ABSTRACT
The global nature, incidence and the devastating effects of poverty has not only raised concerns within government circles, but equally among stakeholders and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) on how to tackle the menace. The basic concern is how to improve and or uplift the living conditions of the poor around the globe and Nigeria in particular. The failure of government in programmes like FEAP, UBE, OFN, Green Revolution, NACA etcetera necessitated a collaboration or partnership with NGOs to help address the problem. This study assessed the contribution of NGOs (Lift Above Poverty and the Girls Power Initiative) by empowering women towards in poverty reduction in Oredo and Esan North-East Local Government Areas of Edo-South Senatorial District of Edo State. The study is an attempt to ascertain the extent to which Lift Above Poverty (LAPO) and Girls Power Initiative (GPI) has reduced the incidence of poverty amongst women in Edo State. Data were collected from the primary source through questionnaire, interview as well as observation methods. Secondary data were sourced from official publications of the LAPO, Reports and News Letters from GPI, publications and official websites of LAPO, complemented our primary data. Using the Spearman Rank Order Correlation (rsï€, at Level of Significance (ï¡ï€ï€½ 0.05%, the study found that LAPO recorded better performance in the areas of agriculture, Health, education and skills acquisition both in Oredo and Esan North-East local Government Areas than its counterpart the GPI. The study also found that both LAPO and GPI enjoy funding from international partners even though such funding is not direct to beneficiaries in order to achieve the desired level of poverty reduction. The study recommended that there is need for collaboration between LAPO and government on women legislation, large scale farming to affect, immediate communities, the country at large and a step up in GPI's activities through education, human trafficking prevention in order to create the desired empowerment.
