Rural Livelihood Activities/Services Performed by Community Based Women Organization (CBWOs) in Imo and Rivers States, Nigeria

The study was undertaken to identify rural livelihood services/activities carried out by CBWOs in Imo and Rivers States. 240 CBWOs were used for the study. The major livelihood services performed by CBWOs in Imo state were women advocacy (97.6%), weeding (97.6%), visitation to fellow members (96.8%), earth movement (erosion control) (95.2%), attendance at meeting (95.2%), sweeping (93.6%), Agro-processing (93.6%), Publicity (92.8%), loading of working materials (92.0%) and water fetching (90.4%). In Rivers state CBWOs who played active and effective roles in supporting women advocacy (100%), weeding (100%), visitation to members (100%), agro-processing (92.5%) and earth movement (96.7%). The overall performance of the livelihood services were in agricultural and rural development projects. This means that improving lives of members and others is a major thrust of CBWOs

Keywords: Livelihoods, women, community, organization.