Factors Affecting Community Participation In Community Development Programmes In Gombe State, Nigeria
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Factors Affecting Community Participation In Community Development Programmes In Gombe State, Nigeria
ABSTRACT
This study used a survey research approach to investigate factors influencing participation in community development in Gombe state, Nigeria. Four research questions guided the investigation, and four hypotheses were developed and tested at the (0.05) level of significance. The study was carried out in all eleven local government areas of Gombe state.
The study’s demographic and sample included 330 registered members of Gombe state’s community development association. A questionnaire titled “Factors Affecting Community Participation in Community Development Programmes in Gombe State, (FACPCDP) Nigeria” with 40 items was structured based on the factors affecting community participation.
Respondents’ responses ranged from very high extant, high extant, low extant, and very low extant. The instrument’s internal consistency has a reliability coefficient of 0.92 Cronbach alpha. A total of 308 questionnaires were returned for analysis, representing a 98% return rate
The collected data was analysed using means of 2.50 of high acceptability and t-test statistics, with a significant level of (0.05). The study has consequences for raising awareness about the questioner form and the poor road network;
thus, proposals for community engagement were developed, as well as frequent workshops and seminars on the value of community participation.
Chapter One: Introduction
Background to the Study
Development in each community is determined by the level of involvement of its immediate citizens who work together to attain common goals. Community development is the process of bringing people together with the common objective of improving their social, economic, political, educational, and cultural well-being in order to live a better life.
Thus, people’s participation is an essential component of efficient community development. People’s participation cannot be ignored in development attempts (Mohammed, 2010).
As a result, people’s participation in community development is gaining traction as part of the human empowerment and development process. Participation, as the phrase implies, is seen as an important factor in the implementation of community development programs.
Participation refers to the equitable and active involvement of all stakeholders in the creation of development policies and strategies, as well as the analysis, planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of development activities. (Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO, 2007).
Participation is the process by which stakeholders influence and share control over development initiatives and make decisions about resources that affect them (World Bank, 2003).
As a result, by making individuals aware of the initiative, awareness is raised. Awareness is the process of informing people about a specific project that is taking place in their neighbourhood.
Also, awareness involves enlightening individuals about what is going on in the community in terms of development, work, or the process of informing people about current community events.
This information is communicated through the usage of mass media as a hub for sharing and controlling activities. Active involvement also puts people at the centre of achieving and sharing control over development activities, as well as making decisions about resources that affect them (Allen, 2000).
Participation encompasses people’s involvement in decision-making processes, program implementation, sharing program benefits, and attempts to assess and evaluate such programs.
Participation includes using a service, contributing money, materials, and labour through attendance or consultation on a specific topic, implementing delegated power in real decision making at all stages, identifying difficulties, and becoming a member of the implementation and evolution committee.
According to Pan (2011), community participation is an active process in which beneficiary or client groups influence the design and execution of a development project with the goal of improving their well-being in terms of income, personal growth, self-reliance, or other values.According to Nzeh (2012), participation is a process of empowering the disadvantaged and excluded.
This viewpoint is founded on the understanding of disparities in political and economic power among various social groupings and strata. Participation in this sense involves the establishment of a democratically independent and self-sufficient organisation (Ajaji and Otuya, 2006).
In other words, participation is a process in which local residents submit feedback and cooperate or work with planners and developers to achieve an acceptable and successful conclusion, or in which initiatives can be implemented more successfully. Participation can sometimes be viewed as a goal in itself. Effective participation processes assist people in acquiring knowledge, skills, and experiences that are necessary for change.
As a result, community participation is a method of linking the efforts of people of various classes and backgrounds with those of government officials in order to improve the social, economic, and cultural conditions of communities in a specific location, thereby integrating these communities into national life and allowing them to fully contribute to national progress.
Community development is basically concerned with decision-making processes that impact users, community-based organisations, and services. It is based on a ‘bottom-up’ approach, which means strengthening communities’ ability to set goals, pursue issues of importance to them, and make decisions that affect them.
Community embraces members of a specific community of interest and place, as well as statutory, voluntary, or private community-based agencies and entities concerned with improving quality of life and addressing disadvantage in those areas.
Bomber, Owens, Schofeld, and Ghats (2010) stated that in order to achieve community development, community people must be directly involved in the development process. Participation requires taking part in decision-making processes such as selecting a community project, planning, implementing, managing, monitoring, and controlling.
Community development can be defined as a process in which people’s efforts are combined with those of government authorities to improve the economic, social, and cultural conditions of communities, resulting in the integration of those communities into the life of a nation and allowing them to fully contribute to the nation’s progress (United Nations 2013).
Community development is a method that can lead to the achievement of a desired change by mobilising people via self-help and participation in their own initiatives (Anyauwu, 2004).Furthermore, community development is a way for ensuring people’s active engagement and cooperation in order to improve their standard of living.
To that end, community engagement in community development entails assisting community members in understanding each other’s challenges, needs, and potential contributions while working and learning together to identify creative ways of resolving conflict and finding mutually beneficial solutions.
Bomberet al. (2009) revealed that the most effective community development initiatives in the world entail the participation of various partners in delivering program activities at the neighbourhood level.
Community development as a program focusses on certain activities such as health care, agriculture, industry, and recreation. Community development is a programme designed to highlight the activities that take place during the development process.
According to Ife (2002), it is through this program that community development interacts with subject area experts such as health care professionals, welfare workers, the agricultural system, industry, and recreation.
This means that people should be encouraged to grasp the issues that matter to their neighbourhoods and work together to keep the community strong and healthy. It is also clear that members of an engaged participatory community contribute to the educational and structural development of their immediate environment.
As a result, community involvement is profoundly embedded in the notion of community development, which enjoins that whatever is done to better the welfare of the people must strive to elicit their excitement and wholehearted engagement.
Nnoll, Ajaji, and Smith (2011) observe that public participation leads to better decisions. A community decision involving citizens is more likely to be accepted by the local population. This concept depicts community development in its genuine light: a cooperative of partnership in progress.
Certainly, many Nigerian communities find it difficult to access basic welfare services. Local and organised efforts have become necessary for communities to enhance the realisation of community development goals, particularly in areas where government patronage was difficult to obtain at all times, whereas organised development efforts through community development programmes are now popular.
Dan (2011) described the situation in which community bodies are simply little organisations operating inside a larger social milieu plagued by poverty, a low standard of living, and economic volatility.
As a result, they may lack the necessary fiscal means to launch or sustain a project. There is a limit to how efficiently communities can participate in such dismal economic conditions.
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