actively participate in the development programs especially those focusing on poverty alleviation. The study recommends that those NGOs involved in youth empowerment activities should focus more on the capacity building programs which equips the youth with the relevant skills and knowledge to participate actively in poverty alleviation programs. The study is expected to be beneficial to the youth, the government, the development institutions and the other partners involved with the issues of youth and development.