Community Participation and Rural Development in Nasarawa State

Abstract

This paper discusses community participation in rural development as a panacea for rural poverty reduction with Nasarawa State as a reference point with the evaluation of the effects of community participation in five rural development projects executed in two rural communities in Lafia and Akwanga Local Government Areas of the State. The concepts of “community participation” and “rural development” as well as Top-Down and Bottom-Up approaches to rural development are examined. The instruments used in data collection for this work were a combination of questionnaire administered to a sample size of 95respondents from the communities and focused group discussion using unstructured oral interview. Secondary data were also used from existing literature on community participation and rural development. The data collected were analyzed and presented in frequency tables. The findings of the study showed that most rural development projects fail because the benefitting communities are not involved in the conception and execution of such projects and that there is a significant correlation between community participation and rural development projects in Nasarawa State. The paper also examines the relevance of community participation in rural development and poverty reduction. In order to improve and encourage community participation in rural development projects for sustainable rural development, it is recommended that government and development agencies/partners should involve communities in project initiations and executions in which the communities act as partners in generating, interpreting and using information through which they analyze and prioritize their local development needs. The paper concludes that for effective rural development, the bottom-up approach should be advocated in executing rural development projects.