Influence of Project Life-cycle Management on Performance of Wash Promotion Projects: a Case of Safe Water Enterprise Hygiene Promotion Project in Maragua, Kenya

Abstract

Performance of projects is determined by genuine commitment of the manager in considering project life cycle management right from project inception to completion, which is considered as very significant for long-term success of an organization. Project management has been an essential aspect for improving organizational efficiency. This research had aimed to examine project life-cycle management‟s influence on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) promotion projects‟ performance in Kenya with focus on Safe Water Enterprise (SWE) hygiene promotion project in Maragua town. This was elicited by the observation that many of WASH promotion projects in Kenya fail because they do not go through proper project stages as a result of failure to consider the required project management approaches. The research intentions were; to assess influence of project planning phase management on Safe Water Enterprise hygiene promotion project‟s performance, to find out the implementation phase management‟s influence on Safe Water Enterprise hygiene promotion project‟s performance, to assess project monitoring phase management‟s influence on performance of Safe Water Enterprise hygiene promotion project and to establish how project evaluation phase management influence performance of Safe Water Enterprise hygiene promotion project. This study suggested three key theories namely social ecological model, system theory and stakeholder‟s theory on which this study was anchored. The study adopted qualitative investigation approach where data was gathered from respondents to describe the present population‟s status with regard to the variables. The population targeted in this research was 347 who were directly or indirectly related to SWE project, that is, KWAHO project officers, Siemens Stiftung consultant, public health officers, community multipliers (Community Health Volunteers (CHVs), teachers and safe water kiosk operators) and household members. From the population, 186 sample sizes were selected to gather information through stratified simple random method. Respondents comprised 2 KWAHO project officers, 1 Siemens Stiftung consultant, 1 public health officer, 11 Community Health Volunteers (CHVs), 8 teachers, 2 safe water kiosk operators and 161 household members. Instruments used to collect data were questionnaire and checklist for focus group. Information gathered was analyzed simultaneously quantitatively and qualitatively by editing, coding, classification and tabulation using computerized SPSS - Statistical Packages for Social Sciences, version 21. Details were entered into appropriate tables before being used for descriptive statistics that is, rate of recurrence, percent, average, standard deviation and correlations. This report provides results of the study where findings show that the evaluation stage had more influence on performance of SWE hygiene promotion project at 86.8%. Implementation stage influences performance of WASH projects by 78.6% while monitoring and planning influence by 72.3% and 68.8% respectively. The study provides significant assistance to hygiene promotion project implementing organizations in understanding the benefits associated with management of project life-cycle on projects‟ performance and benefit of utilizing them. Policy makers, particularly those dealing with development of WASH approaches and project implementation procedures in the public and private sectors will have valuable information on how project life cycle management influence performance of WASH promotion projects that can be put in to consideration during policy formulation process.