COUNTERPART FUNDING AND SUSTAINABLE RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

Stephen, Makoji Robert

Department of Public Administration

Federal Polytechnic Idah, Kogi State

E-mail: orokpogbole@yahoo.com 

ABSTRACT

The magnitude and the complexity of the challenge of reducing poverty in the world have shaped the need to identify new ways to attack the problem. An important element of current thinking about how to reduce poverty is the involvement of primary stakeholders in the activities of development interventions. One major means of ensuring the participation of primary stakeholders is through the demand for the payment of counterpart funding towards the cost of implementing poverty reduction project. The counterpart funding policy has been identified as a means of ensuring participatory and sustainable development. Findings indicate that there has been a significant level of community participation in development intervention. The paper reveals among others that the counterpart funding policy has increased the sense of ownership of beneficiaries in the projects they have been directly involved in and could be a precursor for sustainable rural development.