Role of Local Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Community Development in Zamfara State, Nigeria

The study was conducted in Zamfara State, Nigeria to assess the role of local Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in community development. A questionnaire was administered to 200 randomly selected beneficiaries of NGOs activities. Another questionnaire was administered to 58 purposively sampled officials of local NGOs for the study. Descriptive such as (frequencies and percentages) and inferential statistics like t-test and correlation were used to analyze the data collected from the field. The study revealed that, local NGOs contributes significantly to community development in various ways such as through community self-help efforts; training and re-training of community members and awareness creation and sensitization of community members. It was revealed that, these efforts resulted to many improvements such as increased enrolments of children in schools; improved health care service delivery; and increased agricultural yields. The research has shown that, beneficiaries provide water; labour and venue during execution of community development efforts. The study identified problems militating against smooth running of NGOs activities: inadequate funds and personnel; low level of beneficiaries ‘commitments; and low level of government support. It was recommended that, government, individuals and development partners should provide more financial, technical and human resources support to NGOs in order to make them effective and efficient in delivery of community development services.