Sustainable Community Development Efforts in Nigeria : The Effect of Integrating Sustainability Principles into the Community Development Process

Practicing sustainability or responsible use of earth’s resources is a current focus in development issues, especially using the Community Development method as a platform. This survey observed elements of sustainable community development (SCD) in the South Western States in Nigeria and the extent of its incorporation into community development efforts. This is because any serious development effort that does not incorporate sustainability is not likely to succeed long term. 250 respondents in five States were stratified purposefully, using urban and rural areas, and polled about their opinion on the level of adherence to SCD principles with the use of a 61 item Likert-type instrument with five predictors in all for qualitative and quantitative data collection, along with direct observation schedule. The results, using Pearson Correlation Coefficient and Regression Analysis revealed that with r = .030, which is less than the critical r-value of 0.195 at 0.05 level of significance, given 98 degrees of freedom for the economic factor in urban areas. The level of incorporation of sustainability principles is rather low and this is repeated in both the rural and urban areas as there was little or no correlation between the independent variable (sustainability principles) and all other predictors. A major challenge was the perceived low level of provision of infrastructure and amenities by the government and the most popular community development strategy was participative collaboration with the government by the communities, followed by self-help. The implication is that the future of the nation will be compromised and the rates of development slow if sustainability is not interwoven into CD efforts. It was therefore advocated that sustainability be more consciously integrated into community development efforts in Nigeria