Analysis of Perceived Constraints and Improvement Strategies of Development Interventions among Rural Women in Imo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed the perceived constraints and improvement strategies of development interventions on rural women in Imo State of Nigeria. The study identified socio-economic characteristics of rural women; their perceived extent of interventions by development agencies; also examined the constraints militating against rural women from benefiting in the interventions and area of improvements in development interventions. Data for the study were collected using structured questionnaire from 402 rural women in the three agricultural zones of Imo state and were selected through multi-stage random sampling technique. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as mean, frequency distribution and multiple regression technique. The result showed that majority of the rural women (34.3%) had primary education and had spent more than 17 years in their major occupation. Majority (50.2%) have household size of 5 to 8 members. The average monthly income of the rural women was N15, 752. Majority of the women (64.2%) had savings while majority (64.9%) did not have access to credit facility. The grand mean of constraints limiting women from benefiting from development interventions was high (mean = 3.07), some of the constraints women perceived were lack of continuity in the program (mean = 3.60) and embezzlement of fund meant for development (mean = 3.43) among others. The multiple regression analysis result shows that the socio economic characteristics of age, marital status, years of experience, savings, access to credit facility were significantly related with the rural women’s level of perception of constraints militating against rural women from benefiting in the development interventions. Therefore, the study recommended among others that government should ensure that the development intervention agencies should be functional and effective in the rural areas since the rural women could not feel the impacts of these interventions.