Poverty Alleviation Programmes for Women in Lagos State, Nigeria: An Examination of the Implementation Strategies

The study examined the programmes of poverty alleviation and women empowerment in Lagos State; and evaluated the poverty alleviation implementation strategies in Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation. Primary data were collected through the administration of questionnaire and conduct of in-depth interviews. The study population of 55,011 comprised staff and beneficiaries of the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (MWAPA). These included 162 staff and 54,849 beneficiaries according to the directories of the Ministry. Two-stage sampling technique was utilized. A sample size of eighty-one (81) respondents (representing 50% of the staff of the Ministry) while four hundred (400) beneficiaries of the Ministry that had benefited from the Ministry were sampled using Taro Yamane formula. In addition, in-depth structured interviews were conducted with 10 members of staff who were directly involved in skill acquisition programmes on programme performance and challenges facing the Ministry at reducing poverty in Lagos State. These included the Honourable Commissioner of the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation; the Permanent Secretary; four Heads of Department (Women Department, Women Development Centre, the Planning, Research and Statistics Department, and Poverty department), and the assistant heads of the four departments mentioned while 10 beneficiaries were interviewed on programme performance and benefits derived from the Ministry. Data collected were analysed using percentage, mean, standard deviation, and relative impact index. The result showed that the strategies adopted by WAPA was that they monitor and follow-up beneficiaries regularly for effective performance (96.2%); the resources made available by Government in terms of human, financial and material are adequate for the smooth running of the programme (56.5%); Government adequately finances the procurement of tools and materials for the beneficiaries (78.2%); beneficiaries are given adequate vocational skills, training, and other WAPA programmes necessary before graduating(52.2%); entrepreneurship development programmes are regularly organised for the beneficiaries(39.1%); and is regular monitoring/follow-up by the WAPA officials(34.8%). The study concluded that the programmes of the Ministry of women affairs and poverty alleviation on poverty reduction and empowerment of women in Lagos State had been fairly successful. Key Words: Gender, Gender equality, Gender equity, Poverty, Poverty alleviation. DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/9-18-14 Publication date:September 30th 201