Investigating Nigerian non-governmental organizations’ capabilities to replicate successful youth poverty alleviation innovation programmes.

Abstract

The original contribution of this study to knowledge is the re-contextualisation of the SCALERS model to investigate the organisational capabilities of Nigerian nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) to replicate successful programmes designed to empower poor youths as NGOs are among the key stakeholders in the fight against youth poverty in Nigeria. Youth poverty is on the rise in Nigeria despite the successful poverty alleviation programmes of NGOs being utilised in some locations within Nigeria. This has necessitated the current investigative study to unravel the near lack of replication by these NGOs in other needy locations in Nigeria to reduce the growing scourge of youth poverty in the country. The research questions comprise two main categories focusing questions on the effectiveness of the organisational capabilities of these NGOs and determining the progress made in replicating successful programmes designed to empower poor youths in Nigeria and investigating the correlation between these. The study addressed a gap in extant literature and focused on youth poverty alleviation activities of NGOs and their organisational capabilities in Nigeria by investigating these organisational capabilities issues in relation to replicating successful programmes designed to empower poor youths to address the growing problem of youth poverty in Nigeria using the SCALERS model as theoretical foundation for the study. The study utilised a quantitative-based non-experimental exploratory correlational study design to investigate the organisational capabilities of youth-serving NGOs to replicate successful programmes designed to empower poor youths. A simple random sampling technique was adopted to gain access to the NGOs, and a self-administered questionnaire was utilised to gather the research data from managers of the NGOs. Descriptive and inferential statistics were carried out and their findings were significant. The major findings of the study were that the investigated NGOs had been able to meet their staffing, communication, alliance-building, replication and stimulating market forces needs effectively and that there was a significant correlation between the organisational capabilities of the investigated NGOs and replicating successful programmes designed to empower poor youths. It is expected that the research findings will enable youth-serving NGOs and their stakeholders to tackle youth poverty effectively