Assessment of People’s Perception of Grassroots Community Development Projects in Ezza South Lga of Ebonyi State.
CHAPTER ONE
Purpose Of The Study
The general purpose of the study is to assess the perceptions of the people of Ezza South about grassroots community development projects in Ezza South Local Government Area. Specifically, the study will seek to:
- Ascertainthe characteristics of the participants in grassroots CD projects
- Identifythe strategies for mobilizing people for grassroots community development
- Determinethe effective procedures of planning of grassroots community development
- Identifythe various ways of implementing of grassroots community development
- Identifythe nature of participation of the people of Ezza South in grassroots community development
- Ascertainthe factors militating against effective grassroots community development
CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter presents the literature review of the study and will be reviewed under the following headings.
- Conceptual
- Theoreticalframework
- Empiricalstudies
- Summaryof literature
Conceptual Framework
The organizational convenience on which introduction to community development is going to be discussed is;
- Theconcept of community
- Theconcept of development
- Theconcepts of community development
- Mobilizationstrategies for grassroots development projects
- Procedurefor planning grassroots community projects
- Waysof implementing grassroots community projects
- Natureof participation in grassroots community projects
- Factormilitating against grassroots community projects
The Concept Of Community
Father, mother and child make up the first known community in human history. It is called a family in another term. The Suburban Emergency Management Project (SEMP, 2002) defined community as a group of individuals organized into a unit or manifesting trait or common interest loosely, the locality or catchment area. Members of a community should have something in common. In the same vein, the Foundation Consortium (2002) contended that community refers to a population that has a distinct identity. Members of a community act in a way that is not at variance with the norm of the group. Anyanwu (1999) referred to a community as; A population living within a legally established area A population or group of people who communicate or A group of people living in a given geographical environment (p1) Anyanwu (1992) quoting Maclver and Puge (1965) sees a community as embracing an area of social living, marked by some degree of social coherence. Its basis is locality and community sentiment. Oduaran (1994) maintained that a community is a social unit constituting of a group of people in a prescribed locally. Neighborliness and geographical delineation give credence to a given community. Cambridge International Dictionary of English (1996) defined community as the people who considered as a unit based on their common interests, background or nationality. People of the same community pursue common goal. Ezeh (1999) viewed community as a relatively small isolated centre with a stable population in which all economic and social services necessary to life can be maintained. A community is an empire with all the autonomy and independence enshrined to its existence or sovereignty. It has authority and is governed by norms and regulations.
Hornby (2004) defined community as all the people who live in a particular area. It could be a group of people who have things in common because of their vocation, job, trade and even religion or sports. Nwizu (2001) contended that a community is a group of people with socio-cultural, political or economic background who live together and do thing together. The two distinct characteristics of a community are the physical/territorial boundaries with a certain uniqueness of separateness and social/cultural homogeneity depicting various communal behaviors and interacting relationship. Lemu (2006) defined community in the most simple and comprehensive way as;
A collection of definable groups of people living together in one geographical location bound by a shared set of values, expectations, aspiration, identity and destiny, pursuing common political, social, economic and related goals in a context of collaboration, cooperation and team work irrespective of observable differences (P.74).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter presents the following subheadings: design of the study; area of the study, population, sample and sampling technique, research instrument, procedure for data collection and method of data analysis.
Design Of The Study
The design of the study is descriptive survey, which will be used to asses the perceptions of Grassroots Community Development Projects in Ezza South LGA of Ebonyi State. Ezeh (2005) Ali (2006) and Nworgu (2006) indicated that descriptive survey designs aim at collecting data on, and describing in a systematic manner, the characteristics, features or facts about a given population, as they are without any manipulation of what caused the event or what is being observed.
Area Of The Study.
The geographical area of the study is Ezza South LGA, of Ebonyi State. The headquarter of Ezza LGA is located at Onueke Ezza, which is the ancestral capital of Ezza people. The present Ezza South LGA since 1976 local government reform has undergone several structural and political changes. It was formally known as Ezzikwo County Council and later Ezzikwo Division when Ezza and Ikwo people were together. But after 1976 Local Government Reform, Ikwo people became Ikwo LGA while Ezza became Ezza LGA. In 1996, when Ebonyi State was carved from the present Enugu and Abia State, Ezza LAG was further divided into two; Ezza South and Ezza North. While Ezza North LGA has her headquarter at Ebiaji, Ezza South LGA has her headquarter at Onueke Ezza. Furthermore, between 2007 and 2008 five development centers were carried out from the present Ezza South L.G.A. These development centers are Ezza South, Ezzama, Ezza East, Ameka and Ezza South East.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA
This chapter presents and analyses data collected through the research instrument. The data are presented according to the order of the five research questions, and three hypotheses that guided the study.
