Multidimensional Poverty in Rural Kogi State, Nigeria: A Subjective Wellbeing (SWB) Approach
[1]
Mohammed Ibrahim Adah, Dept. of Agricultural Economics & Extension, Faculty of Agriculture, Kogi State University, Anyigba, Nigeria.
[2]
Awoyemi Timothy Taiwo, Dept. of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
Over the past decades, poverty alleviation has been of central concern to governments all over the world. However, a staggering 40% of the world’s population is still living with the reality. It is against this backdrop that we examined multidimensional poverty in rural Kogi state; a subjective wellbeing approach. A multistage random sampling technique was used to sample two hundred household respondents from four agricultural zones of Kogi state with the aid of a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, principal component analysis (PCA), and correlation were used for data analysis. Results showed that 80.0% of the respondents were male, 78.0% were married and 56.5% had primary and secondary education with low annual income and expenditure. Also, results revealed that 65.5% of the respondents were in the happy/very happy category irrespective of their conditions. The wellbeing index revealed that households in rural Kogi state were deprived in the dimensions of education, toilet facility, environmental sanitation, security, quality meal, safe water, quality healthcare, electricity and cooking energy. All correlations between SWB and socioeconomic indicators were positive and significant, an indication of a direct relationship. Provision of free education, healthcare service, safe drinking water, rural electrification and provision of alternative cooking energy are thus recommended.
Multidimensional Poverty, Subjective Wellbeing, Principal Component Analysis, Correlation Analysis, Happiness, Kogi State
[1]
African Development Fund (ADF) 2003. A Republic of Nigeria Fadama Development Project appraisal report agriculture
[2]
Aigbokhan, B. E. 2000. Poverty, Growth and Inequality in Nigeria: A case Study. AERC Research Paper 102
[3]
Alaye-Ogan, E. O. 2008. Rural Poverty among Women in Nigeria: A Case Study of Abuja Satellite Communities of Nigeria
[4]
Argyle, M. 1999. Causes and Correlates of Happiness in D. Kahneman, E. Dienery N. Schwarz (eds.) Wellbeing, the Foundations of Hedonic Psychology: Scientific Perspectives on Enjoyment and Suffering, Russell Sage Foundation.
[5]
Argyle, M. 2002. The psychology of happiness. Routledge.
[6]
Asadullah, M. N. and Chaudhury, N. 2012. Subjective well-being and relative poverty in rural Bangladesh. Journal of Economic Psychology, 33(5), 940–950.
[7]
Chu-Chia, L., Tsung-Chi, C., and Shu-Chen, W. 2013. Measuring Subjective Well-Being in Taiwan. Social Indices Research Online Journal.
[8]
Canagarajah, S., J., Ngwafon and S. Thomas 1997. “The evolution of poverty and welfare in Nigeria, 1985-92” Policy Research Working Paper No. 1715.
[9]
Diener, E. 1984. Subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 542-575.
[10]
Diener, E. and C. Diener 1996. “Most People are Happy,” journal of psychological Science.
[11]
Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. and Smith, H. L. 1999. SWB, three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 276–302.
[12]
Diener, E. 2002. “Will Money Increase Subjective Well-Being?” social indicator research.
[13]
Ferdous, H. S. 2014. Asset-Based Poverty Analysis in Rural Bangladesh: A Comparison of Principal Component Analysis and Fuzzy Set Theory. Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, UK.
[14]
Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A. 2005. Income and well-being: An empirical analysis of the comparison income effect. Journal of Public Economics, 89, 997–1019.
[15]
Gustavo, A. and Kostas, S. 2007. Rural development and poverty reduction: Is agriculture still the key? ESA Working Paper No. 07‐02 June 2007.
[16]
Helliwell, J. F. 2003. How’s life? Combining individual and national variables to explain SWB. Economic Modelling, 20, 331–360.
[17]
Helliwell, J. F. 2006. Well-being, social capital and public policy: What’s new? Economic Journal, 116, C34–C45.
[18]
Helliwell, J. F., and Putnam, R. D. 2004. The social context of well-being. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 359, 1435–1446.
