Governance and community development in nigeria an assessment of gombe state agency for community and social development gmacsd

Abstract

The role of Governance in community development cannot be over emphasize, every meaning of community development suggests that the government, the stakeholders and the public in the community need to work together to identify and maintain the social development system for developing the local communities. One reason for the participation of the individuals in Community development is the belief that government alone can neither develop nor improve the communities. The Government, stakeholders and individuals in communities must help in one way or another to bring development. The study examines Governance and Community Development in Nigeria, with a view to assess the impact of the Gombe State Agency for Community and Social Development Project (CSDP) on Communities in terms of their project and programmes. A total of 291 respondents were selected through multi-stage sampling technique for the study. Frequency counts, simple percentage, mean and standard deviation were utilized in realizing the objectives of the study. It was observed that Governance has a significant factor in the success of community development projects in the study area. The study recommends amongst others, that government should formulate policies that can boost the level of public awareness, despite the fact that there is a unit called information, education, communication and training (IEC and T) under the operations department saddled with the responsibility of crating awareness, there is a need for such unit to be upgraded to a department in other be more proactive in enlightening and educating the general public on the benefits, role and function of the CSDP to all and sundry.The idea of 10% host community contribution to fund the MP s should be abolished; as most communities are poor in nature and cannot afford to contribute to their chosen project if they had to pay 10% of it. Laws pertaining gender discrimination should be strengthen,moreover, the agency (GSACSD) should greatly sustain the idea of PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal) ap