Influence of capacity building program on management of civil society organisations in Mumias Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

This study seeks to establish the influence of the capacity building support program provided by AMREF to the management of civil society organizations in MumiasSubcounty. Capacity building is the process of enabling a person to do something to perform a given role or duty. However many studies including those conducted by AMREF reveal that CSOS lack the technical, financial and managerial capacity to mount effective responses to these development challenges. These capacity gaps have limited the effective use of resources for development programming and have resulted in limited impact of several interventions carried out by these CSOs. The objectives of this study include; Influence of capacity building on the management of finances by civil societies;To determine the influence of capacity building programmes on stakeholders involvement by civil society;To identify the influence of capacity building on resource mobilization by civil society organizations. The study were deemed to be significant in that it strengthened the competencies of managers thus ensuring that civil societies were in a position to fulfill the mandate to which they were established.The study was undertaken in MumiasSub County and it involved civil society organization under the AMREF Maanisha programme.It employed a descriptive survey design and a sample size of 50 respondents selected through simple random and purposive sampling. Aquestionnaire was used to collect data from civil society officials where as the AMREF trainers provided data through interview.These instruments were administered personally by the researcher .Data was analyzed using descriptive statistical tools such as percentages, mean and frequency tables. The study found out that capacity building programme had an influence on the competencies of officials in terms of financial management, resource mobilization and stakeholder‘s involvement. It was concluded that capacity building programmes by AMREF Maanisha had a positive influence on the management of civil society organizations. Officials of civil society organizations should organize forums in their organizations or jointly through which knowledge gathered from the AMREF Maanisha programme could be cascaded to lower levels of management. Research to be undertaken on a wide scale to establish the influence of capacity building programmes on the management of civil society organizations.