ASSESSING WOMEN PARTICIPATION IN LIVELIHOOD ACTIVITIES FOR POVERTY ALLEVIATION IN THE NIGER DELTA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF RIVERS AND IMO STATES, NIGERIA

This study assessed women participation in livelihood activities for poverty alleviation in the Niger Delta: A comparative study of Rivers and Imo States, Nigeria. Three specific objectives included to: describe the social economic characteristics of women participating in livelihood activities, determine the level of women participation, and identify the constraints to women participation in livelihood activities for poverty alleviation in Rivers and Imo States. Descriptive survey design was adopted to examine a cross section of women in livelihood activities in the area. Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were adopted to select four hundred and fourteen (414) women for the study. Questionnaire instrument mostly designed in ‘Yes/No’ and in a Likert type rating scales were used to elicit information from the respondents. Descriptive statistics such as percentage, arithmetic mean and weighted mean scores were used to analyze the data. Z - Test was the inferential statistics employed to test the hypotheses at 5% significant level. The findings showed that majority of the respondents were married (52.66%), middle age adult women in their prime life of 40 years old. The findings identified crop farming (X̅ = 3.73), politics (X̅ = 3.63), trading on agricultural produce (X̅ = 3.62), food vending and civil service (X̅ = 3.55), livestock farming and processing of foods (X̅ = 3.53), fashion and designing (X̅ = 3.51) and trading on non-agricultural produce (X̅ = 3.45) among others as the most livelihood activities that women in the study areas participated highly. Finally, the result showed in the order of seriousness that unavailability of farm land to women (X̅ = 3.53), inability to access credits (X̅ = 3.42), indiscriminate changes in government policies (X̅ = 3.39), and poor health and lack of power to make decisions (X̅ = 3.35), among others constitute the first ten most serious constraints to women participation in livelihood activities in the area. The tests of significance in this study revealed no significant difference between the livelihood operations of the women in the two states. The study recommended that: women should be supported by the three tiers of government to actively participate in livelihood activities in the area; assets of land, credits, electricity and extension services should be made available and accessible to women in the study areas by government and non-governmental organizations operating in the areas; and the women should be determined to form themselves into functional cooperative societies for the purpose of raising and using money mutually for their economic growth and development, among others.