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APPLICATION OF PROBLEM TREE ANALYSIS IN SOLVING POVERTY RELATED

ISSUES

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 Global Approaches to Extension Practice (GAEP), Vol. 13, No. 1, 2018

APPLICATION OF PROBLEM TREE ANALYSIS IN SOLVING POVERTY RELATED

ISSUES

*MADU, I.L., *ADESOPE, O.M. AND **OGUERI, E.

*Department Of Agricultural Economics And Extension,
University Of Port Harcourt, Nigeria
**Department Of Agricultural Extension,
Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria
Corresponding author’s Email: olufemi.adesope@uniport.edu.ng

ABSTRACT
The paper highlighted how to apply problem tree technique in solving poverty related issues. A
problem tree is a type of drawing that resembles a tree. The roots of the tree, in the lower part of
drawing, metaphorically represent the causes of the main problem. The trunk at the centre of the
drawing represents the main problem and the tree branches, on the upper side of the drawing,
provide a visual representation of the effects of the main problem. A problem tree was constructed
based on problems identified by literature as rural community problems and poverty was chosen
as the main problem. The developed problem tree was then transposed, thus transforming the root
causes and consequences identified into root solutions. From the root solutions, the following
available practical solutions were advanced: inclusion of rural people in development
programmes, adequate management and sensitive leadership, creation of employment
opportunities both by government or private sector as well as literacy which can be achieved from
making education accessible.

Keywords: problem tree, poverty rural communities

INTRODUCTION
It will be difficult to appreciate the stark realities of rural poverty without understanding poverty
per se (Ebirim, 2008).Poverty amid plenty is the world’s greatest challenge and it’s as old as
mankind. It may not be adequately defined for others to appreciate because it is a multifaceted
phenomenon. Economist tends to view poverty as a distance on a continuum toward zero purchasing
power while its polar opposite- affluence is a distance on the same continuum toward full
purchasing power (Ekong, 2010) However, poverty as it exists in the Nigerian society and
developing countries are not just a matter of low income alone, it means much more than
that. People may be seen as being poor even if they are assured of the minimum required for
physical survival. Consequently, poverty line is now viewed not as a minimum required for
subsistence, but as a minimum level of health and decency. Thus, in addition to being a condition
of want, deprivation, grossly low income and inadequacy, poverty also connotes generally very
poor level of living, inaccessibility of social, infrastructural and educational facilities from which
people can benefit for their individual or collective development (Clausen, 1985). Poverty has no
precise definition but, Poverty according to Okafor (2004) is an abject state of being in which an
individual is incapable of utilizing resources around him to improve himself economically, socially,
politically or otherwise. It could be due to lack of opportunity for education which is basic to
human development. “Poverty has earned recognition in the extent of its ravaging society and the
affairs of humanity at the international, national and local levels; the need exists now for urgent

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actions towards its eradication and control. Indeed, poverty is a snare. It is dehumanizing. It must
be eradicated.” (Obadan, 1996).
According to Dercon, 2008 Poverty is predominantly a rural phenomenon. Most of the
world’s poor live in rural areas. International Fund for Agricultural Development estimated in 2001
that among the poorest 1.2 billion people in the world, surviving with less than a dollar per day live
in the rural area. Among the rural dwellers are the aged, widow/widowers, some of whom have no
children to look after them. They also include those who have no assets, those who sold off their
lands and are heavily indebted to other people, those who are too weak and incapable of getting one
good meal for two days or more (Oreh, 2006)
In a bid to overcome poverty, governments initiated different policies and programmes
between 1986 and 2004 to alleviate it. Various reasons have been proffered on why anti-poverty
programmes initiated by government have often failed one out of many is lack of participation of
the poor at various levels of the anti-poverty programmes. Participatory research is about people,
regardless of who they are, getting involved in a continuous process of reflection and action that is,
ultimately, transformative (Taylor, 2004) Participatory research is an orientation rather than a set
of specific methods (Cornwall and Jewkes, 1995) Tools which focus on visualizations are
commonly used in participatory approaches to assist in the process (Cornwall and Jewkes, 1995
and Rifkin et al., 2000), and include mapping and diagrams (Rifkin et al., 2000). Flow diagrams
(Rifkin et al., 2000), mind maps (Start and Hovland, 2004) and also problem trees (Anyaegbunamet
al., 2004 and Ammaniet al 2010). These are similar in intent and process, and offer the options of
also identifying potential solutions.
A problem tree is a visual problem-analysis tool that can be effectively used by both field
development staff and the community to specify and investigate the causes and effects of a problem
and to highlight the relationships between them. As the name implies, this tool resembles a tree.
The roots of the tree, in the lower part of the drawing, metaphorically represent the causes of the
main problem. The tree trunk at the centre of the drawing represents the main problem and the tree
branches, on the upper side of the drawing, provide a visual representation of the effects of the main
problem (Dershem, 2009). Conducting a problem tree/solution tree analysis provides a means to
review the existing understanding of the causes to a specific problem and how it can be overcome.
A good problem analysis consists of a number of steps At least five steps can be distinguished
(Ammaniet al, 2012).
1. Identify major existing problems, based upon available information.
2. Select one focal problem for the analysis.
3. Identify direct causes and effects of the focal problem and construct a problem tree showing
these relationships.
4. Transform the problem tree into the objective tree
5. Obtain root solutions to the focal problem from the objective tree.

