1The empirical results presented here are based on the primary data generated from the survey of the three local governments indicated in section three. Fairly large samples, relative to the total population, were selected in each case. For example, the three LGA chairmen or their representatives and the coordinators of the Better Life Programme projects were interviewed personally in addition to completing the relevant questionnaires. Secondly, all the projects identified as fully or partially funded or administered by the Better Life Programme were included in the survey. Finally, large samples of women were randomly selected for interview from 57 communities and villages in the three LGAs to ensure that women of varying backgrounds from diverse environments within each LGA were included.

2Two of the three questionnaires, namely, those for the project managers and for the rural women were administered by enumerators under the supervision of a research assistant. The questionnaire for and the interview of the Better Life Programme coordinators including the LGA Chairmen, were administered by the principal researcher assisted by the research assistant. Problems in data collection, which were anticipated in the rural areas, had to be overcome. These included the reluctance of respondents to cooperate with the enumerators, partly out of suspicion and ignorance about the purpose of the exercise. Mobility was also a constraint, as most of the locations were in remote areas and relatively inaccessible. On the whole, however, the data generation exercise was successful.

Project Analysis

Projects and locations

3A total of 33 Better Life Programme projects were selected in the three LG As as follows: Asa (10), Moro (16) and Odo-Otin (7) (table 1). The projects were organized by women’s groups with a membership ranging from 15 to 200 members per group and averaging 37 members per group.

Table 1. General Information on Better Life Projects in Asa, Moro and Odo-Otin Local Government Areas

4The projects engaged in diverse activities including, agricultural production – crop production and vegetable gardening; agricultural crop processing; cottage industries; and skills development. At least 24 of the 33 projects or 73 per cent were established after the commencement of the Better Life Programme in 1987. Most of the groups (projects) were jointly funded by government and non government organizations. These included the federal, state and local governments; the Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructures (DFRRI), the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), the banking system, e.g., the People’s Bank, the European Economic Community (EEC) and the Government of the Netherlands. The sampled projects are classified as shown in table 2. Of the 45 projects in Moro, only 16 completed/returned the questionnaire as indicated in the table. The rest did not complete the questionnaire, either because the questionnaires were not administered to them or because they did not cooperate with the enumerators. One other reason for this seemed to be the narrow interpretation applied to the word ‘project’. For example, savings and credit cooperative societies did not regard themselves as projects since they were not engaged in the production of tangible items.

Table 2. Better Life Projects in Asa, Moro and Odo-Otin LGAs

5From table 2, it can be seen that 13 groups engaged in crop production, including vegetable gardening, while 22 engaged in agricultural crop processing. Eleven groups were engaged in cottage industries producing shea butter, black soap – so named because of its colour – is a locally made laundry and bath soap, etc. Cooperative societies, as known as savings and credit societies constituted 13 groups in Moro LGA alone.

6Local government headquarters are often the largest towns/villages in the LGAs. In the three LGAs of our study, most of the projects were located outside the headquarters (table 3). For example, only 10 per cent of the projects were located in the headquarters in Asa, 9 per cent in Moro and 28 per cent in Odo-Otin respectively. Only about 16 per cent of the projects were established in the urban areas of the three LGAs.

Project management

7Management is central to project implementation, success and survival. Most of the projects included some modern management techniques with a committee system as practised by modern cooperative organizations. There were management committees consisting of chairpersons, secretaries, treasurers and auditors. The committees appeared to perform the functions of directors, i.e., formulating policies, ensuring management compliance and implementation, and overseeing and monitoring management. Most projects engaged paid workers. Sometimes, however, these staff were employed from among the members of the groups. The overall supervision and coordination of the groups, including the projects, were performed by the Better Life Programme/Women’s Commission at the LGA level.

8Some indices of management are presented in table 4. It is to be expected, for example, that a modem commercial venture should employ the services of a bank. About 86 per cent of the projects in Odo-Otin maintained bank accounts, in Moro, 80 per cent and in Asa LGA only 30 per cent. On the average, about 65 per cent of all the projects maintained savings bank accounts but none had a current account. Perhaps the remoteness of some of the locations and the distance from any bank branch/office might explain why some of the projects did not open a bank account.

9Modem commercial project accounts are expected to be audited periodically. In these particular projects, not one account of a project in Odo-Otin was audited, while only 10 per cent of the projects in Asa were audited. At Moro, however, 73 per cent were audited. There was a positive correlation between the source of project funding and the tendency to audit project accounts. For instance, projects financed substantially by external agencies were mostly audited. This explains why a high proportion of the projects’ accounts were audited in Moro LG A, where many projects were substantially financed by the EEC under the FGN/EEC programme.

