Community Based Organisations' Activities and Poverty Reduction in Sembabule District: Uganda

ABSTRACT The general objective of this study was to determine the correlation between the level of community based organizations' activities and poverty reduction in selected parishes among the local community in Sembabule District basing on the following specific objectives; to identify the profile of the respondents in terms of gender, age, marital status, educational levels and number of years in Sembabule District, to examine the nature of community based organizations' activities in selected parishes of Sembabule District, to access poverty reduction among the local community in selected parishes of Sembabule District, and to determine the relationship between the level of community based organizations' activities and poverty reduction in selected parishes of Sembabule District. The study was, quantitative and took a descriptive correlational research design. It was quantitative because the variables are measured in numerical form. Purposive sampling was used to select respondents. A sample size of 135 was selected comprising of 55 males and 80 females. Questionnaires were used to collect information from respondents. The frequency and percentages were used to determine the profile of the respondents. The means and ranks were applied for the levels of community based organizations' activities and poverty reduction. Findings revealed that the level of poverty reduction to some respondents had no skills in entrepreneurship & small business management, as well as low access to medical care, and basic every day food hence being poor. On the other hand the level of community based organisation had low participation on cleaning school compounds, laying bricks, digging roads as an activity in the community, and recreation centres that is slashing play grounds. From the findings and the conclusions of the study, the researcher recommends that there should be some needs to uplift the competencies of members of CBOs of selected parishes in Sembabule district since most of them were found to be certificate holders. There is a need to sensitize the members of the community to participate in Community Based Organization activities in selected parishes of Sembabule district, since it was found to be generally low. Members of the CBOs should be trained with skills in entrepreneurship & small business management hence reducing poverty. There is a need to sensitize people on how to fight poverty in selected parishes of Sembabule District, and also to train them on how to improve their standards of living. There is a need to encourage males also to participate in community based organization activities not letting only women to participate. The management of the CBOs to improve on their bureaucratic system because a good bureaucracy system will raise the standard of members which will make them do their work effectively. Despite of all these challenges, members should also involve in vocational activities lik