Abstract

Women play an important role in the development of any country and constitute more than half of the world population. Hence they cannot be ignored by development projects and strategies .Globally, development projects aim to promote women’s empowerment and therefore consider women as major project beneficiaries with the objective of improving women’s livelihood and empowerment.

In Cameroon, as in other African countries, efforts of development agencies and NGOs is by and large geared towards achieving women’s empowerment. Notwithstanding, very little is available about the type of activities and combination of activities and the domains of levels of empowerment achieved by development efforts and projects.  Most often women are completed left out and not considered as direct beneficiaries of these projects. As a result, women’s needs are not met. This explains

Why most rural women are still living in miserable conditions. Thus, this study examines the effects of development projects of Kumba City Council (KCC)  on the empowerment of rural women in the Kumba Municipality. And an interview from 131 respondents: 130 rural women and 1 key informant of KCC.

The study identified access to credit to start a business, micro credit to expand their business, training in business and leadership skills, training on women’s rights, workshops and seminars on home management and educational programmes as major activities of KCC. While KCC reported that domestic violence limited access to land, credit and health facilities, challenge their efforts with rural women in the municipality, they were able to reach out with services and activities to women that promoted women’s  empowerment. Different levels of and failed to meet the felt needs of rural women.

It has been suggested that KCC and other development agencies should identify women’s specific needs and develop projects and activities that address these needs. The agencies should ensure that activities and projects are sustainable by monitoring and evaluating them. Emphasis should be laid on the education of the girl child which will enhance and improve participation of women in decision making roles, access and control over land.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Human wellbeing, as well as meeting the physical and material needs of human society, has been concerns for development both as outcomes and conditions for sustained progress (World Bank, 1998). Issues of egalitarian development, democracy, participation, human rights, and poverty reduction dominated development discourse. In addition, prioritizing women’s development and women’s empowerment has been one of the priorities and concerns of development debates since the 1980s.

Women in most part of Africa are actively involved in various income-generating projects such as poultry production, vegetable gardening, bee farming, mushroom farming and pottery making.

The notion of empowerment has evolved within the development discourse to emphasize the need to build capacity in societies, to respond to the challenges of their political and economic environment (Crook, 2003). The participation of women in development projects does not necessarily lead to their empowerment.

Women’s empowerment is a situation where the women can participate in a project, and having the power to make decisions on the critical issues on the project affecting their lives as stakeholders, For empowerment to be said to have taken place, the women must be seen actively involved at all stages of the development projects: project initiation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation Narayan (2002).

Empowerment, as Narayan (2002:108) contends, requires a process through which people’s freedom of choice and action is expanded to enable people to have more control over resources and decisions that affect them.

For empowerment to happen, participation must, therefore, be effective in a way that it can enforce accountability and changes in behavior within the relevant project life circle, and ensure changes that make participation more inclusive of the poor and the underprivileged (Crook, 2003:11-15). Women’s empowerment in this sense relates to the expansion of assets and capabilities of women to participate, negotiate, influence, and control development projects that affect their lives.

The involvement of women in the decision making process can be done in several stages within a spectrum ranging from a very passive role to a very active impact of women in decision-making. Furthermore, women’s empowerment spreads from a powerless level up to a powerful one.

There has been a growing realization that only by raising the productive capacity of the rural poor themselves and increasing their participation on the development process, can issues of poverty and under-development be overcome. Women’s empowerment is essential because it is a desired process by which individuals, typically the poorest are to take control over their lives. When empowered to do so, rural women will then be able to be the agents of their own development.

Development can be seen as a multi-dimensional concept which embraces multifarious economic and social objectives, concern with the distribution of income, the provision of basic needs, and the real psychological wellbeing of people (Chambers, 1997). According to Goulet (2006), development must include three core values: life sustenance, self-esteem and freedom. No country in the world can be regarded as fully developed if it cannot provide its people with basic needs, if it is exploited by others or exploits its citizens, if the people are unable to determine their own destiny. For the world to be fully developed, all must participate in the development process particularly the marginalized women.

Much of the impetus for development approaches have come from the hope that extreme poverty will lead to equitable development. In line with this notion, many countries, academia and organizations have made tremendous efforts in theorizing methods that will facilitate this outcome. McClain-Nhlapo (2004), mentioned the rights-based approach to development. This approach focuses on the empowerment of human beings, communities and governments accountable to fulfill their human rights.

The approach has as goal to ensure that everyone particularly women have the right to a livelihood, basic services, be safe from harm and be treated as equal, This is done by transforming power relations among various stakeholders and as objective to identify the key obstacles that prevent people from fulfilling their rights. This approach focuses often on those who need to claim their own rights, hence meets the needs of those individuals in a culturally appropriate manner thus making the process sustainable. Furthermore, in response to the dilemma of increased poverty in developing countries, it was argued that a direct approach was required to the delivery of welfare outcomes. In due course, what became known as the basic needs approach, is a people-oriented approach which requires that services should be aimed to target and meet the needs of the most vulnerable, mainly women and children (World Bank, 2012). This perspective saw a vast array of programs at the micro or local level in the 1970s (Escobar, 1995).

These programs focused on households, covering aspects of health, education, clean water, hygiene and sanitation amongst others, with the objective of creating a minimum level of welfare for the weakest groups in the society. Finally, with regards to the market-based approach, it focuses on identifying economic opportunities for those in poverty with a specific focus on the role of women as economic and entrepreneurial agents (Poulton and Dorward, 2003).

This approach has as its target the poor as indicated by Chambers (2003), who argued that putting the last first was necessary for community development. This method empowers the poor by leading them to income earning, market driven, sustainable jobs and by identifying constraints to participation to enhance the effectiveness of predetermined projects (Shah, 1997).