CHAPTER FIVE
DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS,SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This chapter deals with the following: discussion of findings, summary of findings, implications of the study, recommendations, limitation of the study and suggestions for further areas of study.
Discussion Of The Findings
The researcher found out that using the services of traditional leaders and cabinets, involving influential members in the community through seminar and use of cinema, employing the services of town unions and community based organizations in the community and awareness creation through mass and traditional media are effective strategies for mobilizing people for grassroots community development projects in Ezza South L.G.A of Ebonyi state. The above findings agree with the view of Abiona (200) who noted that the agents for mobilization include the mass media, religious organizations, youth organizations, social clubs and other appropriate channels of communication that can reach the people effectively. The findings also agree with Omoruyi (2001), Ogili (2004) and Obi (2006) who suggested among other strategies, the use of elders who command of the people, getting the influential to show interest and commitment to the project, reaching the community through the influential and better still to visit the traditional ruler and his cabinet members in the palace in order to throw light on the socio-economic and political life of the community.
Summary Of The Findings
- Using the services of traditional leaders and cabinets, involving influential members in the community to help in awareness creation, sensitizing community members through seminar and use of cinema, employing the services of town union and community based organizations in the community and awareness creation through mass and traditional media are the effective strategies for mobilizing people for grassroots community development projects in Ezza South G.A of Ebonyi State.
- Making provisions for emergency situation, listing methods of achieving the objectives of the project, prioritizing the needs of the community, allowing people to determine time and duration of implementing the project, ensuring people’s trust through free flow of communication and making a list and getting resources for the project are the effective procedure of planning grassroots community development projects in Ezza South G.A. of Ebonyi State.
Implication Of The Study
The findings of this study have some implications for the government, donor agencies, and development agents as well as men and women members of the communities in Ezza South L.G.A of Ebonyi State.
The findings showed that using the services of the traditional leaders and cabinet, and involving the influential members in the community to help in awareness creation are the effective strategies for mobilizing community members to embark on grassroots community development projects. In doing this, the members of the community could be sensitized using seminar and Cinema, with the use of mass and traditional media. Also the use of interactive process such as employing the services of town unions and community based organizations in the community are effective strategies to mobilize the citizens to participate in grassroots community development projects.
Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are made:
- That community leaders, development agents, government and donor agencies should effectively utilize the various agents of traditional and mass media in members of the communities about grassroots community development projects in Ezza South G.A of Ebonyi State.
- That the priority project or felt needs of the people should be funded and implemented with full and active participation of the people in the communities to which the project is meant for, in Ezza South G.A of Ebonyi State.
- That one project should be handled at a time before going to another in the communities that make up Ezza South
- That as much as possible, resources in the community should be utilized in grassroots projects, while outside help may be
- That the traditional cabinet officials and various development groups should be properly involved in grassroots community project in Ezza South G.A.
- That government’s full weight of the law should be visited on anyone found guilty of corrupt practices in grassroots projects.
Limitations Of The Study
Although the study has accomplished the purpose of which it set out to attain, the following limitations are inherent in the study.
- Unwillingness of the respondents to complete the questionnaire in record time thereby delaying the collection of data for this study
- The communal land crises along Abakaliki-Enugu Road in Ebonyi State made the researcher spend limited fund on finding alternative routes to school
Suggestions For Further Study
- The role of change agents in grassroots community projects.
- Assessment of people’s perception of grassroots community projects in another local
- The role of women empowerment in grassroots
Summary
This study was carried out to assess people’s perception about grassroots community development projects in Ezza South L.G.A. of Ebonyi State. To carry out the research, five research questions and three null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study.
Relevant literature including strategies for mobilizing people for grassroots community development projects, procedure for planning grassroots community development projects, effective ways of implementing grassroots community projects, nature of participation of community members in grassroots community projects and factors militating against effective implementation of grassroots community development projects were reviewed.
The population of this study consists of (4020) men and women members drawn from Town Unions in the twelve communities that make up Ezza South L.G.A using multi-stage sampling techniques. The major instrument used for collection of data was questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed using simple percentages, weighted mean and t-test. The results of the findings led to the following conclusions.
References
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