The Role of Non-Governmental Organizations in the Development of Rural Areas (A Case Study of Community Self-Help Organizations in Awgu Local Government Area)
Chapter One
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The main purpose of this study is to highlight the role of the Awgu co-operative development union, Awgu local government while specific objectives of the research work are:
- To ascertain the personal characteristics of each member of the Awgu co-operative development union, Awgu.
- To ascertain the level of contributions of non-governmental organizations for rural development.
- To examine the structure of the development union.
- To identify the constraints encountered by the Awgu co-operative development union in their rural development effort.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Relevant literature was reviewed under the following headings: –
THE CONCEPT OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION
The term NGO has been defined by various scholars from their respective perspectives. The United nations children’s fund (1995) perceive NGO’s as organization or loose associations which are composed of people working together to address a need. They went further to give basic elements of NGO’s as: –
- An NGO is primarily an intermediate organization that is development oriented.
- Non-profit oriented.
- Non-government in terms of organization, membership and funding.
- A voluntary organization.
Nma Onyechere (2001) defines Non-Governmental Organizations as voluntary non-governmental agencies aimed at complementary governments efforts.
ESOU (2000) defines a non-governmental organization as “those social and related organization set up for the pursuit of charitable purposes”.
NGO’s have made operational base, thus they operate outside their base. The registration of NGO must be with the federal government through the cooperate affairs commission and in accordance with the companies and Allied Matters Decree (1990) on the right to form a company. NGO can be formed by an individual or group of individuals but in any case, it is important to understand and appreciate the motivation behind establishing the organization.
The role of NGO’s in community development most especially in the third world countries can not be over emphasized. It is with no doubt that NGO’s has contributed immensely in trying to ameliorate the problem of under development in some remote area in our contemporary society. The notion is that government and it’s agencies if left alone may not be able to carter for the aspiration of it’s citizens. However, in other to ameliorate those social and economic problem that retard the economy of every nation not to attend to it’s level of sustainable development that will accommodate the entire society and metamorphose them to a sustainable level of development which will improve the livelihood of the people. Base on this notion, private individuals, societies, communities and countries of the world have come together and organize themselves in different form to become the third sector of the economy by engaging into self-help and participatory development strategy in order to contribute positively towards the betterment of their society.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The research area of study is in Enugu State where the information is collected thought is necessary to get it in other states in Nigeria but the research is based in Enugu State.
This chapter based on the study areas, population, sample size, sampling techniques, data collection and data analysis.
DESIGN OF THE STUDY
These research design is a survey design and it is aimed at unavailing the role of non-governmental organization in the development of rural areas.
AREAS OF THE STUDY
The area of the study is Awgu Local Government Areas of Enugu State, located at the eastern part of Nigeria.
POPULATION OF THE STUDY
The study was carried out principally on community self-help organization in Awgu local government area of Enugu State, population of 200 (two hundred) persons were used.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
In this chapter, the data collected will be presented and analysis. Some questions were formulated in order to get the necessary information for the assessment of the roles played by the non-governmental organization in the development of rural areas.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
The topic of this study is the role on non-governmental organizations in the development of the rural areas, a case study of community self help organization in Awgu Local Government Area. For the sake of this study three major problems were selected and treated as follows:
- Lack of basic infrastructure reduce the number of projects carried out by the non-governmental organization for development of rural areas.
- The problem of inadequate orientation of the people towards rural development.
- Non participation of the non-governmental organization in the planning or formulation of policies for rural development.
This was an expository study in which the survey research method was employed because of the expository nature of the study. The above mentioned methods were selected to find the degree of their influence in the development of rural areas.
Since non-governmental organization embrace both social and productive organization, the researcher adopted the random sampling techniques in choosing the sample.
One hundred and twenty (120) questionnaires were administered and one hundred was used in the study from which generalization of the study were made.
The finding of this research work shows that as a result of the poor economy of the nation the non-governmental organization to not adequately participate in the execution of development of projects in the rural areas. Also as a result of the absence of some basic amenities and infrastructure in the rural areas were those organization might be located, much money is being wasted on the provision of these amenities for the upkeep of the productive organization, such money which could have been used to extend development projects in the communities are usually used in providing infrastructure needed in the company. This reduces the place of development in this rural areas. It was also observed that the national orientation and mass mobilization agencies have not adequately implemented the objective of these agencies in the rural area, this result to the low level of awareness of the people on the need for the rural development.
There is a high evidence of non-participation of these non-governmental organizations both in the policy formulation and implementation process, this makes the organization feel isolated from the needs of these rural areas which they ought to identify better.
CONCLUSION
After the analysis of data collected, most of the questions and hypothesis formulated agreed with there searcher’s findings. This is clearly revealed by various results of different tables.
In the first place, these are some facilities and infrastructure lacking in the rural areas, this hinders the non-governmental organization from carrying out development project in the rural areas were they are located. The implication is that alarming sum of money which these organizations could use for the provision of basic infrastructure for their operation will be used in developing the location in which their structure will be.
Response received in the course of carrying out this research shows that the non-governmental organizations are willing to help in the development of rural areas but they lack finance. If adequate finance is being given to them by the government there will be proper development in the rural areas.
If the people in the rural areas are properly oriented in the activities of the non-governmental agencies it will aid them in carrying out their operation and equally make the rural dwellers to participate fully in the development of their area because it is done for their own benefit.
RECOMMENDATIONS
After detailed deliberation on how some of the selected problems influence the performance of the non-governmental organizations in the development of rural areas. We have the following recommendations to make:
- Government should endeavour to provide our rural areas with the basic social amenities so that these non-governmental organizations will not be discouraged by the alarming financial involvement in the provision of these amenities before the operations of their organization.
- Mass mobilization should be intensified in the rural area to ensure active participation of private individuals and rural dwellers in the development process. This is because; it is mainly the nature of direction and pace of it’s socio-economic developments.
- There should exist active collaboration between government, productive, social and philanthropist organizations. This will not only boost the sense of belonging in owners and members of these organizations, but will also reduce the level of in active inherent in Nigeria.
- As a way of motivating and reinforcing, special incentive should be given to those non-governmental organizations who invest in various projects for development of rural areas.
REFERENCES
- Brady, C. (1967) “The case against self help Community Development. Macmillan publishers Nigeria Ltd.
- Brook, Field .W. (1975) Interdependent Development, Methuem and Co. Ltd.
- Ebebe, G.C. (1998), Co-operative Principles and Practice, Adson Publishers.
- Mabogunje, A. (1991) “Elements of Development African Leadership Forum”, Publisher Ibadan.
- Obasi, O. & Nnamdi, E. (2010) Essential Issues in Rural Development, Cremd Publishers.
- Okigbo, P.N. (1987) Essays in the Public Philosophy of Development, Fourth Dimension Publisher Vol.1.
