IMPACT OF EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMMES ORGANISED FOR WOMEN BY THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN AFFAIRS AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN DELTA STATE: (A CASE STUDY OF UGHELLI SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA)

ABSRACT

The involvement of women in various sphere of governance is the key to their empowerment. However, empowerment is misconstrued by many people by asserting different meanings of it, such as; women should be giving power. Women engagement in the social development career is a mainstream to their rights, social justice and general contributions in addressing challenges and needs raveging the society. The hallmark of this study is hinged on an attempt to x-ray and to investigate the impacts of empowerment programme in the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development in Delta State. This study shall use a research design which provides the framework for the collection and analysis of data, which is parochial to decision making amidst related issues of concern in research process. Also it shall take the mode of descriptive survey design which would follow the population of all women that have participated in empowerment programmes organized by the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development in Delta State, Nigeria. A sample of one hundred and ten (110) respondents were taken, using census techniquecy+frequency counts and percentage were used for the demographic data which also answered the research questions. Concurrently, the findings of the study unveil that empowerment programmes has led to the reduction of illiteracy and it has also helped the respondents to taps into job opportunities. Additionally, the result shown that empowerment programmes has added more values to the lives of participant whose challenges are numerous against the effectiveness of the empowerment programmes. In view of this, as a recommendation, the government should find ways of encouraging women by giving out soft loans or credit facilities to women who have being trained and integrated into the empowerment programmes and ensure that the payments of the loan is spread over a period of a year or more. The government should also help in extend the period of training or learning a vocation due to the fact that slow learners are observed. This will enable the concerned women to know all the rudiments in their various field in which they were trained. Keywords: Empowerment programme, Ministry of Women Affairs, Social Development, Vocational Education.