ASSESSMENT OF COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
- Project Research
- 1-5 Chapters
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- Simple Percentage
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- Recommended for : Student Researchers
- NGN 3000
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Rural development from a general point of view is the process of improving the quality of life and economic wellbeing of people living in relatively isolated and sparsely populated areas (Moseley, 2003) which are also known as rural areas. However, despite strategies put in place in form of projects provided for rural people, many do not benefit because of their non-involvement in the project planning process and implementation hence, the emphasis on community participation in rural development project.
Rural development is more realistic when people participate in the process of infrastructure provision because at the heart of rural development projects are infrastructures and for the overall goals and objectives to be met, the principle for effective community participation must be adapted (Idachaba and Bankole, 2006).
Community participation as a development approach for rural socioeconomic development is an alternative to the top – down approach which has failed to yield the desired result because rural dwellers who are target beneficiaries were not carried along initially (Bankole, 2007). The term has been conceptualized in different ways in the literature as either public, people or citizen participation, however they all have the same focus, which is rural development (Oakley, 1991 and Afolayan, 2008). Participation is all about inclusiveness, social justice and common good which shows that rural development is community based when people in communities determine their needs and aspiration. This is because it is realized that by so doing large numbers of marginalized rural people can be reached effectively by the government and other types of developmental projects supported by international agencies like Food and Agricultural Organization and World Health Organization (WHO and FAO, 1991).
The improvement in living standard of people through popular participation is thus central to the concept of rural development (Adedayo, Taiwo and Medupin, 1991). Therefore, community participation serves as pivot for whatever successful process rural development is trying to achieve in rural communities.
Rural infrastructures are indeed the pivot of rural development because they increase rural productivity and income, improve rural living conditions and facilitate spatial integration of rural settlements into national development landscape (Bankole, 2006). Rural development is achieved through tangible projects and resource distribution.
Sapele local government area is an oil rich area yet cassava farming is a major livelihood activity for rural dwellers. Oil and gas alone have generated 40% of Nigeria‟s national GDP over recent decades but (Adesope, Agumagu and Chiefson, 2000) observed that the spate of youth disturbances is particularly serious in the oil rich region, perhaps because of the low level of rural development leading to illiteracy and inaccessibility to minimum basic facilities and services.
Improving rural development projects is one of the greatest challenges facing many rural dwellers at present. Although Sapele local government council have already executed and still have some on-going projects as strategies for rural development, the pattern and level of community participation in such projects are yet to be appreciable. Nhlakanipho (2010) also opined that the rural poor have not really participated in sharing the benefits from the enormous development efforts of the last three decades in proportion to their needs.
Unless the rural communities are given opportunities to participate in rural development interventions designed to improve their condition of living, the level of spatial inequalities among regions will tend to increase. It therefore becomes of research interest to analyse the processes involved in provision of rural projects in Sapele local government area, perhaps absence of community participation may be a factor in the under achievement of the desired objectives and this calls for the present study.
Statement of the Research Problem
Rural development projects placed so much emphasis on participation of the communities or beneficiaries because of multiple merits of participatory approach hence some studies have been conducted on the subject. Olisa and Obiukwu (1992) saw community participation as an important element to speedy socio – economic transformation of rural areas therefore it cannot be over looked.
Afolayan (2008) examined community participation in infrastructure provision using medium sized communities in Kwara State. The study revealed that a high level of community participation in projects such as schools, electricity, roads, water, market/stalls, health facilities and town halls influenced the functional structure in medium sized communities. The United Nations Development Programme, (UNDP) Niger Delta report (2006) also referred to community participation as the process that unites the efforts of the people themselves with those of the government authorities.
Dzinavatonga (2008) investigated community participation and project sustainability in rural Zimbabwe using Sangwe communal land in Chiredzi as a case study. The author employed purposive sampling technique for interviews with key informants in the community and random sampling in selection of communities in the wards for the field survey. The author‟s findings revealed that there is a need for the government and non – governmental organization (NGOs) to facilitate the creation of a community based network programme that ensures the participation of the rural communities in project planning and implementation. However, facilitation does not mean the facilitators dictate to the communities what to do but provide the necessary conducive environment for the community to institute this community-based network programme. This is because it is through such network the rural communities participate actively in the realization of sustainable projects in Sangwe.
Ofuoku (2011) assessed the effect of community participation on sustainability of rural water projects in Delta Central Agricultural Zone of Delta State. Purposive sampling was used in selecting rural communities based on the presence of rural water projects while systematic sampling was used in selecting every fourth house to pick respondents. Ofuoku (2011) found out that where the water projects were funded by respective communities and other agencies, effective community participation was higher compared to those solely funded by governments.
Ogunleye and Oladeinde (2013) examined the role of community self – help projects in rural development of Kwara State using Irepodun LGA. Data gathered were analysed using Chi – square and correlation analyses. The study indicated that for an equitable distribution of self-help projects provided by the federal government as an essential tool for balanced socio - economic development of rural areas especially in Nigeria, rural dwellers‟ participation should be the focus.
What inspired this study is that the presence of rural development project is not strongly felt in most rural communities, Sapele local government area inclusive. This has resulted in the inaccessibility of most rural dwellers to some facilities and services. Also, most basic facilities are urban concentrated and rural dwellers denied (Oyebanji, 2000). For instance, out of thirty - five health facilities managed by the state Hospital Board in Delta state, only one is in Sapele urban centre and none in any of the rural community. More worrisome is that poverty has made lot of rural dwellers not to have means to access long distance services in the outskirt of the rural communities because most projects are sited in majorly urban centres (For example communities in Abraka and Asaba; Nigeria).
Various Nigerian government embarked on numerous developmental projects through agencies like Petroleum Trust fund (PTF), Oil mineral producing areas development commission (OMPADEC) etc. (McNeil 1993). The author pointed out that an average of one third to over half of public investment was allocated to infrastructure sectors in developing countries.
Rural development projects have been embarked upon by many communities based on self – help informed by the realization that no government can meet all the needs of all the rural communities (Adedayo, 2000). Nonetheless, the government should make provision of these projects because the fact remains that there can be no meaningful rural development without the effective harnessing of the potentialities of the rural communities. Besides, numerous government policy directives at ensuring availability and accessibility of these services to all administrative units in the country have seemingly not yielded expected results in the study area.
Although community participation is at the centre of rural development and should be one of the foremost pre-requisites in development process both from procedural and philosophical perspectives, none of these studies (Olisa and Obiukwu, 1992; McNeil, 1993; Olawepo, 1997; Adesope et al, 2000; Adedayo, 2000; Oyebanji, 2000; Ofuoku, 2011; Ogunleye and Oladehinde, 2013) have focused on rural communities in Sapele local government area.
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