Women and Rural Development in Nigeria: Some Critical Issues for Policy Consideration

Abstract

This paper examines the broad idea of gender and development with specific focus on some critical issues and challenges confronting the involvement of rural women in development activities in Nigeria. The paper addresses this issue through some theoretical and empirical review of literatures. Major impacts of women in rural development in Nigeria have been discussed and situated at historical perspectives through analysis of policies and programmes of government. Although women have served as critical agents of rural economic transformation, such role has been limited in scope, mostly shaped by the dictates of local patriarchy and religious beliefs. Their impacts have been felt indirectly in subsistent agriculture, and directly at the domestic domain. A number of challenges affecting their active involvement in rural development have been discussed to include the prevalence of cultural and institutional barriers as well as limited access to critical infrastructures in the rural areas. Policy recommendations focus on practical, legislative, legal and administrative actions that are particularly targeted at addressing those barriers.

Women’s empowerment in agriculture and agricultural productivity: Evidence from rural maize farmer households in western Kenya

“…Research has also shown that empowering women can lead to improvements in their status both inside and outside the household—including greater control over household resources; better mental health; reduced time constraints; and increased access to financial services, health care, skills development, income-earning opportunities, information about markets and legal rights—all of which may, in turn, positively impact agricultural productivity, nutrition and food security [ 6 , 32 , 33 , 34 ]. Hence, promoting gender equality is a major focus of rural development policy that aims to achieve sustained food security and poverty alleviation in agrarian economies, including those in SSA [ 35 , 36 , 37 ]. With specific respect to SSA, therefore, understanding the role of women’s empowerment in agriculture is important for policymakers and development partners interested in devising more effective interventions to increase agricultural productivity, enhance household and national economic growth, achieve food security, improve nutrition, and reduce poverty.…”

Impact of Infrastructure on Socio-economic Development in Rural Areas: Evidence from the State of Haryana, India

“…In addition to infrastructure development, various other programmes for rural development have been planned, executed with some success (Nikula et al, 2011). Akpan (2015) felt that involvement of local people is more important in developing countries and various policy initiatives have provided support to improve rural infrastructure and socio-economic status (Neumeier, 2017). But these initiatives have not been isolated from a set of problems.…”

Consolidation and Credit Access Risk in Rural Nigeria: Impact Assessment after a Decade of Implementation.

“…These drawbacks notwithstanding, there is a high prospect of growth in the economy of Nigeria if access to credit for investment purposes is made less herculean (Aku, 1986) as the country has been achieving 7% growth each year since 2009 (Fund, 2013; World Bank, 2016;). There are empirical evidences that the growth and development of the Nigeria economy can be accelerated if the rural inhabitants have access to credit to grow the value chain of their agricultural businesses as agriculture is a veritable diversification for the country's economy from crude oil (see; Uzonwanne, 2015; S. Akpan, 2015;Eko et al, 2013). The DMBs in the country have integrated modern banking technology in their service delivery to reduce the stress associated with access to banking services in the country (Oluwatolani, Joshua and Phillip, 2011), but of concern is the achievement of a reasonable level of financial inclusion, which is a panacea for access to credit, and this is what we investigate in this work.…”