Disaster Management Cycle and Performance of Community Health Projects: a Case of Kangemi Informal Settlement, Nairobi County Kenya

Abstract

Community health is the health of a specified group of people, as well as the public and private activities and circumstances adopted to improve, preserve, and conserve their health (McKenzie, Pinger and Kotecki 2005) Health of a community is a product of their environment that is a community where the population have access to safe homes, quality education, adequate employment, physical activities, nutrition, quality healthcare and transportation. According to World health organization (WHO) defines Health as the process of empowering people to take charge and improving their health. In a community different segments of a community contribute to health promotion and therefore share the responsibility for its protection. To improve the health of a community, the population must change the physical, social, organizational, and political environments so as to minimize factors contributing to health hazards and introduce new aspects which promote improved health such as introducing new programs, changing attitudes, beliefs and norms, policies and organization infrastructure. The urban population explosion has been accompanied by overwhelming rate of poverty due to the rising number of people living in informal settlements and has led to poor health outcomes. This study aimed on establishing the disaster management cycle and performance of community health projects a case of Kangemi informal settlement in Nairobi County. This was reviewed through the four stages of disaster management cycle which are identified as: - disaster mitigation, disaster preparedness, disaster response and disaster recovery. All these stages were reviewed in relation to how each one of them influences the performance of community health projects. The study was anchored on the domino theory and theory of reasoned action. Further, the study sought to identify the association amongst independent variables involved and how they influence on performance of health promotion projects. The study used descriptive survey design with a target population of 100,000. A sample size of 390 was drawn from the target population using the Krejcie and Morgan formula and further adopting a proportionate sampling technique. Data was obtained using semi-structured questionnaires and interview guides. The instruments were pilot tested using 39 questionnaires that were administered to Kawangware informal settlement residents who have similar characteristics as the study area. The collected data was analysed with the aid of a Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for both descriptive and inferential statistics and then presented in form of description. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was adopted to ascertain for reliability that was obtained through split-half technique. Simple linear regression was applied in testing for the strength of the association amongst the various variables for instance establishing how the dependent variable was influence by the independent variable. It was established that disaster mitigation with has a strong positive significant influence on performance of community health projects. The study also established a positive relationship between disaster preparedness and performance of community health projects. The study findings showed that disaster response influences performance of community health projects; and also a positive relationship between disaster recovery and performance of community health projects was established. The conclusion according to the study was that catastrophe mitigation, disaster preparedness, disaster response, and disaster recovery all have an impact on the efficacy of community health programs. The research recommended that there is need to adequately enhance sensitization of disaster management strategies during project planning. The research suggested that environmental studies in project management and social analysis should be carried out in informal settlement areas in Kenya.