scholarly journals Examining the Role of Non-Formal Education as a Conduit to Poverty Reduction and Rural Development: The Case of a Rural Community in a Municipality in Ghana

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Intsiful ◽  
Albert Martins

Non-formal education (NFE) programmes involve literacy and numerical programmes that aim at training people to read and write. Gaining such basic literacy skills enables a person to use the reading, writing and calculation to develop the self and the community as a whole. In the Ghanaian context, the Ministry of Education in the year 2000 established the National Functional Literacy Programme with the chief aim of making accessible literacy and life skills to the rural poor and the illiterate. The aim of this paper was to examine the extent to which non-formal education contributes to literacy improvement, poverty reduction and rural development in a rural community within a municipality in Ghana. The researchers employed Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach to economic and human development and Paulo Freire’s concept of education for conscientization.The findings of the study show that the non-formal education programme plays a very critical role in the reduction of illiteracy coupled with improving the living standard of the rural adult learners, once the programme is well organized and implemented. Thus, the activities of NFE have the potential to make the illiterate poor become functionally literate which is a necessary condition for poverty reduction. Providing skill training is one of the major ways of improving the livelihood of poor people. Based on the impact of NFE activities on those who had graduated from the programme has the potential of reducing illiteracy and improving the standard of living of the people. The impact has been felt in areas like literacy and numeracy, economic, social and political empowerment of learners in the community studied. However, the programme needs to be strengthened to address the issue of funding which has become a major challenge for the NFE. Facilitators and supervisors need enough motivation to commit them fully to the task and learners need support to start their own business to bring about meaningful poverty reduction.

1970 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 314
Author(s):  
Abdul Majeed Yaqoob ◽  
Wasiu Akintunde Yusuf ◽  
Sulaiman Adesina Yusuf

It is widely acknowledged that access to financial services plays a critical role in helping poor people strengthen their economic potentials, increase their asset base and diminish their vulnerabilities to external shocks. However, poor people have very limited access to financial services provided by the formal financial institutions due to the procedures outlined for accessing such loans. In recent time, Microcredit has received global attention owing to its claim in alleviating poverty. This study investigates the impact of microcredit program on poverty reduction among rural households in Saki East Local Government area of Oyo State using logit model and propensity score matching techniques to prove the impact. Findings revealed a negative, non-significant impact of microcredit on poverty reduction among rural households. Therefore, it is recommended that microcredit program should be implemented along with other poverty alleviation strategies.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-74
Author(s):  
Fonteh Athanasius Amungwa

This paper examines the impact of community education and challenges facing Centres for Education and Community Action as a rural development strategy in Cameroon. The study was conducted in the North-West Region of Cameroon, employing field observations, semi-structured interviews with key informants using a convenient sampling technique and through elaborate review of documents. These research instruments were blended into what is termed triangulation and the data collected was analysed descriptively. The main focus of qualitative analysis is to understand the ways in which people act and the accounts that people give for their actions. This paper posits that extreme dependence on the provision of Western formal education cannot solve the problems of a rapidly changing society like Cameroon, which is facing a long-term economic crisis and persistent unemployment issues of graduates. Consequently, education should be redefined in the context of the prevailing economic crisis to make it responsive to the aspirations of rural communities. Findings showed that community education had contributed towards rural development immensely but has suffered many challenges due to neglect of the field in the policy agenda. This paper recommends the integration of community education with formal education to facilitate group and community betterment in particular and rural transformation in general.


Author(s):  
Anand Chand

This chapter examines the role of People First Network (PFnet) services in enhancing information and communication and contributing to sustainable rural development and poverty reduction in Solomon Islands. More specifically, it examines two main issues. First, it examines the uptake and appropriation of PFnet services by rural Solomon Islanders. Second, it examines the impact of PFnet services on sustainable rural development and poverty reduction in Solomon Islands. This chapter is based on a empirical research conducted in Solomon Islands between January-May 2004. The chapter is organised as follows: Section one provides an overview of PFnet Project. Section two states the main aims of the study. Section three outlines the methodology used for the research. The Section four reports the main research findings. Section five discusses some problems and finally section six provides the conclusion.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 114
Author(s):  
Iddirisu Andani Mu-azu ◽  
G.P. Shivram

AbstractThe paper set out a platform to investigate the impact of FM radio broadcast in local dialects on rural community development in the Tamale Metropolis of Northern Ghana. The study adopts survey design and also employs probability proportional techniques to select communities for the study. The main thrust of this paper is on the impact of local dialect on rural community development, preferences of development programmes and the community’s participation in the production of radio programmes. Out of 400 questionnaires distributed, 392 was retrieved and analysed. From the results, it is established that local dialect broadcast on radio have an impact on development of rural communities. Also, it improves awareness and knowledge of solutions to community’s development problems in education, agriculture, environment, culture, politics and religion. The paper compare target audience’s preference for local dialect radio programmes to other similar content programmes that were not broadcast in local dialect. It concludes that radio broadcast in local dialect plays a pivotal role in bridging the communication gap between government and rural communities. It proved to be one of the effective mode of communication at the grass-root level. The study shows a positive role played by the indigenous dialect’s radio programmes and recommends that rural development programmes on radio should be packaged in local language. Thus, enhances listenership, interest and positive desired behavioural change.Key Words: Impact, FM Radio Broadcast, Local Dialect, Rural Development, Ghana. 


