The lingering problem of urban poverty

Abstract

The first priority of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is poverty reduction. All member states of the United Nations were saddled with the mandate of implementing sound policies that will halve absolute poverty by the year 2015. Several studies show that the application of the communitydriven development (CDD) model will help developing countries in Africa and Asia to reduce the prevalence of poverty and improve the quality of life of their citizens. The last few decades have witnessed increasing debates from development experts, academics, donor agencies and policy makers calling for the adoption of the CDD as a sure model in planning for socio-economic and environmental development. The focus of the CCD project is to reduce community level poverty through the implementation of projects that meets their felt needs. This paper utilizes both descriptive and inferential methods to analyze the quality of life of households in participating and nonparticipating settlements in a World Bank CCD poverty reduction project in Kebbi State, Nigeria. The analysis makes use of survey data from 704 households in the study area to show the impact of the CDD approach on the quality of life of participants in settlements. The data analysis revealed that poor households in participating and non-participating communities have less education and assets compared to their well to do counterparts. The paper concludes that, promoting community assistance, traditional thrift system and job creation by government will have positive impact on quality of life and poverty reduction programmes.