Women’s Perception of the Effects of Community and Social Development Project (CSDP) on their Livelihood Activities in Ondo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was carried out to investigate the women’s perception of the effects of Community and Social Development Project (CSDP) on their livelihood activities in Ondo State, Nigeria.  A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to randomly select 120 respondents from three benefitting Local Government Areas in the state. Primary data were collected with the aid of interview schedule and analyzed using frequency counts, percentages, mean as well as Chi square. The mean age of the respondents was 42 years. Most (70.8%) of the respondents were married with mean household size of 6 persons, were ordinary members of social groups (73.3%) and were farmers (46.7%) with and a mean monthly income of ₦18,000.00. Most (60.2%) of the respondents had agricultural value chain activities as their livelihood activities. The study revealed that the respondents had positive perception of CSDP projects such as construction of; potable water supply project (4.01), road/bridge (4.04), health and maternity centre (4.01), community hall/viewing centre (4.06), skill acquisition centre (4.21), market (4.10). There was a significant association between CSDP micro-projects and selected livelihood activities such as crop production (χ2Cal =13.2), livestock production (χ2 Cal =39.8), farm produce processing (χ2Cal =4.3), gathering of wood (χ2Cal =5.4), petty trade (χ2Cal =21.0) and gathering of non-timber products (χ2Cal =4.6). Women’s perception of effects of CSDP projects on their livelihood activities was favourable. Therefore, the study recommends that development strategies and plan should be well structured by the government to improve the livelihood activities of women especially agriculture for improved income and livelihoods.