| dc.description.abstract | The Constituency Development Fund (CDF) was established in 2003 through the Constituency Development Fund Act in the Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 107 (Act No. 11) of 9th January 2004. It is one of the devolved funds the government of Kenya operates. Devolved funds are schemes in which national legislatures allocate public funds to local communities or districts for development projects. By law, many of these local funds are controlled by the legislator of an individual district or constituency.
Thus, the fund through its approach to decentralize development spending and decision making have the potential to improve anti-poverty and other development initiatives, increase public participation in decisions that directly affect the communities, and ensure that funds for development reach communities throughout the country.This research proposal explores the influence of community participation towards sustainability of constituencies' development funds projects.
The variables under this study include community involvement in projects identification, involvement of the community in project management committees, involvement of the community in monitoring and evaluation and sustainability of projects. 272 respondents were interviewed of which 136 were drawn from people living around Kampi ya Moto zonal office in Kampi ya Moto location and 136 drawn from people living around Testai primary school in Makongeni location of Rongai constituency.
The questionnaires were piloted in Rajuera water project to similar respondents to improve their validity. The collected data was coded and analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mode, frequencies and percentages to establish the association between community participation and sustainability of projects. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used in data analysis.
The study finds that decision making has been decentralized to the grass root level and the community which was able to utilize the initiative has greatly benefited by having projects which have helped reduce poverty levels among the community whereas a community not fully involved in decision making results to projects not beneficial to them and might even lack community ownership. It is expected that the results of this study will add to the existing body of knowledge in the area of community participation.
Researchers and policy makers both in the public and private sector will find it particularly useful in making decisions on decentralization schemes that provide communities with the opportunity to make spending and investment decisions that maximize social welfare. It will help Community Driven Development (CDD) initiatives that empower local communities by providing fungible funds (often from the central government but sometimes from donor sources) in implementation of sustainable projects. | en_US |
