ABSTRACT

This study assessed women participation in self-help community development projects in South-East Nigeria. It adopted a descriptive survey research design. Seven research questions and four null hypotheses guided the study. The population of the study is 12,000 women while 1200 constituted the sample using proportionate random sampling technique. The instrument used was questionnaire which was validated by five experts in adult education and measurement and evaluation. The reliability coefficient value of the instrument was 0.84. Percentage was used to analyze research question one which is on the personal characteristics of the respondents while mean and standard deviation were used to analyze other research questions and z-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed, among others, that 629 respondents which is 53.9% were married, 972 (83.3%) have children, 1,139 which is equivalent to 97.6% have educational qualifications and 1,007 respondents (86.3%) are Christians. The extent of participation of the women in most of the projects is high. On the extent of participation in the various steps/processes involved in carrying out the self-help community development projects, participation was high in eight out of the nine processes. The constraints to effective participation, among others, were lack of idea of what the project has to offer, mismanagement of fund, lack of commitment, lack of development planning, ineffective mobilization and lack of monitoring and evaluation. The strategies that enhance participation in community development projects among South-East Nigerian women include; benefits to be gained, accountable leadership, commitment, proper and effective mobilization, monitoring and evaluation. There was significant difference in the mean ratings of the responses of literate and non-literate women on their extent of participation in the various self-help academic development projects while there was no significant difference in their responses on their extent of participation in income generating projects. There was no significant difference in the mean ratings of fixed and non-fixed income earners on their extent of participation in infrastructural development projects while there was significant difference in their responses on their extent of participation in the various processes involved in carrying out self-help community development projects. The major recommendations, among others, were that more awareness should be created through development workers with the means of local media like newspapers, religious leaders, town criers, radio and that efforts should be made to sensitize women on the importance of mobilization and the mobilization strategies for community development to enable them perform better.