Beneficiary Assessment of Development Interventions Implemented by Rural Development Animation Programme in Katsina and Kaduna States, North-West Nigeria

A beneficiary assessment of the community development interventions implemented by Rural Development Animation Programme (RUDAP) in Katsina State and some parts of Kaduna State, Northwest Nigeria was conducted to determine the relevance of RUDAP’s interventions to the development priorities of the target groups and to assess the changes in the living conditions of the people due to RUDAP’s activities. The assessment was also aimed at ascertaining the level of participation of the target groups in the implementation of the development interventions by the organisation. The three (3) operational zones of RUDAP were purposively selected, and in each zone, 3 villages were selected to cover all the activities implemented by the organisation. In each village community, focus group discussions involving 15 persons were conducted separately for women and men beneficiaries. RUDAP’s interventions were support for construction of cereal bank/grain store, provision of the hand-driven borehole and sanitation enlightenment. The results showed that the interventions implemented by RUDAP were relevant to the critical issues identified by the target groups for better life namely household food shortages, poor access to potable water and prevalence of unsanitary conditions. Changes in living conditions of the target groups attributable to RUDAP’s interventions included all year round household food supply, improved family cohesion among householders, increased income through the selling of surplus food grains in cereal banks when prices were more favourable. Others were reduced incidence of water- borne diseases, elimination of drudgery associated with fetching water from rivers and ease of maintaining personal hygiene. Participation of target groups in project implementation was in the form of financial and non-financial contribution. The findings from the beneficiary assessment underscored the importance of needs assessment prior to project design and implementation as well as the involvement of target groups in planning, implementation and evaluation of community development initiatives.