The Constraints of Social Welfare Policy in Rural Poverty Reduction: A Study of National Poverty Eradication Programme in Oron and Udung Uko Local Government Areas, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction Poverty has affected all aspects of rural life including the environment, health, education, housing, nutrition, agriculture etc. It has disrupted families and communities. Countries of Sub-Saharan African are among the poorest in the world both in terms of real income as well as access to social services. About forty-five percent of the people of this region live below the poverty line. About sixty six percent of the rural people and forty three percent of urban poor live on less than $1 per day (Nkpoyen & Bassey, 2012; National Independent Report, 2004). Poverty in Nigeria remains one of the greatest challenges the country is facing. The 1995 World Summit for Social Development defined absolute poverty as the condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health facilities, shelter, education and information. Despite alternative development strategies, many rural communities continue to register poor socioeconomic conditions, rising inflation, lack of access to basic social services. In Nigeria, a large number of economically active poor people are known to reside in rural areas. Their feelings towards their plight is occasioned by the inability of governments and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)to efficiently harness resources in order to better the quality of lives. The persistency of this problem continues to widen the income gap between the rich and the poor and with implication for social inequality of rural dwellers, thereby necessitating rural-urban migration (Nemedia, 2000). Poverty has been recognized as a universal social problem that must be eradicated if the world is to be humane, stable and just (Ekong, 2003). While opening the World Submit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South African September 2002, Thabo Mbeki the then South African President told delegates that "for the first time in human history, human society possess the capacity, the knowledge and the resources to eradicate poverty and underdevelopment". Ellis (2000) had earlier observed that "poverty is no longer inevitable and should not be tolerated; that its eradication is a practical possibility. Rural poverty tends to be of compound of absolute relative and zero-sum. Poverty eradication has since become the major focus of the more important funding agencies of the United Nations Organization, namely UNDP and IFAD-rural poverty reduction; UNFPA-women, reproductive health and family planning; UNICEM-women empowerment; UNICEF-children and the girl child. At the 1995 Copenhagen Summit, world governments committed themselves to follow-up action and implementation in partnership with all stakeholders. They were to prepare strategies geared towards overall reduction of poverty substantially in the shortest possible time (Ekong, 2003).