There has been a growing incidence of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa over the last two decades. Historically, it is a fact that women have not been seen as equal partners in growth and development process. Poverty has a gender dimension since women and men experience and react differently to its impact. Within the framework of social exclusion theory, the paper argued that there cannot be genuine sustainable development aimed at poverty alleviation, without mainstreaming women in all development structures and processes. The study established among others, that a lot of efforts have been made in poverty alleviation in Nigeria through poverty alleviation programs. However, the reality on ground indicates that despite these interventions, there is geometrical increase in the number of the poor both in rural and urban Nigeria. Therefore, there is need to intensify efforts in poverty alleviation programs, especially as regards to beneficiaries participation in decision making and implementation, human resource training and development and legal framework. Nigeria can adopt the template of Rapti Women Empowerment Project in Nepal. Sustainable poverty alleviation strategies should engage and empower men and more of women as actors and beneficiaries. It concludes that unless there are genuine, realistic and workable interventions to address the ugly situation, poverty will remain a vicious circle that could be inherited from one generation to the other in communities, families and the nation at large.

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Abstracthe purpose of this article is to evaluate and critique the policy of Treasury Single Account (TSA) adopted by the Nigerian government as an essential tool for enhancing transparency and accountability in public sector financial.

The study examined effects of manpower planning and development in Lagos state civil service performance. Lagos state civil service is the greatest asset of the state in its quest for socio-economic development. The primary question that was explored is whether the nature of manpower planning and development curriculum in Lagos state civil service has effect on the service performance and the attainment of state objective. The study relied on primary and secondary data, and multiple stage sampling technique was used to select the sample population. The data collected was presented in frequency bar chart and simple percentage. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMC) statistical tool was used to test the hypotheses. Findings of the study show that the nature of manpower planning and development curriculum has a positive effect on the Lagos state civil performance. It also reveals that the manpower planning and development has a positive effect on the attainment of Lagos state objective. To achieve better performance in the service, it should among others, improve on the current manpower planning strategy and continue to update its manpower development curriculum in line with the global best practices. Given the pivotal role that technology plays in the 21st century, the service should avail itself the windows of opportunities that information technology provides in its drive to enhance employees’ skills, knowledge and abilities that will invariably improve the service performance. Yet, the service should imbibe the prescripts of New PublicManagement theory (NPM), and that goals and targets should be defined and measurable as indicators of organizational performance.

Every organization regardless of its size, product or service must recruit applicants to fill vacant positions. The efficiency and effectiveness of any work place whether the private or public sector largely depend on the calibre of the work force. Within the framework of bureaucratic theory, the paper examined recruitment policies in Nigerian federal civil service and its implication on employee performance with a view of determining the challenges facing poor employees performance and recruitment of competent and qualified candidates into the service. The primary question that was explored is whether there is a relationship between recruitment policies in the federal civil service and employees' performance. It established that, there is a significant relationship between recruitment policies and practices and employees performance in Nigerian federal civil service. The paper concludes that federal civil service is faced with poor recruitment policies and practices which have affected service delivery in service. Given the identified constraints, it recommends among others, that the current recruitment policy in the civil service that calls for uniform qualifications do not specify classification of degrees, diplomas and certificates should be modified to make provision on preference for candidates with outstanding results at all levels of education.