The Impact of Persistent Poverty on the Livelihoods of the Rural Population of Oluvu Sub-County

Abstract

Eradicating poverty has for the past many decades proved to be a nightmare to many economists and development agencies. This however does not mean that no attempts have been made to reduce it. But the question has often been why is there poverty despite enormous investment towards it’s eradication. Poverty has affected communities in all aspects of their lives, and one such community feeling such heat of poverty is that of Oluvu Sub-county. However, though poverty entrenches through almost all aspects of the lives of the said community, this research only picked interest in assessing how it has impacted on the livelihoods of the rural population of the community herein selected for the study. This assessment was done through ascertaining the presence of poverty eradication initiatives, finding out why poverty has persisted, the nature of livelihoods of the rural population of Oluvu Sub-county, and lastly how persistent poverty has shaped their livelihoods. This research however took to a mixed approach where both qualitative and quantitative approaches were employed to either present or find out information from respondents. The study however found out that despite the existence of initiative both domestic and external, these initiatives lack the capacity to relieve the study population from the strings of poverty holding them back, and this has therefore made eradicating poverty simply a nightmare. This persistence of poverty has therefore subjected the study population to the curse of the unreliable informal sector as they largely lack what it takes to fit within the comforts of the formal sector.

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