Influence of Participatory Project Management Strategies on Performance of School Feeding Programme in Marginalized Areas: a Case of Kalama Sub-county, Machakos County, Kenya

Abstract

Introduction of school feeding programme in Kenya was mainly to achieve pupils’ enrolment and retention ratio in schools. The programme focuses on rural, informal urban settlements in marginalized areas. The programme was anchored on universalization of primary schooling and elimination of gender disparity in education by 2015 which are the two of the eight millennium development goals adopted at the United Nations summit in 2000. The purpose of this study was influence of participatory project management strategies on performance of school feeding programme in Marginalized areas focusing on a case of Kalama sub-county, Machakos county, Kenya. The study sought to achieve the following objectives; to evaluate the extent to which community involvement, identification of alternative financing, monitoring and evaluation and provision of water influences influence performance of school feeding programme in Kalama sub-county, Machakos County, Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive research design with the target population being 497 including community leaders and school leaders (Head of schools and board of management members). A stratified simple random sampling technique was used to select a sample of 112 respondents. Primary data was obtained using self-administered questionnaires while secondary data was obtained using data collection sheet. Data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Version 22.0) which is the most recent version. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, mean score and standard deviation was estimated for all the quantitative variables and information presented inform of tables. The qualitative data from the open-ended questions was analysed using conceptual content analysis and presented in prose. Inferential data analysis was done using multiple regression analysis. In testing the significance of the model, the coefficient of determination (R2) was used. F-statistic was also computed at 95% confidence level to test whether there is any significant relationship between the variables.The study found that frequency of meetings influence performance of school feeding programme very greatly. The study established that program supervision, that consultations and engagement mechanisms and that communication channels greatly influence performance of school feeding programme. The study concluded that community involvement had the greatest influence on performance of school feeding programme in Kalama sub-county, Machakos County, Kenya followed by Provision of water, then monitoring and evaluation while identification of alternative financing had the least influence on the performance of school feeding programme in Kalama sub-county, Machakos County, Kenya. The study recommends that it is important to strengthen the community participation in implementing School feeding programmes. The study also recommends supervision, monitoring and evaluation of pre-school feeding programmes should be intensified to ensure that all pre-schools measure to a given standard in terms of adequacy, quality availability of facilities, equipment for the provision of feeding programmes in all schools.