WOMEN SELF-HELP GROUPS IN Community DEVELOPMENT IN CENTRAL SENATORIAL DISTRICT OF CROSS RIVER STATE

Abstract

In Cross River State today, rural poverty is rapidly in the increase. However, there are many ways to reduce poverty in rural communities in the State. Merely providing economic and social backingfor poor people in rural area, especially the women, has beenadjudged very useful in reducing poverty in rural communities.The Provision of necessarysupport or credit facility to the women helps to empower them, botheconomically and socially, as well as the entire community.Thiswork is therefore placed on this background to determineany association between Self-helpGroups (SHGs) and social and economic empowerment of people in the rural areas of the Senatorial District, and the rural women in particular, and to recommend appropriate waysto effectively improve the functioning of SHGs to improve the social andeconomic well-being of the people in rural area. On that note, the main data wascollected through field survey in the Local Government Areas in the Central Senatorial District oftheState. From the results and discussionsabout the achievementevaluation of rural womenSHGs and their role in the development of their communities, important findings of the study was illustrated.

Keywords

• Self-help Group
• Community Development
• Poverty
• Empowerment