[19]
Ibitoye, S. J. 2012. Survey of the Performance of Agricultural Cooperative Societies in Kogi State, Nigeria. European Scientific Journal 8(28).
[20]
Innocent A. I., Thomas A. J., Elizabeth C., Wosowei, S. O. 2013. Multidimensional Poverty Incidence in Nigeria: Empirical Insight from Core Welfare Indicator Questionnaire (CWIQ) Survey. Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development ISSN 2222-1700 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2855 (Online) 4(16).
[21]
Kahneman, D. and Krueger, A. B. 2006. Developments in the measurement of SWB. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20, 3–24.
[22]
Kingdon, G. and Knight, J. 2007. "Subjective well-being poverty vs Income poverty and capabilities poverty?," Journal of Development Studies, 42(7),1199-1224.
[23]
Kogi ADP 2003. Village Listing Survey. An Occasional Report of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Unit, Lokoja; pg3.
[24]
KOSSED 2006. Towards Poverty Alleviation and Wealth Creation, Lokoja, Kogi State Ministry of Budget and Planning. Pg7.
[25]
National Planning Commission (NPC) 2004. National economic empowerment strategy, Abuja.
[26]
National Population Commission, (NPC) 2006. Population figure. Federal Republic of Nigeria, Abuja. Retrieved from http://www.npc.gov
[27]
Ogwumike, F. O Okogie, C. Anyanwu, C and Alayande B. 2006. “Poverty in Nigeria; gender dimension, social services and labour market issues” interim Report submitted to the African Economic Research Consortium, Nairobi.
[28]
Okumadewa, F., Olaniyan, O., Yusuf, S., Bankole, A., Oyeanti, O., Omorona, B., Awoyemi, T. T and Olayiwola, K. 2006. Poverty and inequality among rural households in Nigeria. Summary of AERC research Report presented at the dissemination workshop held at Excellence hotel, Ogba, Ikeja Lagos. Nigeria, September.
[29]
Olaolu M. O., Akinnagbe O. M. and Agber, T. 2013. Impact of National Fadama Development Project Phase (II) On Poverty and Food Security among Rice Farming Beneficiaries in Kogi State, Nigeria. American Journal of Research Communication, www.usa-journals.com
[30]
Oswald, A. J. 1997. Happiness and economic performance. The Economic Journal, 107, 1815–1831.
[31]
Putnam, R. D. 2001. Social capital: Measurement and consequences. In J. F. Helliwell (Ed.), the contribution of human and social capital to sustained economic growth and well-being. Proceedings of an OECD/HRDC conference, Quebec, March 19–21, 2000. Ottawa: HDRC.
[32]
Rojas, M. 2005. Wellbeing and the Complexity of Poverty: A Subjective Wellbeing Approach.
[33]
Sen A. K. 1985. Commodities and Capabilities, North-Holland, Amsterdam.
[34]
Sen A. K. 1992. Inequality Reexamined, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA).
[35]
Sen A. K. 1993. Capability and well-being, in Nussbaum, M. Sen A. K. (eds).
[36]
Sen A. K. 1999. Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[37]
Steeten, P. 1981. First Things First; Meeting Basic Human Needs in Developing Countries. New York: Oxford University Press.
[38]
Stutzer, A. 2004. The role of income aspirations in individual happiness. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 54, 89–109.
[39]
Tsou, M. W. and Liu, J. T. 2001. Happiness and domain satisfaction in Taiwan. Journal of Happiness Studies, 2, 269–288.
[40]
United Nations Development Programme, (UNDP) 2006. International Poverty Centre. Poverty in Focus. www.undp-povertycentre.org
[41]
Van de Wale, E. 1990. “Policies for Reducing Poverty “Finance and Development 27(3) September.
[42]
Veenhoven, R. 1992. Happiness in Nations, Erasmus University.
[43]
World Bank 2000. Attacking Poverty, World Development Report 2000/2001, World Bank and Oxford University Press.
[44]
World Bank 2010. Poverty World Development Report: Oxford University Press.
