AN ASSESSMENT OF BASIC NEEDS IN RURAL COMMUNITIES OF ABAGANA, ANAMBRA STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background of the Study.

Poor access is one of the characteristics of rural environment, however, it is not the only factor but it is a key parameter, satisfying the basic needs of people in rural areas is one of the core goals of rural development. Thus, government of different nations in both the developed and developing countries strives to meet the needs of its people, results have shown that majority of rural households live in poverty with limited access to basic infrastructure, these limitations have in turn affected the quality of lives of these people.

Basic needs as defined by various authors and from various perspectives refer to those things that are necessary for sustaining life (Dung, 1988). It is the minimum requirement of a community for a decent standard of living; basic need consists of adequate food and nutrition, shelter, clothing, health facilities and services, education, transportation, employment and income generation, freedom of individuals and households as well as availability of social facilities and amenities. There is no single universally accepted definition of basic needs, or of what a development effort aimed at meeting basic needs would comprise, nor is there a uniform vocabulary to describe the various elements.

There is instead a wide spectrum of meaning ranging from, at one extreme, a minimal list of those things which are required by human beings for bare survival, for example food, shelter, and clothing to at the other extreme, an emphasis that human needs are not only physical but also psychological, not absolute but relative to what is enjoyed by other people in society, not finite but expanding t the satisfaction of one need gives rise to another. At this inclusive extreme, basic needs include not only commodities but also public services such as clean water and transportation, employment, education, participation in decision- making, leisure, human rights, democracy, an egalitarian society, self-reliance and more besides (Ott 1987). There is also considerable diversity of opinion as to what constitute the ‘ends’ which are desired as valuable in themselves and what are the ‘means’ which are inescapable if those ends are to be achieved. The vocabulary also is diverse, but ‘basic needs’, ‘core needs’ are expression that tend to be used for needs at the more minimal end of the range, while ‘non minimal’ needs, basic ‘human’ needs, ‘fundamental’ needs tends to be used for more inclusive end. A similar progression from more minimal to more inclusive is given by series life-sustaining, life-supporting, life-enhancing and life-enriching needs, (Dung, 1998).

The interest of this study was aroused by literature evidence that quality of life relates to people’s standard of living which itself is related to such basic needs as food, shelter, clothing, water supply, transportation, education, market, employment and social justice. Recent study of basic need assessment has focused on the social indicator or measurement of quality of life and understanding people’s perception of the state of well being of people and their quality of life. In Nigeria, a major interest has been on the identifiable characteristics of population such as demographic, socio-economic, cultural and spatial traits relating this to planning and development (see Mabogunje, 1970 and Ajaegbu, 1976). In most cases, the emphasis has been on the demographic indicators and attributes of the population and where the well being of the population has been studied, the focus has been in urban areas.

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