Collective actions for poverty reduction in Nigeria and South Africa: Exploring the perspectives of elites and the poor

This thesis proposes that a successful poverty reduction and economic development in Nigeria and South Africa lies on the willingness and synergy between elites and the poor. Perceptions of poverty studies either draw the perspectives of the poor or the elites or other groups of stakeholders in society to understand the problem. Some studies argue for prioritisation of the views of the poor when addressing poverty because they can best describe their situation, particularly now that poverty is considered a multidimensional problem. Some studies seek to understand the causes of poverty using the attribution theory. Other studies in favour of the perspectives of the elites argue that the effects of poverty mostly influence elites to address poverty. This thesis argues for the views of elites because of the positions that elites hold in the society - influential and or powerful people in charge of economic resources and policymaking - and those experiencing the consequential effects of policies and unequal resource distributions. Elites may not possess a good level of knowledge of the real stuation of poverty compared to those experiencing the problem, hence its poor success, particularly in developing countries with weak governance practices. This thesis generated a total of 160 usable data from semi-structured interviews - 73 interviews - and questionnaires - 87 administered. The 160 data were analysed using the statistical t-tests and factor analysis for the quantitative data and NVivo for the qualitative data. This thesis finds some disparities between the elites and poor respondents poverty understanding and choice of social policies. However, an inclusive government or development is more feasible in South Africa, whereby the strategic steps towards a collaborative measure as suggested by the poor respondents are more likely to be adopted than in Nigeria.