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Title: | Pro poor Policies and a Peaceful Transition to Civil Rule: The Example of the Better Life for Rural Women Programme in Kaduna State |
Author: | Lipede, A.A. |
Year: | 1996 |
Periodical: | African Notes: Bulletin of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan |
Volume: | 20 |
Issue: | 1-2 |
Pages: | 38-48 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Nigeria |
Subjects: | rural development rural women organizations Development and Technology agriculture Politics and Government |
Abstract: | Both colonial and postcolonial administrations in Nigeria have neglected the social and economic well-being of rural communities. At the same time, women have been marginalized from national development processes. Rural women are doubly disadvantaged because their communities have suffered from dislocation and deprivation. This paper focuses on the Better Life for Rural Women Programme (BLP) as a pro-poor policy which aims at alleviating the crippling effects of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) on women in general, and those in rural communities in particular. It examines the extent to which the programme, since its inception in September 1988, has succeeded in integrating rural women into national development efforts and has assisted in establishing a lasting coalition between rural women and the government in the context of the transition from military to civil and democratic rule. The Chukun and Jema'a Local Areas of Kaduna State are used as case studies of the achievements and shortcomings of the programme in the fields of agriculture, agro-industry and education. Constraints of the BLP include the structural and administrative weaknesses of the programme at the local government levels, and the crisis of confidence in the programme's ability to deliver the goods. There is an urgent need to involve rural women in BLP steering committees. Notes, ref. |