ABSTRACT

This study examines the role being played by the National Council of Women Societies in empowering women in Kaduna South Local Government Area of Kaduna State. There is a consensus amongst scholars of development studies that abject poverty is rampant among women at the grassroots level of developing countries. Government and non-governmental organizations have attempted and are still trying to alleviate poverty among women through various empowerment programmes. This study examined the role of NCWS in the empowerment of women in Kaduna south L.G.A of Kaduna state. The study is based on the assumption that the empowerment programmes of the National Council of Women Societies have played a significant role in the empowerment of women in the Kaduna South Local Government Area in the period 2003-2015. Women in Development theory was adopted as a theoretical guide of this work. According to the assumption of this theory, access to and control over productive resources are the most important sources of the relation power and well-being of men and women, and the greater women‟s relative economic power, the greater their self-esteem and control over their own lives but what is observed is that the economic independence of women is a mirage rather than reality. Both primary and secondary sources were used to collect data which were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. The study revealed that the activities of the National Council of Women Societies has not significantly uplifted the welfare of women beneficiaries of its programme in the area under study. It also revealed that the interventions of National Council of Women Societies have not positively impacted on the lives of poor women that are the beneficiaries of the empowerment programmes within the period under study. It, therefore, recommended that there is need for diversification of the sources of incomes of NCWS and collaboration of government and non-governmental organizations to put more efforts in poverty alleviation among women. Also sincerity of purpose should be the slogan of NCWS in the process of women empowerment rather than involving politics in it.

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

The issue of women empowerment has undoubtedly become an integral part of contemporary

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