Organizational Factors and Sustainability of Women Empowerment in Peace-building Projects in Kamukunji Sub-county, Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

Historically, Kenya has been seen to be vulnerable to not only internal but also external threats to its peace and security. Ethnic violence especially during the elections seasons is one of the internal threats to Kenya’s peace and security. The researcher conducted this study with the objective of looking into the organizational factors which influence the sustainability of womenoempowerment inopeaceobuilding projects in the Kamukunji sub county of Nairobi County, Kenya. These organizational factors included monitoring and evaluation, skill factors, stakeholder’s involvement and project planning. The study was guided by systems theory and social feminist theory. This study used descriptive cross-sectional survey. The target population for this study was 234 women groups, 43 CBO’s and 21 NGOs Project leaders working in Kamukunji Sub County. The study samples comprised of 133 women groups, 24VCBO‟s and 11 NGOs Project leaders. Data was gathered through questionnaires and interview schedule. The data was additionally be coded through assigning figures, symbols, signs and numerals. In conducting data analysis, the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software was be applied. Descriptive statistics for instance measure of central tendency like mean and standard deviation was obtained from the collected data and presented in frequency and percentages and graphs. The response rate of the study was 61.7% which was considered sufficient to continue analyzing the data. Data was analyzed for descriptive statistics and most of the respondents agreed that stakeholder’s involvement, project planning, monitoring and evaluation and skills factors was vital to the sustainability of women empowermentoin peace building projects. Regression analysis for independent variables, stakeholder’s involvement, monitoring and evaluation, project planning and skills factors produced R squares value, (0.853,0.92,0.734 & 0.951) respectively indicating that 85.3% ,92% ,73.4%, and 95.1% in sustainability of women empowerment in peace building projects is due to stakeholder’s involvement, monitoring and evaluation, project planning and skills factors respectively. Correlation analysis of all the four independent variables (stakeholder’s involvement, monitoring and evaluation, project planning and skills factors) against the dependent variables (sustainability of women empowerment in peace building projects) showed a strong and positive correlation with Pearson coefficient value of 0.939, 0.959,0.857 and 0.975 respectively. It was henceforth concluded that all the four variables have a strong and positive relationshipowithosustainability of women empowerment projects in Kamukunji subcounty in Nairobi. The study findings in conclusion emphasized the importance of effective stakeholders’ involvement, monitoring and evaluation project planning, and skill factors in sustaining women empowerment initiatives in peace-building projects. These factors should be considered by stakeholders when designing, implementing, and evaluating women empowerment projects in Kamukunji Sub-County and other similar contexts. Further research can be conducted to investigate whether the findings of this study can be replicated in other contexts such as other counties or countries.