| dc.description.abstract | Organizations do not exist in a vacuum. Each organization is set in a particular
environment to which it is inextricably linked. This environment provides multiple
contexts that affect the organization and its performance, what it produces, and how it
operates. As we refine and extend the original framework for organizational assessment,
the concept of an enabling environment is key to understanding and explaining the forces
that help shape the character and performance of organizations. Many development
projects implemented within organizations either partially or fully fail because the
intervention does not adequately address the enabling environment within which the
organization operates.
Any effort to diagnose and improve the performance of an organization requires an
understanding of the forces outside the organization that can facilitate or inhibit that
performance. Enabling environments support effective and efficient organizations and
individuals, and creating such environments is becoming an increasingly important aspect
of development assistance. This study looked at the environment and examined it from a
diagnostic perspective. It clarifies what are often hazy concepts and relationships between
organizations and the environments in which they operate. The report also touches briefly
on issues that emerge in analyzing an organization‟s environment, and provides guiding
questions on donor funding to communities in the face of the challenges in the
environment.
Community driven development (CDD) projects have become an important form of
development assistance, with the World Bank's portfolio alone approximating 7 billion
dollars. There is some evidence that CDD projects create effective community
infrastructure, but not a single study establishes a causal relationship between any
outcome and participatory elements of a CBD project. Several qualitative studies indicate
that the sustainability of CBD initiatives depends crucially on an enabling institutional
environment, which requires upward commitment.
Specifically this study sought to investigate strategic responses developed by the World
Bank in funding community projects in Kenya. Qualitative evidence suggests that
external agents strongly influence project success. Qualitative approach was therefore
used to collect data on strategic responses employed by the WB in coping with the
challenges faced from CDD funded projects. An open ended questionnaire guided the
interview of World Bank respondents. The study involved face to face interview sessions
with employees at the WB offices in Nairobi who oversee the funding and have a lot of
responses and views on the challenges.
The study identified that there is significant relationship between project sustainability in
the WB funded community driven development and community participation in all
aspects of projects design and implementation, monitoring and review and even
leadership. In sum, the evidence suggests that CDD is best done in a context-specific
manner, with a long time-horizon, and with careful and well designed monitoring and
evaluation systems.
Given the finding, it is clear that CDD is the way to go with many donor funded
development projects and more emphasis should be put on inclusity, transparency and
accountability, regular reviews and monitoring and evaluations. There is also need for
more research to improve the overall understanding of the concept of community driven
development in Kenya as a means of improving service delivery and overall development
that is people centered. | en |
