| dc.description.abstract | Community based organizations have been considered the basic' elements that propel both economic and social development within communities. The main challenge however has been sustenance of these community based organization through avoiding over reliance of external funding and strengthening of structures and human resource, and government involvement. This study aimed at understanding the concept. of sustainability in eBOs through these c6ncepts. The research therefore delved into aspects of Human resource capacity, the concept of collaboration,government policies and funding mechanisms as the major variables of study to understand how they influence sustainability.
The problem is understated in the fact that over 65% of the eBOs in Kenya face the threat of extinction just two years after their establishment (Wanyama, 2005). The study took the form of a descriptive survey that focused on eBOs within Nakuru Municipality; the target population being youth groups, women groups and mixed group based eBOs. This was conducted through a stratified sample procedure after which the groups in each stratum were randomly selected. A sample size of 248 respondents was targeted from a universal population of 680 eBOs picked from the register of eBOs in the. social service office of the Municipality. The data was collected through questionnaires and key respondent interviews and analysis conducted through the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS).
The findings were that unlike previous years where there was over reliance on foreign aid, there was increased accessing to government grants. Much of collaborations with other organizations was top-bottom in nature. There was attrition of skilled human resource after a funding cycle for greener pasture prompting the management of the eBOs to over rely on volunteers and unskilled human resource. There level of government commitment was restricted to funding and registration of the eBOs with little support towards sustainability. These findings would therefore be useful to the government for resource allocation and monitoring, for the eBOs to understand that a quality human resource is essential for the long term growth of the eBOs and for the donors to establish a more flexible kind of partnerships that would enable eBOs to have a level ground towards key decisions of such
resources. | en_US |
