Assessment of Poverty Level of Fadama III Participants in Benue State

Abstract

Poverty reduction programmes have to a large extent, failed to achieve set targets in Nigeria. A review of massive literature on poverty reduction revealed that the spate of failure of the poverty reduction programmes in Nigeria has strong linkages with the conventional top-bottom approach adopted in the process of implementation. The World Bank assisted Third Fadama Development Programme, also called
Fadama III has adopted the widely recommended bottom-top approach to address the problem of poverty in Nigeria. This study assessed the poverty level of Fadama III participants in Benue State. The cohort survey design was adopted to select 400 participants of Fadama III programme from six Local Government  Areas of Benue State. Questionnaire, Focus Group Discussion, interviews and personal observation were the instrument used for data collection. Findings showed that Fadama III adopted a unique approach in engaging with participants individually and the host communities. Specifically, the successful strategies emplyed by the programme in Benue State were the Community-Driven Development (CDD) or BottomTop approach, as well as the soft terms and conditions. Additionally, results showed that capacity building is the most profound impact of the Fadama III programme in Benue State. However, three challenges were encountered in the Fadama III programme in Benue State and include delay in payment of counterpart funds by Benue State Government, non participation of members in policy discussions and conflicts among members of user groups. Based on these results, it was therefore recommended among others that development and poverty reduction programmes in developing countries should borrow a leaf from the
World Bank’s Community Development or Bottom-Top approach as well as the soft terms and conditions used in the implementation of Fadama III Development Programme in Benue Sate.