Accessibility to Poverty Alleviation Programmes for Sustainable Rural Development in South East, Nigeria

The study examined accessibility to Poverty Alleviation Programmes (PAPs) and Rural Development in South East Nigeria. The objectives were to identify the various poverty alleviation programmes and their associated basic services, their accessibility levels, and their socio-economic impacts on rural communities sustainable development in the zone. Twenty rural communities were selected using systematic sampling technique and 400 copies of the questionnaire was administered to respondents using random sampling technique. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis, while tables and charts were used for data presentation. Findings showed that 54 major PAPs were identified with their year of establishment ranging from 1959 to 2021 in which majority (88.9%) were Federal Government based while 11.1% were solely from the South East zone of Nigeria. While majority (66.67%) of them were established between 1980 and 1999, findings revealed that 85.19% were still in existence and 14.81% were not. In terms of accessibility to these PAPs, 5.56% were rated excellent, 24.05% good, 38.89% fair while 31.48% were rated poor. Over 60% respondents agreed that the implementation of PAPs has not been effective just as their implementation has not been reaching individuals in the community. The study concludes that although these programmes were established to cater for different sectors ranging from agriculture to unemployed youths or people, very few of the initiatives achieved their goals. It is recommends that individual and governments at all levels should tackle corruption and insecurity in the zone to ensure smooth and successful operation of PAPs.