Theoretical Framework for Community-Based Home Economics Education as a Strategy for Rural Women’s Empowerment in North East Nigeria

This study develops an original theoretical framework for community-based Home Economics Education as a deliberate strategy for rural women's empowerment in North East Nigeria, addressing the compounded vulnerabilities of conflict exposure, poverty, and educational exclusion. Existing frameworks for rural women's empowerment in sub-Saharan Africa are largely borrowed from global development paradigms that inadequately account for the distinctive cultural, religious, and conflict-specific contexts of North East Nigerian communities. The study employs a theory-building qualitative design combining 18 months of community immersion fieldwork in Borno and Adamawa states, in-depth interviews with 80 women, 25 community leaders, and 15 development workers, and a critical review of 60 programme documents. Data analysis follows Miles and Huberman's systematic analytic framework, with theoretical proposition development guided by abductive reasoning. The Feminist Empowerment Theory, the Community Education Model, and the Conflict-Sensitive Programming Framework collectively inform the sensitising concepts. Original contributions include a contextually grounded theoretical model of community-based Home Economics for empowerment, a typology of empowerment pathways specific to North East Nigerian women, and a community readiness assessment tool for programme planning. Findings are expected to provide the foundational theoretical architecture for designing and evaluating community Home Economics interventions in conflict-affected settings. Keywords: community-based education, women's empowerment, theoretical framework, conflict-affected communities, North East Nigeria.