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Paper short abstract:

Social capital networks have been found to be part of the solution to reduce human vulnerability due to high poverty rate among others factors. Social capital facilitates access to financial benefits and improve welfare thereby reducing poverty level of households.

Paper long abstract:

Evidences from literature suggests that social support or capital plays an important role in the analysis of economic activities and human well-being. It has been used not only in traditional models for individual economic growth but also as a variable able to capture differences in quality of life, social exclusion, and poverty among countries or local communities. The study was carried out in Ogun State, Nigeria and it assess the effect of social capital and support network on poverty status of rural households in Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 245 rural households for the study. Three principal types of measures of social protection, capital and network support was used to reduce household poverty and vulnerability level. The first approach measure social relations directly: assessing the number, structure, or properties of relationships among individuals. The second approach measure social capital based on measuring individuals' beliefs about their relationships with others while the third approach uses measures of membership in certain voluntary organizations to assess the level of social capital and network. Findings from the study revealed that both social protection, capital and support network were poverty reducing variables. The study therefore recommends that social protection and network support as an asset can help the dissemination of information useful to the poor and this has a multiple effect on the economy at large by improving growth and income redistribution; it should therefore be encouraged because it helps to reduce poverty in the rural sector in Nigeria.

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