ABSTRACT

The proliferation of poverty and global inequality between and within the countries has resulted in an emerging consensus among the actors in the field of international development on the importance of social policies in the process of development. Different policies and structural programmes has, over the years, been instituted as mechanisms for tackling poverty and empowering individuals and one of such recent social policy measures employed by the MDGs is the Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) programme. The idea of CCTs programme was to alleviate poverty on a short term and on a long term, break down the intergenerational transmission of poverty by attacking both demand and supply side of social services. Despite the seemingly positive findings on the impacts of CCTs in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, they were also widely criticized. CCTs have fairly recently been adopted by Nigeria in some selected states and Local Government Areas of the country and more specifically by Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria.

The study therefore assessed the CCT programme in alleviating poverty and empowering beneficiaries in the Local Government Area with the aim to provide insights to the realities lived by the people and their experiences participating in the CCT programme. The analysis is based on empirical data collected by employing both quantitative and qualitative methods. The data was analyzed using SPSS Version 22 and Manual Content Analysis. The study concluded that CCTs programme despite having positive short term effects on poverty alleviation in the context of the study was not able to empower them economically. The study also concluded that the value of the cash transfer were not adequate enough to empower them economically. The study also revealed that target population of CCTs programme in Nigeria is still too small for the programme to make a palpable impact, moreover, given that millions of households are poor in Nigeria, targeting a small subgroup of beneficiaries risks resulting in the exclusion of many other households that are only marginally less poor but do not have the required household characteristics, which could result in beneficiaries leapfrogging those who are only very marginally richer.  It was, therefore, suggested that for the CCT programme to better effective, following measures should be taken into consideration; creating awareness of the existence of social protection and cash transfer programmes, Scaling up the programme to cover a larger proportion of the poor at state level, increasing the transfer value, increasing the length of programme participation, improving the delivery of transfers so they are regular and predictable, improving institutional coordination to deliver a social protection package, Strengthen accountable and transparent mechanisms.

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.7: List of Millennium Development Goals and the targets to be met                        -24

Table 2.8: List of countries in relation to educational condition, health and nutritional condition, Education transfer       -           -           -           -           -            -           -           -           -           -27

Table 4.2.1: Percentage distribution of the respondents by sex        -           -            -           -49

Table 4.2.2: Percentage distribution of the respondents by educational status            -           -50

Table 4.2.3: Percentage distribution of the respondents by marital status                -           -52

Table 4.2.4: Percentage distribution of the respondents by number of children           -           -53

Table 4.2.5: Percentage distribution of the respondents by year of assistance            -           -54

Table 4.3.1: Percentage distribution of the CCT`s poverty alleviation and economic empowerment of respondents        -           -           -           -           -            -           -           -           -55

Table 4.3.2: Percentage distribution of the perception of the CCT programme at alleviating poverty and human empowerment           -           -            -           -           -           -           -           -59

Table 4.3.3: Percentage distribution of the challenges affecting the efforts of the CCT programme in alleviating poverty               -           -           -           -            -           -           -61

Table 4.3.4: Percentage distribution of the way of addressing the problems faced during the CCT programme

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1.3: MDGs CCT Implementation strategy: Step by step    -           -            -           -37

Fig 4.2.1: Gender of the Respondents            -           -           -           -           -            -           -           -50

Fig 4.2.2: Educational qualification of Respondents -           -           -           -            -           -51

Fig 4.2.3: Marital status of the Respondents  -           -           -           -           -            -           -52

Fig 4.2.4: Number of children of the respondents     -           -           -           -            -           -53

Fig 4.2.5: Year of assistance  -           -           -           -           -           -           -            -           -54