Table 4. Financial and General Management of the Projects

10The sustainability of commercial ventures often requires projects to be self-financing. Projects should be capable of generating sufficient resources to ensure their survival beyond the period when external assistance is available. The projects were requested to indicate whether they thought they could survive beyond the period of assistance. As shown in table 4, only 47 per cent of the projects felt they could survive. The table shows that the greater the assistance received by projects, the higher the tendency for them to depend on further assistance. It is necessary, therefore, to cultivate a sense of independence and self-reliance in the project managers.

11The Better Life Programme encouraged the incorporation of some specific women-oriented programmes into various projects. These programmes included the Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT), the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), and the Family Planning Programme (FPP). As shown in table 4, about 58 per cent of the projects incorporated some of these programmes into their operations. This indicated, that within the organizational structure of the Better Life Programme, there existed some management control of and input into the local projects from higher levels of government, i.e., federal, state and local government.

Management perception of project contributions

12Target beneficiaries or the project management were expected to assess the contributions made by the projects. A favourable assessment would encourage the support of beneficiaries for the programme and spur management to further action. The results of the assessment by project management are presented in table 5. According to the data, the three contributions regarded as most significant by management were the availability of cheap commodities (agricultural and industrial), the creation of employment and the improvement in healthcare facilities. On the average, access to cheap commodities was rated most important by almost 40 per cent of the project managers. Employment creation followed with an average of 35 per cent. The project contribution to healthcare had the lowest score of the three indices with an average of 25 per cent. These results were not unexpected, particularly given the types of projects promoted, mainly food production and processing, and the remote areas where the projects were located. For example, the relatively few people engaged in the projects were important in their communities, where opportunities for paid employment were very scarce. The low healthcare index could also be understood, since very few Better Life Programme projects focused on healthcare in the three local government areas.

Table 5. Project Leaders’ Perception of Project Contributions

Project problems as perceived by management

13The projects faced many problems which constrained their performance. Four main problems were highlighted and ranked by the management (table 6). Lack of equipment, e.g., tractors and local industrial machines, was identified as a major constraint by 64 per cent of the management. Lack of funds was rated next, with 57 per cent. Only 16 per cent reported that lack of skills was a serious problem, probably because only very simple skills were required to operate the machines and such skills were easily acquired on the job through short-term apprenticeship.

Table 6. Problems of the Projects as Perceived by Management

14Political interference, usually cited as a major problem in rural improvement schemes was considered a problem only in Moro, where it was indicated by 29 per cent of the management.

Respondents’ Awareness Analysis

15A total of 200 questionnaires was administered to randomly selected women in each of the three local government areas. The results of this exercise are presented in table 7. Of the 600 questionnaires administered, 465 or 77.3 per cent were properly completed and retrieved from the respondents, 65 per cent in Asa, 82.5 per cent in Moro and 85 per cent in Odo-Otin. A total of 57 villages were covered by the exercise, distributed as follows: Asa (16), Moro (24) and Otin (17). This coverage was to ensure that a wide range of respondents’ characteristics were incorporated.

Table 7. Questionnaires Administered to Women Respondents

Respondents’ demographic characteristics

16The respondents were classified into four main age groups, as shown in table 8. About 14 per cent of all the respondents belonged to the 14-25 age bracket, about 44 per cent were in the 26-35 age group, 27 per cent fell into the 36-50 age bracket while about 16 per cent were over 50 years old.

17On the basis of educational qualification, respondents were also classified into four groups: those with primary education; those with secondary education, those with higher than secondary school qualifications, e.g., from colleges of education, polytechnics and universities; and those without formal education. As can be expected in rural areas, a majority of the respondents (50.4 %) had no formal education, ranging from 37 per cent in Odo-Otin, to 43.8 per cent in More and to 76 per cent in Asa. Those who had better than secondary school education, constituted the smallest proportion, 14 per cent. The proportion in Odo-Otin appeared quite high for a rural area and this could be accounted for by the bias in favour of education in this area (and characteristics of this state). Besides, respondents probably came from among the secondary school teachers in the area. Respondents with primary school qualifications came second.

18The respondents were also classified into four groups on the basis of length of residency; 0-10 years, 11-35 years, 36-50 years, and above 50 years. It was believed that the period for which a respondent had resided in an area might determine his knowledge of the area. Most of the residents (49 %) had lived for 11 to 35 years in the areas, ranging from 39 per cent in Asa, to 45 per cent in Odo-Otin to about 56 per cent in Moro. The lowest proportion, 5.8 per cent had resided in the areas for over 50 years.

19What is perhaps important about the results in table 8 is that the fairly comprehensive nature of the survey in terms of age distribution, educational status and length of residency ensured that the information from the respondents was to a large extent reliable.

