The Role of Youths in Community Development 

The Role of Youths in Community Development 

CHAPTER ONE

Purpose of the Study  

The general purpose of the study was to assess youth participation  in planning and implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.

The specific purposes of the study are;

1. to ascertain the extent of youth participation  in the planning of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.
2. to determine the extent of youth participation  in the implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.
3. to examine the factors that affect youth participation  in planning and implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.
4. to determine the strategies for improving participation of youth organizations’ in the planning and implementation of community development projects in Edo State.

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review to this study is organized under the following headings:

Conceptual Framework

• Concept of Youth Organizations
• Concept of Participation
• Concept of Community Development

Theoretical Framework

• Democratic theory
• Maslow’s theory of needs
• Role theory
• Self-efficacy theory

Review of Related Empirical Studies  Summary of Literature Review

Concept of Youth Organizations

Some researchers defined youth according to their age bracket while others according to their vibrancy.  Uwagwu (2013) asserts that youth is when a person is young, especially the time before a child becomes an adult. Therefore youths are those boys and girls, men and women who are young at heart including those between the period of childhood and full man or womanhood. All these may connote looking at the age bracket of between eighteen and twenty-five years and young adults from twenty to thirty five years. People in this age bracket constitute a sizeable population of a nation on which the burden of national building falls. The youths also constitute the major resource base for any country that want to embark on any meaningful community development programme. Lagun (2002) observes that investment on the youth is the only way to ensure the future growth and development of any country, also  the increasing number of youths must be trained as quickly as possible, to provide leadership in agriculture, industry, government and community development programmes. They must be developed intellectually, morally, social and with relevant skills to face the challenges of the world.

While an organization is a group of people identified by a shared interest of purpose (Encarta Dictionary, 2009) meanwhile; it is a gathering meant for the people, with common interest and motives to achieve a common objective. A youth organization is formal organization aimed at children and adolescents for education and socialization. Most organizations have certain ideas and values that they aim to pass on to their members. Youth organizations are group of youths identified by their shared interest of purpose. Akinloye (2005:) classify youth organizations in relation to the characteristics of the environment in which they are located:  Size duration, rhythm proximity of members, basic of formation, access, degree of organization functions, orientations in relation with other groups and types of social control, authority and degree of unity.

Based on these criteria, Ekong (2003) identified eleven types of community based organizations in Nigeria. They are: Community development, cooperative society, and town / village development union, occupation/ professional association, age grade/ group/association, youth association in churches, trade and commercial association, gender groups and indigene club associations.

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CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHOD  

This chapter is concerned with the methodology that was  used for carrying out the research.  The chapter is presented under the following sub-headings: design of the study, area of the study, population of the study, sample and sampling technique, instrument for data collection, validation of instrument, reliability of instrument, procedure for data collection and method of data analysis.

 Design of the Study

The descriptive survey research design was adopted for this study to elicit information on the assessment of youth organization’s participation in planning and implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state. This type of research design is concerned with investigating, documenting and describing events. Descriptive research designs describe events as they are without any manipulation of what caused the event or what is being described (Ali, 2006). Descriptive survey research design was chosen for this study because, this study is a systematic assessment and as such, this method was used.

RESULTS

The results of the data collected and analyzed for the research questions are presented in this chapter. The results are presented in line with the research questions that guided the study.

CHAPTER FIVE

DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS, CONCLUSION,  

RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUMMARY

In this chapter, the results presented in chapter four are discussed based on the four research questions and four null hypotheses that guided the study. The chapter is organized based on the following sub-headings: discussion of the findings, conclusion, educational implications of the findings of the study, recommendations, limitation of the study, suggestion for further studies and Summary of the study.

Discussions of the Results

 The findings of the study are discussed under the relevant sub-headings below in line with the research questions and hypotheses raised in the study.

• The extent youth participation  in the planning of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.
• The extent youth participation  in the implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.
• The factors that affect youth participation  in planning and implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.
• The strategies for improving youth participation  in the planning and implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.

The extent youth participation  in the planning of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.

The findings of this study as presented in table 1, showed that youth organizations to a great extent participate in the planning of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state. Youths participated in setting out goals and objectives, source information for improving their community development project, address the needs for guiding community development projects. They also participated in decision making, setting time frame of the projects, and other. The result also revealed that there was no significant difference in the mean ratings of male and female members of youth organizations on the extent youth organizations’ participated in the planning of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state. These findings are in line with the findings of Ogbu (2008) that youths participated to an extent in the community development projects. In support of this, Uwagwu (2008) also stated that the goal of youth organizations include community development, planning and implementation of community development programmes, formal and non-formal education of members and nonmembers, socio-economic development and conflict resolution.

The extent youth participation  in the implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.

Based on the research findings in table 2, it was observed that youth organizations to a great extent participated in the implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state. Youth participated in vital verification of production, supervision of community development, allocation of responsibilities for projects execution and others. The result of this study disagree with the findings of Ezema (2011) who found out that youth are not effectively involved in the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of community development projects in Nsukka, L.G.A. The result showed also that there is no significant difference between the mean ratings of male and female members of youth organizations on the extent youth organizations participate in the implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.

Conclusion

The following conclusions are drawn from the findings of the study:

• The youth organizations to a great extent participated in the planning of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state. Youths participate in setting out goals   and objectives, source information for improving their community development project, address the needs for guiding community development projects. They also participate in decision making, setting time frame of the projects, and other.
• The youth organizations to a great extent participated in the implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state. Youth participate in vital verification of production, supervision 0f community development, allocating responsibilities for projects execution and others.