This promotes deeper participation which leaves the development trajectories more open ended. Small and medium sized enterprises are also a target as they are actors that will drive economic growth. It involves bottom-up and top-down investments taking place at all levels with prospects that the trickle-down can impact the entire population. Moreover, it focuses on sustainability and decreases the independence on donor agencies, with profound contribution of the private sector.

Following the pursuit of an inclusive development, the world of stakeholders is to adopt participatory processes so as to give voice to the needs and interests of the people they represent. Hence, this makes it possible for all members of the community to benefit from development projects (United Nations, 2015).

According to Pisano and Berger (2016), most stakeholders of SDGs operate through a range of activities at the international and local levels such as developing resources, facilitating partnerships, global advocacy, implementing research projects, organization of conferences or events, production of studies and reports to the creation of multi annual development projects. Development projects have been initiated globally with the purpose of improving living standards and well-being which has been the focus of development goals.

These activities have as outcome to actively engage various stakeholders in the transformation of 2030 Agenda in a concerted effort (Sustainable Development Solutions Network, 2013). Development projects are often the most appropriate means of organizing innovative or untried activities, they are especially difficult to plan and manage even in advanced industrial nations, but particularly so in less developed countries (Rodinelli, 1979).

Even with the best of intentions or solid plans, projects can go awry if they are not managed properly. Local authorities and communities are responsible for the realization of the goals at local scales, recognizing in particular interdependent relationships between urban, semi-urban, and rural areas.

Cities will be at critical frontline of implementing the sustainable development agenda. City and local governments will provide a crucial channel from the national level to local citizens and community groups. Locally focused development via local authorities focuses on the initiative to better understand rural communities and be more responsive to the perceived aspirations and constraints of the rural folk (Santiso, 2000). The promotion of rural women economic projects by municipal councils through entrepreneurship development constitutes one of the key strategies for women development, poverty reduction and women empowerment.

Although referred to as the backbone of the Cameroon’s rural economy, the women folks in Cameroon are still largely marginalized (Akogutuh, 2009:232). A perfect avenue to push for the economic empowerment of women is through the implementation of development projects which will contribute immensely to the poor families particularly female headed households. Despite national governments and development partners recognizing the importance of women in community growth, considerable efforts have not been done to promote the empowerment of women.

The Government of Cameroon and its partners have programmers and projects in place to foster the living standards of rural women. However, significant positive changes are yet to be seen in the lives of women after the execution of development projects particularly in the municipality of Kumba. Women are constantly passive beneficiaries of these development projects especially within municipalities in Cameroon. Most development projects are male-oriented sidelining women based on trickle down of benefits (Bayeh, 2016:39-41).

Women constitute about 52 per cent of the population of Cameroon and play a very crucial role in the development of the country at all levels (World Bank,2021). Unfortunately, they function from a subordinate position coherent in both traditional and state institutions. Women’s empowerment is currently an issue of national concern and both state and international efforts mainstreaming women in development have so far produced mixed results.

The grassroots approach of NGOs has been effective in reaching men at all levels but the same impact has not been felt on women. At this level, control of resources and the benefits that come from it by both men and women are of primary importance.

In line with this position, Fonjong (2001) argues that it is only when women have control over themselves, resources, factors of production and decision-making at home and in the public arena that it can be concluded that they have achieved real empowerment. Longwe (2000) reiterates this viewpoint and argues that empowerment must be defined and measured in terms of women’s control over resources and not merely having access to these resources.

1.2 Statement of Problem

Prioritizing women’s development and empowerment has been a major development concern in contemporary times. This is because years back governments and development agencies focused on a male dominated development approaches, with the expectation of a trickle down effects to other members of the community (Batiliwala 1993, 2007).

However, this approach to development has proven to be a failure, given that there is development and project execution gap that exists especially among the developing countries in which Cameroon is found. With this approach, the objectives of development projects were not attained to, mainly due to the fact that women were left out in the initiation, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation stages of such development projects.

Consequently, there is limited level of women’s involvement in the initiation and execution of development projects  in Cameroon , its municipalities and Kumba municipality is not left out of this sad situation. As a result, development in this part of Cameron as it is in other municipalities, have not yielded any fruits. For the situation to be improved upon, the government and development agencies will have to involve more women in their development approaches’ which will empower them to be able to make their municipalities a better place to live in (Cornwall, 2016), unless there is a change of development approach to give room for the participation of women in development projects, the deficiencies in development especially local development will continue to increase( Adichie, 2018).

According to Agheneza (2009), several development projects have failed to have a significant positive impact on the quality of rural women’s lives. To her, the illusion of a consultative process with full participation of women, undermine the aspect of women’s empowerment. This indicates a limited participation and support of women in the execution of community development projects because the decision making is left to men who do not have vast knowledge on women’s needs and opportunities.

Moreover, very little has been done on the assessment of projects of Kumba City Council (KCC) in Cameroon. Consequently, there is a knowledge gap on development projects of Kumba City Council and its effects on rural women.

This study therefore sets out to close this gap in literature in examining the development projects of Kumba City Council, to assess the effects of these projects on women’s empowerment. This therefore leads us to the following research questions.

1.3 Research Questions

The research questions to guide this study are made up of the main research question and specific research questions as presented below.

1.3.1 Main Research Question

What are the effects of development projects of Kumba City Council on the empowerment of rural women in Kumba?

1.3.2 Specific Research Questions

1. Who are the targets of Kumba City Council project?
2. What is the profile of beneficiaries of Kumba City Council projects?
3. What are the benefits of Kumba City Council projects on women?
4. What are the goals and activities of Kumba City Council projects?
5. What are the challenges of rural women in the Kumba Municipality?
6. What are the challenges of Kumba City Council in reaching out to rural women?

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