Poverty has been
estimated to engulf about 1.3m population world wide (oladipo 1999). According
to Elumilade and Asaola (2006) Africa is predominantly populated by poor people
and good proportion of the African poor are Nigerians Geometrical progression
in the incidences of poverty has been reported in Nigeria between 1980 and 1985
as well as 1992 and 1996 against Government
effort on poverty alleviation (MDGR 2004).
Some specific Government supported
programmes aimed at poverty alleviation in Nigeria include; Agricultural
Development Programme ADP (1975), Directorate of Food, road
and rural
infrastructure DFRRI (1986) and family Economic Advancement Programme FEAP
(1998). Others include National Fadama development project NFDD (1992) and
Community based poverty reduction Agency (2003). In addition, some
international private and non governmental organization namely United Nations
development programmes (UNDP), Micro-finance Banks (MFB). They have implemented
poverty alleviation projects to the people at the same time. The community
based poverty reduction agency CPRA operates under the civil service framework
and it is some –what beset with civil service beaurocratic control (Badru
2002).
In Ebonyi State of Nigeria, the CPRA
which was re-named Ebonyi State Community and Social Development Agency (EB-CSDA)
in 2010 is the most prominent government supported poverty reduction agency
which implement programmes to the beneficiaries. The EB-CSDA is funded by the
government and have an independent structure and mode of operation in pursuing
its specific objective to the targeted beneficiaries. As a government funded
agency, EB-CSDA is operating a national and state co-ordinating offices while
linking up with the community implementation committee. Over the years, little
progress has been made in achieving poverty alleviation in Ebonyi State,
Nigeria despite the huge human, material and financial support and investment.
One major assumption behind the
operation of Government Funded EB-CSDA in poverty alleviation activities is
that development effort could be enhanced meaningfully through the agency.
Successful poverty alleviation no doubt must involve projects and strategies
with notable improvement on the sound economic conditions of the beneficiaries
as measures to the extent of achievements. What are the different poverty
alleviation projects, executed by EB-CSDA in Ishielu local government area of
Ebonyi State? What strategies have been employed by EB-CSDA in it’s contact
with the people?
DISCUSSION
Data reveal that majority up to
60.71% of beneficiaries were males while 58.63% were married. The foregoing
indicates that they involved more men in their programme.
In terms of age 72.03% were 21-49
years and 14.42% were 50 years and above. Thus the EB-CSDA targeted adult
beneficiaries in their poverty reduction project.