Poverty Alleviation Programmes and Sustainable Youth Empowerment in Nigeria

PurposeAlthough the literature has shown that government intervention programs on poverty alleviation have now become a common practice and accepted policy framework in tackling the menace of poverty which has remained the major challenge to all leaders around the globe. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of (conditional cash transfer, youth empowerment and microcredit scheme) on poverty alleviation in Niger state-Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachThe hypotheses of the study were tested using personally administered questionnaires survey method; 442 valid and useable questionnaires were obtained for the study, while PLS-SEM path modeling was adopted to evaluate the statistical relationship between those three programs and poverty alleviation. According to the statistical result of the study, the research constructs have a satisfactory convergent and discriminant validity. Therefore the study has established a strong positive relationship between government intervention programs and poverty alleviation. The socioeconomic assessment of the respondents further justified the above assumption.FindingsAlso, the research findings of this study may found to be beneficial to the government, international organization, researchers particularly those who are conducting research on poverty reduction programs.Research limitations/implicationsThe study used the perceptions of the beneficiaries of those programs in nine selected local government areas within the three senatorial districts in Niger state-Nigeria.Originality/valueSimilarly, the findings of the study would offer some meaningful contribution to the body of knowledge on studies related to poverty alleviation programs like conditional cash transfer, youth empowerment and microcredit scheme, where expert in that field would explore the advantage of these findings by utilizing the impacts of those programs on the beneficiaries for policy framework.

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Zimbabwe’s Youth Empowerment Programme and Poverty Alleviation amongst Youths in Gweru Urban District

Journal of Governance and Development (JGD) - Vol 16 No 1 (2020) ◽

10.32890/jgd2020.16.2.6 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 103-126

Author(s):

Fungayi Promote Maraire ◽

Constantine Munhande

Keyword(s):

Poverty Alleviation ◽

Qualitative Content Analysis ◽

Case Study Research ◽

High Rate ◽

Primary Data ◽

Youth Empowerment ◽

Urban District ◽

Limited Effectiveness ◽

The Government ◽

Micro Credit

Zimbabwe’s youth empowerment programme was a public-private partnership between the Government of Zimbabwe and some Zimbabwean financial institutions. The aim of the programme was to alleviate poverty amongst youths through the provision of micro credit. Established in 2009 as the panacea for Zimbabwe’s youth empowerment challenges, there is very little credible data on the performance and effectiveness of this noble intervention that was criticised by some as partisan. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the extent to which Zimbabwe’s youth empowerment programme was able to achieve its main objective of alleviating poverty amongst the youths in Zimbabwe’s Gweru Urban District. The paper adopts a qualitative case study research design utilising both primary and secondary sources of data. Primary data was collected through semi- structured interviews with key informants as well as researcher observation. Secondary data was mainly obtained through searches of both physical and online libraries and repositories. Qualitative content analysis is the method used to analyse the data. The research findings reveal that the objectives of the programme were indeed relevant to the current challenges being faced by the youth in Zimbabwe. However, the programme had very little effect on youth poverty and unemployment in Gweru Urban District which remains high. Possible reasons for the limited effectiveness could be the fact that few youth projects were funded as compared to the number of youths that were in need of funding. The high rate of collapse of the youth projects funded coupled with the failure to sustain production levels achieved after accessing the loans also meant that chances of employment creation were limited. There were however, a few success stories noted by the study. The study recommends more training for beneficiaries if such programmes are to be more effective in future. This study is of significance as it adds to the existing body of knowledge the effectiveness of micro credit as a poverty alleviation strategy. Moreover, the paper is of importance to the Zimbabwe government and other development agents as it provides credible and perhaps more reliable accounts on the performance and effectiveness of Zimbabwe’s youth empowerment programme.

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Youth Empowerment Program In Nigeria: A Strategy For Poverty Alleviation And National Development

Journal of Public Value and Administration Insights ◽

10.31580/jpvai.v2i3.921 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. 12-14

Author(s):

MUSA WAZIRI ◽

Abu Idris

Keyword(s):

Poverty Alleviation ◽

Poverty Reduction ◽

Social Science Research ◽

National Development ◽

Mirror Image ◽

Sustainable Growth ◽

High Rate ◽

Youth Empowerment ◽

The Impact ◽

Empowerment Program

Development is a process of attaining sustainable growth and the system's ability to cope with periodic changes in the realization of political, economic and social development through policies and programs. Successful governments in Nigeria have introduced several programs to alleviate poverty and attain national development. This paper is positioned on the qualitative method of social science research using secondary sources of data to examine the impact of the Youth Empowerment Program (YEP) on poverty reduction and national development. The study reveals that Low GDP growth, economic recession, and low investment are direct causes in the shrinking demand for job opportunities for the teeming unemployed youth and above all a mirror image of the state of an economy. It, therefore, explains that YEP has not alleviated poverty among the target beneficiaries and has insignificantly contributed to national development. The paper attributed poor performance of YEP to the high rate of unemployment in the country and therefore recommends for empowering the youth by exposing them into different vocational skills may help them to engage into sustainable-income and self-empowerment for national development which will lead to sustained poverty alleviation.

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The Psychology of Poverty Alleviation

10.1017/9781108885775 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

William Ascher

Keyword(s):

Poverty Alleviation

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Youth Empowerment and Policy Project: Alcohol Advertising and Underage Drinking: A Youth Perspective: Findings and Recommendations

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e544192010-001 ◽

2005 ◽

Keyword(s):

Underage Drinking ◽

Youth Empowerment ◽

Alcohol Advertising ◽

Youth Perspective

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Preliminary results from the Youth Empowerment Project

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e628672012-034 ◽

2003 ◽

Author(s):

E. Ablah ◽

R. Lewis

Keyword(s):

Youth Empowerment ◽

Preliminary Results

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Photovoice As an Intervention for At-Risk Youth Empowerment

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e649012012-001 ◽

2012 ◽

Author(s):

Alexander P. Ojeda ◽

David V. Chavez

Keyword(s):

At Risk ◽

At Risk Youth ◽

Youth Empowerment

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A Donor Influenced by Local Dynamics

Sociology of Development ◽

10.1525/sod.2016.2.1.51 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 51-69 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Setsuko Matsuzawa

Keyword(s):

Poverty Alleviation ◽

Rural Poverty ◽

Unintended Consequences ◽

Local Dynamics ◽

Grant Program ◽

Local Actors ◽

Research Interviews ◽

National Model ◽

Management Project ◽

Development Discourses

This article explores the relations between a foreign aid donor and local actors in the context of the dissemination of development discourses and practices in an authoritarian context. It addresses the question “To what extent may the local dynamics alter the original goals of a donor and lead to unintended consequences?” Based on archival research, interviews, and secondary literature, this case study examines the Yunnan Uplands Management Project (YUM) in 1990–95, the Ford Foundation's first grant program on rural poverty alleviation in China. While the Foundation did not attain its main goal of making YUM a national model for poverty alleviation, the local actors were able to use YUM to develop individual capacities and to build roles for themselves as development actors in the form of associations and nongovernmental organizations, resulting in further support from the Foundation. The study contributes to our understanding of donor-local actor dynamics by highlighting the gaps between the original goals of a donor and the perspectives and motivations of local actors. The study suggests that local dynamics may influence the goals of donors and the ways they seek to disseminate development discourses and practices to local actors, despite the common conception of donors as hegemonic or culturally imperialistic.

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