GENDER ISSUES IN LOCAL LEADERSHIP AS IT RELATES TO COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Gender was a major issue in the study area as respondents observed that women were not given equal opportunity for participation in local leadership in the community like their male counterparts. Factors like cultural barriers, lack of respect for women, domestic engagements and entrenched gender stereotypes were highlighted during the focus group discussions as being responsible for their low participation in local leaderships. In a similar study by Ajayi and Otuya (2006), majority of women were socially, culturally and politically barred from participating in community development planning and decision-making processes.Ironically, respondents still noted that the contribution of women in community developments issues were very high and significant. One strong reason in their favour is that in most rural communities, they constitute the greater majority in terms of population. Often, their husbands leave them at their villages in search of greener pastures in the urban areas. Women’s voices and concerns in the community are especially important to community development and welfare as most women are involved in meeting needs in the areas of social education, health, and environmental projects, while men continue to pay more attention to economic, agricultural and infrastructural development (Ajayi and Otuya, 2006). Also, some foreign development agencies target women programmes for funding and assistance for example the Journal of Agricultural Extension Vol. 12 (2) December, 2008. Gender and Diversity programmes of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), and The Commission on Advancement of Women –An American Council for Voluntary International Action. It is therefore important that all stakeholders in any community- men and women, rich and poor, young and old, and other groups be fully involved in leading and designing community development programmes. It is only when this is done that enduring and sustaining programmes can be achieved in the local communities. CONSTRAINT FACTORS THAT HINDER LOCAL LEADERS FROM ACHIEVING RESULTS IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Results in Table 4 show that out of the 23 constraint factors considered,respondents perceived 19 factors as major constraints and four as not a constraint. The most important of the constraints include; incompatibility of government policies with community programmes (_= 3.84), insufficient sources of funds for community development projects (_= 3.83), poor implementation of programmes (_= 3.80), andgender bias (_= 3.77). CHAPTER THREE 3.1 Research Methodology 3.2 Research Instrument In the quotation for empirical solution to the multifaceted questions and problems posed the researcher will have to adopt both the primary and secondary approaches for the collection of data, the above methods are simply referred to as: Desk Research The desk research approach to data collection refers to the secondary data collection method that deals with review of work of others in the relevant areas of literature. Field Research The field research approach to data collection refers to the method of collecting data through the primary sources of information. Questionnaire The questionnaires consist of a good number of questions systematically arranged to elicit the required response from the respondents. The questions asked in the questionnaires are usually typed, printed and distributed in copies to the population sample size chosen by the researcher. The questions used are of two types: (a) Closed end question type:- These are type of questions in which the respondents independence is limited by a choice from limited number of options structured by the researcher. (b) Open end questions:- These type of questions gives the respondents unlimited scope to respond to a particular question. He is asked to fill in his response with the encouragement to use extra or additional papers for more information. In the course of this research, ten (10) questions were asked and distributed to the respondents. 3.3 Research Design This research was designed based on the importance of port regulation management in the Maritime industry. 3.4 Research Sample Population In this research project, the entire sample population is drawn from the insurance sub-sector; carefully selected on the bases of sampling techniques used by the research questionnaires will be distributed to ten senior officers of the company especially from the insurance. 3.5 Constraints a constraint is a restriction on the degree of freedom you have in providing a solution. Constraints are effectively global requirements such as limited development resources or a decision by a senior management that restricts the way you develop a system. Constraints can be economic, political, technical or environmental and pertain to project resources, schedules, target environment or to the system itself. In a research of this nature, a lot of problems are likely to be encountered as constraints in carrying out this research which are worth mentioning. Thus the main constraints to this study were time and finance limitation. (a) Time Constraint:- The time required to complete the study was rather short based on the academic requirement that also needed the researchers attention. (b) Financial Constraint:- The research seems to be rather expensive, the finance factor thus relate to the financial capacity of the researcher, as regards doing all that is necessary for a study of this nature
Posted on: Sat, 16 Nov 2013 13:12:02 +0000
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