It is generally agreed that the rural sector has invariably lagged most in the rate of development.
Despite the high number of development projects undertaken by national and international agencies
within Nigeria, the living condition of the rural areas still remains deplorable as attested by many
scholars studying the problem of the rural areas (Gbadamosi, 2001). Complete eradication or
alleviation of poverty is a key imperative development of a country like Nigeria.Many governments
of Nigeria in the past have engaged in poverty reduction programmes though many of them were
not successful. These programmes had faulty backgrounds; there is a lack of participation of the
poor at various levels of the anti-poverty programmes. All through the planning process of these

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programmes the real stakeholders i.e. the marginalized groups, unemployed, aged, etc are not in
any way involved in the decision making process. These groups remain totally unaware of such
programmes until the government launches it. There is therefore no in-built feedback mechanism
as this was never in the original plan. An effective programme would thus need to adopt a more
consultative approach in its formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation phases
(Idahosa, 2002). At a practical level, many of the problems that affect well-being of people in
communities (whether rural or urban) such as poverty cannot be solved by any person, organization,
or sector working alone (Lasker et al, 2003), there must be joint analysis for joint action. As policy
makers, the use of problem tree technique as a participatory tool should not be overlooked.
Therefore this paper, with review of literatures shows how a problem tree approach can be used to
solve poverty as a rural development problem in Imo state with the view of understanding its causes
and effects leading to possible solutions that will if not completely, eradicate poverty to its barest
minimum.Generally this paper aims to solve poverty as a rural development problem using a
problem tree approach.

Concept of Poverty, Types, Causes and Effects

Poverty is a multi-dimensional concept that denotes a universally undesirable human condition. It
describes vary kinds and degrees of human deprivation in society. Poverty is a complex problem
because there are many human needs in society (Maslow has identified a hierarchy of five) which
may be only inadequately met or remain unmet altogether, due to a multiplicity of causes (Muzaale,
1987). According to Ekong (2010), poverty is not only an expression of life condition but a state of
mind and a perception of self in the complex web of social relations. This fact was affirmed by
Abumere (2004) that there are probably as many definitions of poverty as there are researchers in
the field. These varied definitions can be grouped into three broad categories that define poverty in
terms of income, consumption and access to social and physical infrastructure.How researchers
define poverty depends mainly on the theoretical framework researchers adopt. Those coming from
the economics point of view will look at economic factors like income, expenditure and poverty
lines as a basis for measurement (Twaloet al, 2005). Others will look at issues of social exclusion,
deprivation and incapability to measure poverty. Here are some definitions of poverty to gain
abroad overview of the meaning of poverty:
 The World Bank defines poverty as the inability to attain a minimum standard of living and
produced a universal poverty line which was consumption-based.
 Amartya sen characterized poverty as a capability deprivation where a person lacks the
subsistence freedoms he/she has reason to value ( in Bloom & Canning ,2003,Simonen,
2005 adapted from Eghan,2008)
 UNDP define poverty as the percent of people expected to die before: without access to
health services or safe water; of adults who are illiterate; and of children who are
malnourished.
 Economist defined poverty as a distance on a continuum toward zero purchasing power. (
Ekong, 2010)
 Okofor(2004), defined poverty is an abject state of being, in which an individual is incapable
of utilizing resources around him to improve himself economically socially, politically or
otherwise.
The above definitions imply that the heart of poverty is an idea of basic needs. Typically, a person
is considered poor if he/she does not have the capacities to meet the basic needs. Poverty is not a

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paucity of income only, but goes beyond that to consider the social context in which the person
lives, that determines the extent of poverty a person or family experience (Eghan, 2008)