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Rebar Fatah Mohammed ◽  
Ismail Aziz Asad ◽  
Abduallah Al-Dabash

Demonstrates the concept of poverty to deny the poor access to basic basket of goods consisting of food, clothing and housing, in addition to a minimum of other needs, such as health care, transportation and education .and human capital in Iraq suffers from poverty capacity that qualify to contribute to economic development. Research has adopted a hypothesis: that inflation lowers the value of the currency and thus raise the poverty line, which contributes to the increase in the number of poor in the country, which contributes to reducing the skills and abilities of young people to contribute to economic development . The research aims to study the effect of inflation in increasing the number of poor people in Iraq through the study of the impact of inflation and its impact on the poverty line on human capital in Iraq. The research has come to conclusions which: : The poverty line in Iraq, equivalent to about $ 100 a month, less than the rate of $ 2 per day, and this means that Iraq's poor live in deprivation and extreme poverty compared to poor African countries, non-oil, which constitutes the poverty line, up to $ 30-60 per month. The reasons for the high rates of inflation in Iraq due to the absence of a clearly . The spread of financial and administrative corruption, according to a report in the governance of the international organization which ranked Iraq the last state in transparency. Some styles of gatekeepers and decision-makers to adopt Gatekeepers  currency and pumped into the market or hard currency smuggling to neighboring countries . The research was presented proposals including: the development of macroeconomic policy include the ways and methods of reducing poverty in Iraq, and to benefit from the experiences of other countries such as Malaysia, Turkey and Singapore. Reduce the financial and administrative corruption through the dimensions of the corrupt and thieves for managerial positions and refer them to the courts . Open foreign direct investment in all areas of economic and service sectors to provide job opportunities contribute to the reduction of unemployment and poverty reduction.


2015 ◽  
Vol 54 (4I-II) ◽  
pp. 931-944
Author(s):  
Syed Kalim Hyder ◽  
Qazi Masood Ahmed ◽  
Haroon Jamal

The traditional notion that has influenced the development thinking for almost half a century is that economic growth is fundamental to the development process, and that the objective of poverty reduction can only be achieved by allowing the benefits of growth to ultimately trickle down to the poor. The „primacy of growth‟ paradigm is based on the premise that high growth, through high investment, would lead to higher employment and higher wages, and thereby reducing poverty. The „trickle-down‟ paradigm assumes that the benefits of economic growth would, in the first round, accrue to the upper income groups, and the ensuing consumption expenditures of these households would, in subsequent rounds, accrue incomes to relatively lower income households. Importance of equity consideration in poverty alleviation efforts has been brought out of the cold and now has re-entered the mainstream development policy agenda in many developing countries. This is the consequence of a deep-rooted disillusionment with the development paradigm which placed exclusive emphasis on the pursuit of growth. During 1990s, the proliferation of quality data on income distribution from a number of countries has allowed rigorous empirical testing of standing debates on the relative importance of growth and redistribution in poverty reduction. While the debate is still inconclusive, the majority of development economists emphasised, based on empirical cross-country data, that an unequal income distribution is a serious impediment to effective poverty alleviation [Ravallion (1997, 2001)]. Many researchers suggested that growth is, in practice the main tool for fighting poverty. However, they also reiterated that the imperative of growth for combating poverty should not be misinterpreted to mean that “growth is all that matters”. Growth is a necessary condition for poverty alleviation, no doubt, but inequality also matters and should also be on the development agenda


Author(s):  
Taiwo Adewale Muritala ◽  
Ismail O. Fasanya

The inflexibility of poverty is being met with increasing impatience from governments of diverse ideologies, donors and other international agencies. Recent data compilations show that many poor and non-poor people in many developing countries face a high degree of financial exclusion and high barriers in access to finance. Therefore, financial inclusion plays a critical role in reducing poverty. Hence, this paper examines the relationship between sustainable financial services and poverty reduction in Nigeria from 1965 - 2010 using Error Correction Model (ECM). It was observed that total value prime lending rate, financial savings, credit to private sector and rate of inflation all have significant impact on the financial deepening. In the final analysis, the study concludes that financial inclusion tends to strengthen financial deepening and provide resources to the banks to expand credit delivery thereby leading to financial development. The study therefore recommends that these findings, in turn, will inform the policy makers and stakeholders to build more inclusive financial systems


2013 ◽  
pp. 1571-1605
Author(s):  
Anand Chand

This chapter examines the role of People First Network (PFnet) services in enhancing information and communication and contributing to sustainable rural development and poverty reduction in Solomon Islands. More specifically, it examines two main issues. First, it examines the uptake and appropriation of PFnet services by rural Solomon Islanders. Second, it examines the impact of PFnet services on sustainable rural development and poverty reduction in Solomon Islands. This chapter is based on a empirical research conducted in Solomon Islands between January-May 2004. The chapter is organised as follows: Section one provides an overview of PFnet Project. Section two states the main aims of the study. Section three outlines the methodology used for the research. The Section four reports the main research findings. Section five discusses some problems and finally section six provides the conclusion.


2022 ◽  
pp. 187-216

Microfinance is believed by many people in Africa to allow poor people to protect, diversify, and increase their sources of income, which is known to be the essential path out of poverty and hunger. This chapter examines whether microfinance can really help to reduce poverty. The enduring question is: Can microfinance be the game changer that will lift the many poor rural women and men in Africa out of the misery of extreme poverty? Is this strategy bliss or myth? First, the author provides a context and rationale for microfinance in African countries. Second, the chapter follows a brief overview of the literature on the impact of microfinance on women's empowerment and whether credit lending transactions benefit the intended recipients. Finally, the chapter reviews the arguments of both sides of the debate and draws out future research trends.


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