Email: m.a.adesugba2@ncl.ac.uk

Supervisors: Dr Elizabeth Oughton and Prof Sally Shortall

Project overview

The rural economy in Nigeria has enormous and untapped potentials for sustainable development in both agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. However, it seems that policies and strategies put in place to achieve sustainable development have not done so as a result of limited knowledge about the influence of both formal and informal institutional arrangements. The purpose of my study is to understand how institutional arrangements and decision-making about livelihood options influence households, communities and organizational contributions to the sustainable development of the rural economy.

Specifically, my study aims do the following;

i. Identify and examine contextual institutional arrangements within the different multi-level decision-making units in the rural economy.

ii. Identify and critically analyse the reasons for the drawbacks to sustainable rural development and policy implementation within these institutional arrangements.

iii. Identify inefficiencies and critically assess the nature and causes of inefficiencies between formal and informal institutions in households, communities and organizations within the rural economy.

This will involve multilevel analyses of both qualitative and quantitative data from selected rural areas in Kwara state, Nigeria. Data will be collected at household, community and organizational levels through survey, focus group discussions and key informant in-depth interviews.

Results from the study will provide evidence-based information to develop a sustainable institutional rural economy framework that incorporates the main inter-sectoral linkages that will enhance sustainable rural development in Nigeria with focus on the agricultural sector. A holistic approach to analysing the rural economy in Nigeria is also necessary to inform policy makers about the loopholes that hinder rural households from reaching their potential in terms of sustainable development. Understanding the intricate interlinkages between the various actors and the actions that they produce within their institutional arrangements in the rural economy in Nigeria would not only enrich the limited body of evidence-based knowledge on Nigeria’s rural economy but will also inform the type of rural development strategies and rural investment priorities that are provided for sustainable rural development.