Major Types of Poverty

Several criteria have been used to classify poverty. These criteria range from basic needs through
individual circumstances, microeconomic and macroeconomic perspective and location to the
nature of society (Anyanwu, 1997).In terms of basic needs poverty is classified as absolute and
relative poverty (UNDP 1990,1998;Schubert,1994; Hemmer, 1994 and Aboyade 1987)
Absolute Poverty: this is the inability to secure the minimum basic needs of life like water, shelter
and food. Poverty of this magnitude is the convergence of the absence of material well-being,
idea/knowledge and courage/wisdom. Absolute poverty in this sense is a degenerated condition
whereby a person or individual are unable to attain to a minimum standard of living (World Bank,
1994). This is a physiological definition of poverty (Muzaale, 1987). At the world summit on social
Development in Copenhagen in 1995 absolute or extreme poverty was defined as a condition
characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs including food, safe drinking water,
sanitation facilities, health, shelter education and information. Therefore mainly depending on
access to range of services.
Relative Poverty: refers to a state of human suffering which results from the inability of a person
or group of persons to meet the needs that other people in society have come to take for granted. In
this regard Aboyade (1987) stated that people are poverty-stricken in relative terms when their
incomes, even if adequate for survival, fall radically behind that of the community average; they
cannot have what the larger community regards as the minimum necessary for decency, and they
cannot wholly escape, therefore, the judgment of the larger community that they are indecent and
degraded.
In the case of individual circumstance criterion poverty could be classified as conjectural
(Hiff,1987) or transitory (Murdoch, 1994) and structural or chronic.
Conjectural or Transitory Poverty as the name implies last for a very short period because it is
seasonal or temporary poverty in which a normally self-sufficient individuals or households are
thrown into crisis.
Chronic Poverty: it is a long term or structural poverty (Ekong, 2010). It is normally caused by
individual circumstance or characteristics such as low education, incidence of single headed
families, income fluctuation due over-whelming incidence of primary-production agriculture
(which depends much more on the vagaries of the weather, fluctuating crop disease and other
uncontrollable natural factors). Poorly developed financial institutions and weak social insurance
institutions.
Based on location or spatial criterion we have urban and rural poverty (Rogers et al,1988).
Urban Poverty refers to individuals or households mostly found in the urban slums, ghettos and
shanties who are unable to have a decent and dignified life.
Rural Poverty refers to the rural individuals or households who barely have enough resources for
decent and dignifying living.

Causes and Effects of Poverty

Poverty has multifarious root causes ranging from cultural disposition to social phenomena. Jones
(1986) explained that many causes of it are associated with the socio-political and economic sectors
of a society and not necessarily with the people. He argued that the nation of non-government
intervention in the economic structure or a laissez-faire approach in terms of job creation for the

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unemployed has not generated the expected number of employment opportunities. Gilford and
Nelson (1981) have emphasized that the concept of poverty and a wealth have been an integral part
of many human societies. Over the years, poverty amidst plenty has been justified and nationalized
as a reflection of deficiency in the character of the people in poverty. It follows from this logic that
if people are poor, and the deficiencies in their character are removed, they are going to escape the
claim of poverty, and consequently, there will be a poverty free society. Many writers have
questioned this simplistic position stated above. One of such critics, Tussing (1975) stressed that
most of the root causes of poverty can be traced in the economic and social systems and not on the
character deficiencies of the poor. He raised some issues with the following questions thus:-
1) Are there forces operating within the society that influence or cause poverty?
2) Are these forces identifiable and quantifiable?
3) Are they subject to manipulation and elimination from the society?
4) Are the forces perpetuated through generation and are they imparting all sectors of the
society, rural and urban?
Be that as it may, the most comprehensive enumeration of the causes of poverty is that given by the
World Bank (1996) in its analysis of the root causes of poverty. They include among others: -
i. Inadequate access to employment opportunities.
ii. Inadequate physical assets, such as land and capital, and minimal access by the poor to
credit, even on a small scale.
iii. Inadequate access to markets where the poor can sell goods and services.
iv. Inadequate access to the means of supporting rural development in poor regions.
v. Low endowment of human capital.
vi. Destruction of natural resources leading to environmental degradation and reduced
productivity
vii. Inadequate access to assistance for those living at the margin and those victimized by
transitory poverty.
viii. Lack of participation, failure to draw the poor into the design of development programme.
On the other hand, Messil (1996) argued that the society and culture provide an insight to the root
causes of poverty. He further maintained that “the essence of society is social interactions which
offer social security to human beings in meaningful reciprocal activities”. Some past studies have
concentrated their inquiries on the root causes of poverty. These studies have reiterated the fact that
the root causes are many and varied. Another root cause of poverty is demographic explosion. The
creation of a large family without the necessary financial backing to sustain it does result in poverty
(Olowu and Akinola, 1997).Ekong in his book rural sociology listed some of the effects of poverty
and they include inability to feed well; poor health and high susceptibility to health problems; low
life expectancy; poor housing; inability to send children to school; prostitution; development of
slum settlements in cities; restiveness of unemployed youths; kidnapping and other violent crimes;
low self esteem; powerlessness or inability to participate meaningfully in social and political life.
This paper applied the problem tree technique to solve poverty as a problem in Imo state
with the aid of the tree the direct causes and effects of the focal problem was identified. The
developed problem tree was them transformed to give the objective tree. The objective obtained
provided the root solutions. From the root solutions available practical solutions were advanced.

