Effect of Participation in Community and Social Development Project on Rural Livelihood Enhancement in North West, Nigeria

The study was conducted to assess the effect of Participation in Community and Social Development on rural Livelihood enhancement in North West, Nigeria. Multistage sampling techniques were used to select CSDP beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries for the study. Data were collected from a total of 360 respondents using structured questionnaire. Data obtained was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The result showed that the age of the majority of respondents fell between 29-38 years for the beneficiaries and 39-48 years for the non-beneficiaries. Majority of the respondents were married (80.28%) from the pooled data and were male (81.11%). Approximately, 56.67% had one form of education or the other with beneficiaries more distributed in formal education. The major occupation for both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries was farming (69.17%). With regards to CSDP participation, majority (85.6%) of the beneficiaries participated in project planning stage, 65% in project preparation stage, 71.6% participated in project implementation stage while 61.7% participated in project monitoring and evaluation stage. Participation level was rated high as majority (47.78%) of the beneficiaries participated in at least ten out of sixteen project cycles. Probit analysis showed that sex, marital status, education, monthly income and work experience were statistically related to the decision to participate in CSDP by the respondents. The double difference values was observed to be ₦92, 981.7 implying that productive assets increased more across the beneficiaries in comparison to the non-beneficiaries in the course of time. Crop farming (36.7%), cattle trading (28.3%) and livestock farming (26.9%) where the major livelihood activities of the respondents as indicated from the pooled data. Improvement in living standard, community cohesion, increased school enrolment, reduction in water borne diseases and reduction in the distance covered to school and health centers were some of the benefits beneficiaries derived from CSDP as a result of their participation. Among the major challenges facing the beneficiaries while participating in CSDP includes high cost of materials, complex protocol, payment of counterpart funds and abandoned projects. Others were lack of professional medical personnel, poor maintenance culture and possibility of elite culture. The study concludes that CSDP is promising and therefore needs to be sustained. It is therefore recommended among others that CSDP and other non-governmental organizations should encourage non-benefiting communities to participate in the project through adequate sensitization and outreaches.