Awareness of the Better Life Programme

20The support enjoyed by any programme depends, to some extent, on the people’s awareness of it. It was, therefore, essential to determine inhabitants’ awareness of the Better Life Programme. About 80 per cent of the 465 respondents had heard of the Better Life Programme (table 9). It was necessary to determine whether the respondents understood the objectives and purposes of the programme. On the average, about 67 per cent understood the objectives. Asked whether the respondents knew some Better Life Programme projects, or belonged to any, about 49 per cent claimed that they knew some and almost 33 per cent were members of groups. These fairly high proportions, especially in Moro and Odo-Otin, are significant, particularly as respondents were randomly drawn from 24 villages in Moro and 17 villages in Odo-Otin. The last index was whether the respondents had taken part in Better Life Programme activities such as seminars, workshops, markets, etc. Only about 24 per cent had participated in such activities.

Table 8. Demographic Characteristics of the Respondents

21Responses show that the level of people’s awareness of the Better Life Programme was high. It was, therefore, obvious that they had been enlightened about the Better Life Programme. The degree of awareness of respondents was positively related to their level of education. For example, Odo-Otin with the highest educational level recorded the highest degree of awareness.

Table 9. People’s Awareness of the Better Life Programme

22The inhabitants were familiar with those specific Better Life Programme projects which were more popular in the different areas. An attempt was made to determine the degree of popularity of the various Better Life Programme groups among the inhabitants (table 10). Since the respondents could indicate more than one group with which they were familiar, the number of responses were more than the number of respondents. On the average, about 24 per cent were familiar with agricultural processing groups and about 26 per cent with cooperative groups. About 22.7 per cent were familiar with agricultural production, including vegetable gardening. There were a few multipurpose development centres, some of them were just being completed – about 12 per cent of the respondents were aware of such centres. A small number of local craft projects were assisted by the Better Life Programme, but only 15 per cent of the respondents were aware of such groups. This analysis indicates that processing and cooperative groups were dominant in Moro, agricultural production and cooperatives were more popular in Asa. At Odo-Otin processing was ranked first, followed by cooperatives and agricultural production groups.

Table 10. Better Life Programme Groups Known/Familiar to Rural Women

23Information about the Better Life Programme groups could have been disseminated through various sources. Six information sources were identified and respondents were required to indicate those they found most useful. The results are presented in table 11. Almost 34 per cent of the respondents indicated that the radio was the most effective means of getting information on the Better Life groups; 25.3 per cent in Odo-Otin, 34.1 per cent in Moro and 51.3 per cent in Asa. Discussion with friends was ranked the second (19.5 %) most important source of information. The local government representatives were expected to inform people about the Better Life Programme. About 18 per cent of the respondents obtained information from this source. Only 14 per cent of the respondents obtained information from Better Life Programme officials. Newspapers scored quite low with only 8.3 per cent. This is understandable because of the low level of literacy and the remote areas from which the respondents were drawn. This would also explain why only 4.3 per cent had attended seminars/workshops. Many respondents did not differentiate between the Better Life Programme officials and LG representatives. When these two sources were pooled, about 32 per cent of the respondents’ cited the combined sources as their means of information. What seemed to be particularly important was the role of radio in the dissemination of information about Better Life Programme groups. The authorities may have to rely considerably on this source in future.

Table 11. Sources of Information on Better Life Programmes

Respondents’ perceived benefits

24It is important to determine areas in which the projects were seen to have benefited the target groups to enable the authorities focus on those areas in the future. The respondents were asked to select five indices as measures of the project benefits (table 12). Access to credit was regarded as a significant contribution, and an average of 44 per cent of the respondents indicated that it was an important benefit. Access to agricultural inputs, such as fertilizers and other chemicals was also considered important, with an average score of 26 per cent. Access to processing machines, e.g., gari mills, soap making and/or shea butter machines was rated high by 12: 2 per cent of the respondents. Access to health facilities, including EPI and ORT was ranked important by about 23 per cent of the respondents. Only 8.5 per cent of the respondents regarded access to tractors as an important benefit. If tractors were added to agricultural inputs, however, the combined score for this index would rise to about 29 per cent. From these results, it can be seen that the rural inhabitants perceived that they were drawing substantial benefits from the Better Life Programme, especially in the areas of access to credit, agricultural inputs and healthcare facilities.

Table 12. Public Perception of Project Benefits

Public Perception of Programme Beneficiaries

25The fundamental focus of the Better Life Programme was on rural women. It was originally designed to alleviate the problems faced by these women. It appears, however, that most of the beneficiaries of the programme were not rural women; and there were unintended beneficiaries. The allegations were that the beneficiaries were women in urban areas, highly educated women, and top female government officials or the wives of top male government officials. These allegations could not be categorically denied considering that the organizational structure placed such persons at the helm of affairs. This issue was investigated by requesting respondents to indicate their perceptions of the beneficiaries of the Better Life Programme projects. The results are contained in table 13. Only about 20 per cent felt that rural women were the beneficiaries of the Better Life Programme; a mere 5.3 per cent in Asa, 12.8 per cent in Moro and 41.2 per cent in Odo Otin.