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PROCEDURE
The problem analysis process including the identification of the focal problem should be carried
out in participatory manner, but for this paper, information used in solving poverty using the
problem tree where gotten from relevant literatures.

Step 1: Identify Major Existing Problems, Based Upon Available Information

Based on literature, the major existing problems in the study area are poverty, as already stated,
overpopulation, the unequal distribution of resources, inability to meet high standards of living and
costs of living, inadequate education and unemployment, environmental degradation, low farming
productivity, poor governance, inequality.

Step 2: Select One Main Problem for the Analysis

From the identified problems, this paper considered poverty as the main problem for analysis. This
is because most of the identified problems can be traced to poverty. Thus, poverty was taken as the
focal problem of the rural dwellers of the study area.

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 Global Approaches to Extension Practice (GAEP), Vol. 13, No. 1, 2018

STEP 3: Identify Direct Causes And Effects Of The Focal Problem And Construct A
Problem Tree Showing These Relationships.
Prostitution Inadequate Development of slum Inability to send High school
settlement in cities children to school
feeding dropout E
Youth restiveness Loss of esteem,
Poor housing Inability to participate
powerlessness
meaningfully in social F
Low life
expectancy & political life Low agricultural
F
productivity

…………………………………………………………………………………………………….................... E

FOCAL PROBLEM C

Poverty
..…………………………………………………………………………………………………….............. T
CS
Large family Social exclusion of Untapped rural Mismanagement Natural & man-
without the rural people in Resources & insensitive made A
necessary development plan leadership environmental
Illiteracy Unemployment U
financial degradation
backing
Figure 1: Developed Problem Tree. Source: Ekong (2010) S

STEP 4: Transforming the Problem Tree into the Objective Tree E

Adequate Reduction of slum
Ability to participate Ability to send Low level of S
meaningfully in social & feeding settlement in cities E
Proper housing children to school school
High dropout
esteem,
political life Reduction of
power
juvenile N
Highlife delinquencyIncrease inagricultural
expectancy productivity D

…………………………………………………………………………………………………….................... S

SOLUTION
Poverty alleviation
..……………………………………………………………………………………………………..............
M
Small family with Social exclusion of Untapped rural Adequate Natural & man-
the necessary rural people in Resources management made E
financialUntapped
backing rural development plan environmental
Resources Illiteracy Unemployment degradation A
Figure 2: Objective Tree Obtained by Converting the Developed Problem Tree. Source: Ekong 2010 N

S
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 Global Approaches to Extension Practice (GAEP), Vol. 13, No. 1, 2018

STEP 5: Obtain Root Solutions to the Focal Problem from the Objective Tree
Through the conversion of the problem tree (figure 1) to the objective tree (figure 2) the root causes
of the focal problem were turned into root solutions. The root solutions to poverty in rural areas of
Imo state are
1. Small family with the necessary financial backing.
2. Social inclusion of the rural people in development plan
3. Tapping of rural resources (natural and human resources)
4. Reduction of man-made degradation
5. Creation of employment opportunities
6. Literacy
7. Adequate management of resources and sensitive leadership.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This paper applied the problem tree analysis technique to conduct a situation analysis of the
problems militating against rural dwellers in Imo state using existing literatures. This paper
achieved three main objectives. First it represented the problems identified as rural development
problems. Secondly, taking poverty as the focal problem, it developed a problem tree and identified
the root causes of the focal problem. Thirdly it transformed the problem tree into the objective tree
and by so doing converted the root problems into the root solutions.
From the identified root solutions the following practical solutions are recommended
1. Inclusion of rural people in development plans made for them since they will be able to
identify their felt needs and prioritize them. Also when they are involved, they will be
committed and this ensures sustainability of the project.
2. Adequate management and sensitive leadership
3. Creation of employment opportunities both by government or private sector.
4. Literacy which can be achieved from making education accessible.

As the paper had shown, a problem tree analyzing approach is effective, therefore it is
recommended to policy makers and NGOs as a participatory tool for sustainable rural development
program/project which in turn brings the change we can see.

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