Impact of Poverty Alleviation Programmes on Indigenous Women’s Economic Empowerment in Nigeria: Evidence From Port Harcourt Metropolis

The study had been able to find that a majority of the indigenous women in Port Harcourt metropolis participate actively in various poverty alleviation activities (both government initiated and privately organized ones).

There are benefits uncovered by this research which appear to encourage them to do so. One of such benefits is the increase in personal incomes which accrue to them after joining the programmes. It was found, for instance, that after joining the PAP, 75.5 per cent of them experienced an increase in income of 36.6 per cent. This development is a salvo to poverty alleviation programmes and underlies the need to put women in the forefront of poverty alleviation programme designs.

 With this finding, it is evident that one of the ways to ensure sustainable development in Nigeria is to encourage indigenous women to participate in poverty alleviation programmes. They appear to convert investment on them into more desirable results. The findings, which showed that statistically significant differences existed in the income of the women from various sources of livelihood or economic undertakings, corroborated the earlier finding. However, it is recommended that more rigorous studies be carried out using inferential statistics such as regression models based on time series data that include other variables to test whether income changes were attributed to any other factor other than participation in the PAP.

 For sustainable development to be attained, the pillar of human development must not be neglected. Efforts must be made to put poverty alleviation and gender inclusion in the forefront of sustainable development programmes. We recommend that more programmes designed at alleviating poverty  in Rivers State of Nigeria where Port Harcourt is located target indigenous women. In addition, we also recommend the establishment of entrepreneurship capacity building programmes to enable the women achieve optimal input while participating in the poverty eradication programmes.

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Impact of Poverty Alleviation Programmes on Indigenous Women’s Economic Empowerment in Nigeria Evidence From Port Harcourt Metropolis Author(s): Nua J. Deedam and Anthony O. Onoja Source: Consilience, No. 14 (2015), pp. 90-105 Published by: Columbia University Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26188743