• Poor leadership, inadequate fund raising, mismanagement of funds, the leaders, low level of education of youths, lack of commitment in project initiative by some youths, lack of empowerment by the community members and inadequate monitoring of projects for successful implementation are the factors that affect the participation of youth organizations in planning and implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.
• The strategies that can be adopted to improve youth participation in planning and implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state includes the following: youths should be allowed to participate in decision – taking process, planning and execution of any community development projects, monitoring the success of their community development activities. Youth should be involved in leadership training seminars, and empowerment for the community development.
• There is no significant difference in the mean ratings of male and female members of youth organizations on the extent youth organizations’ participate in the planning of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.
• There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of male and female members of youth organizations on the extent youth organizations participate in the implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.
• There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of male and female members of youth organizations on the factors that affect youth participation  in planning and implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.
• There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of male and female members of youth organizations on the strategies for improving the participation of youth organizations in the planning and implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state

Educational Implication of the Findings of the Study

The results of this study have some educational implications to Community leaders, government and other agencies involved in community development, these bodies should see youths and their organization as agents of change and partners in progress. Also mangers of community development programmes should therefore, create enough opportunities for the youths at all stages to participate in of community development.

Also government and other agencies involved in community development in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state need to urgently take steps that would tackle and remove those obstacles that hinder the full participation of youth organizations in community development since their full involvement in community development is important.

Recommendations

The following recommendations are made according to the findings of the study.

1. The state government should strengthen the role of youth organizations using appropriate legislative provisions so that organizations would be seen as partners in sustainable community development and the overall progress of the society.
2. Government should provide adequate vocational training centers to equip youths in particular for self-employment and facilitate maintenance of community level projects.
3. Stakeholders and administrators of community development programmes in particular should integrate youth organizations into the community leadership structures through their involvement in the planning and implementation of community development projects and programs.
4. There should be adequate funding of youth organizations through the state government, local government and philanthropic individuals in the communities.

Limitations of the Study

Research of this nature cannot be completed without limitations. The first limitation of this study was finance. The funds were inadequate. The cost of materials used for this research such as journals, textbooks, internet browsing and so on was not favorable at all.

The task of moving from one place to another to gather information from respondents was the second limitation to this study. Though all the respondents responded to the questionnaire but it was the researcher’s personal effort to make sure that it was properly done.

Suggestions for Further Studies

Based on the findings of the study, the following suggestions were made for further research.

1. Further researches could be carried out on roles of youth organizations in sustainable community development in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.
2. Researches can be undertaken to determine factors influencing participation of rural and urban youth organizations in the planning and implementation of community development.
3. Replication of the same study can be done in another State.
4. Replication of the study could be undertaken over a long period of time.

Summary of the Study

The main purpose of this study was to assess youth participation  in planning and implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state. Four research questions and four null hypotheses were posed and formulated respectively to guide the study. The hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Five of the hypotheses are:

1. There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of male and female members of youth organizations on the extent of   youth organizations participation in the planning of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.
2. There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of male and female members of youth organizations on the extent of youth participation  in the implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.
3. There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of male and female members of youth organizations on the factors that affect youth participation  in planning and implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.
4. There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of male and female members of youth organizations on the strategies for improving the participation of youth organizations in the planning and implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.

The study was carried out in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state , Nigeria. The related literature to the study was reviewed under four main headings namely: conceptual framework, theoretical framework, Review of related empirical studies and summary of literature review. This study used a descriptive survey research design. A total of 500 registered youth members were used as sample size for the study. A 32 item questionnaire modeled on a four point rating scale was used to collect data for the study. Three experts validated the instrument. The instrument was trial tested and the reliability coefficient using Cronbach’s Alpha were 0.83 for cluster A, 0.70 for cluster B, 0.87 for cluster C and 0.68 for cluster D with an overall reliability coefficient of .83 respectively.

The Research questions were analyzed using mean and standard deviation, the null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using t-test. The results of the study revealed that:

1. The youth organizations to a great extent participate in the planning of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state. Youths participate in setting out goals   and objectives, source information for improving their community development project, address the needs for guiding community development projects. They also participate in decision making, setting time frame of the projects, and other.
2. The youth organizations to a great extent participate in the implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state. Youth participate in vital verification of production, supervision 0f community development, allocating responsibilities for projects execution and others.

3. Poor leadership, inadequate fund raising, mismanagement of funds, the leaders, low level of education of youths, lack of commitment in project initiative by some youths, lack of empowerment by the community members and inadequate monitoring of projects for successful implementation are the factors that affect the participation of youth organizations in planning and implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.
4. The strategies that can be adopted to improve youth participation in planning and implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state includes the following: youths should be allowed to participate in decision – taking process, planning and execution of any community development projects, monitoring the success of their community development activities. Youth should be involved in leadership training seminars, and empowerment for the community development.
5. There is no significant difference in the mean ratings of male and female members of youth organizations on the extent youth organizations’ participate in the planning of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.
6. There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of male and female members of youth organizations on the extent youth organizations participate in the implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.

7. There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of male and female members of youth organizations on the factors that affect youth participation  in planning and implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state.
8. There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of male and female members of youth organizations on the strategies for improving the participation of youth organizations in the planning and implementation of community development projects in Oredo L.G.A, Edo state

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