Table 13. Women’s Perceptions of Better Life Beneficiaries

26This result is interesting. It shows that the less educated the respondents were, the more they felt the programme had not benefited rural women. As indicated in table 8, 76 per cent of the respondents did not have formal education in Asa; 44 per cent in Moro and 37 per cent in Odo-Otin. On the other hand, about 41 per cent of the respondents indicated that urban women, i.e., those in towns and cities were the primary beneficiaries. Nearly 27 per cent of the respondents were of the opinion that the programme mainly benefited highly educated women; An average of 13 per cent of respondents indicated that top female government officials or the wives of top male government officers were the main beneficiaries. Again, this result shows that the less educated the respondents the more they believed the programme served the interests of top government officials or highly educated women.

27This analysis and its results are important for policy. It is important, for example, to compare the index (score) for the rural women with those of the three groups not likely to be residing in rural areas. A situation in which only 20 per cent of the respondents perceived that rural women benefited from the programme, while 80 per cent felt the benefits of the Better Life Programme went to unintended beneficiaries is serious enough to attract the attention of the policy-makers.

Respondents’ Ranking of Women’s Problems

28It is true that women, like other members of this society, have a number of problems which have constrained their performance over the years. In an attempt to identify the problems of rural women, the respondents (women) were requested to rank five of these problems according to the degree of importance (table 14). Five indices, namely, lack of education, low income (poverty), lack of paid employment, lack of facilities for child care, and inadequate agricultural inputs, were ranked.

29The ranking was generally similar in the three local governments and over almost all indices. Lack of education was ranked number one by respondents in the three LGAs. Poverty was ranked second. Only respondents in Moro ranked it third. All respondents in the three LGAs ranked lack of paid employment third. Lack of facilities for childcare was ranked fourth, except in Moro where it was placed fifth. Inadequate supply of agricultural inputs was ranked fifth by respondents in all three LGAs.

30This ranking scheme would seem to contradict some outsiders’ perceptions of women’s problems. For instance, one would have expected that poverty would have been considered the number one problem in the rural areas. It is interesting that none of the three LGAs ranked this as their first constraint. Instead, most women in the rural areas ranked lack of education as their number one problem. Secondly, the supply of agricultural inputs was also assumed to be very important, but it was ranked lowest out of the 5 indices. As the saying goes, ‘he who wears the shoe knows where it pinches’.

Table 14. Women’s Ranking of Their Problems

Analysis of Basic Assumptions

31The four basic assumptions given earlier were examined during the analysis of data.

Assumption 1

that women have increased their involvement in productive activities in the rural areas considerably since the introduction of the Better Life Programme in 1987

32From the analysis presented in this section, this assumption would seem to have been confirmed. At least 73 per cent of the Better Life Programme groups surveyed were established after the commencement of the Better Life Programme in 1987. At least 33 per cent of the randomly selected respondents in the three LGAs were members of Better Life Programme groups. It is, therefore, obvious that the Better Life Programme involved many rural women in economic activities in the rural areas.

Assumption 2

that most Better Life Programme projects are located in the rural areas Of the LGAs

33This assumption is also confirmed from the data collected. The local government headquarters are the most urbanized areas in the LGAs. Table 3 shows that only 12 per cent of the Better Life Programme projects were located in the LG headquarters. Eighty-eight per cent of the projects were established outside the headquarters of the LGAs. The Better Life Programme could therefore be said to have achieved its rural focus with regard to project location.

Assumption 3

that the Better Life Programme projects mostly benefit rural women

34This assumption is difficult to verify. While most projects were located in the rural areas of the LGAs (table 3), the rural women did not feel they were benefiting from the programme. On the contrary, an overwhelming majority perceived that the benefits went to the urban, well-educated women, as well as top women government officials (table 13). There is a need, therefore, for the authorities to take a critical look at this issue with a view to redirecting attention to the primary focus of the Better Life Programme.

Assumption 4

that Better Life Programme projects in Kwara State were likely to perform better than those in Osun, given the relatively higher performance of DFRRI in the former than in the latter.

35The evidence does not confirm this assumption. There are, however, a number of issues which could lend support to the assumption, but which could also be explained by other factors. For example, more Better Life Programme projects were established in Moro in Kwara State (16) than in Odo-Otin (7). Similarly, while 73 per cent of Better Life Programme projects in Moro had their accounts audited, none were audited in Odo-Otin. This contrast could, however, be explained by the influence of an external agency, namely, the EEC, from which projects in Moro (Kwara) derived substantial resources and which required strict accountability procedures. On the whole, however, the programme in Kwara did not show any superior performance over that in Osun State.