Economic Empowerment of Pastoralist Fulani Women and Sustainable Development of Nasarawa State, Nigeria

Women's empowerment is hindered by discriminatory traditional practices and stereotypes, especially among the culture-bound pastoralist Fulanis across the entire Sahel savannah. In addition to this, low educational status, low access to maternal and reproductive health care services, low access to land and property ownership, early marriage, among others continue to impact on their lived experiences with adverse impact on their pastoralist livelihood in Nasarawa State and Nigeria. This article attempts to assess the impact of economic empowerment and sustainable national development among pastoralist women in Nasarawa State, Nigeria. The study adopts a participatory action research design and a multistage cluster sampling technique to identify the cluster of locations of pastoralists across the 13 Local Government Areas of Nasarawa State, for skills acquisition training organized by Fulbe Development and Cultural Organization (henceforth, FUDECO). Sociocultural approach and social exclusion theory were adopted as theoretical frameworks for the study. Quantitative data were collected and analyzed using frequency and percentages. Findings show that over 70% of the pastoralist women do not have access to education, healthcare, portable drinking water, and land, in addition to high discriminatory practices leading to their low socioeconomic status. The paper recommends that pastoralist women should be allowed to go to school with a strong priority for skills acquisition. Also, efforts should be made to create awareness for the general public on how to embrace pastoralist women as an integral part of the national development framework of Nasarawa State and Nigeria.