Influence of Women Participation on Fish Project Performance: a Case of Community Fish Banda Project in Rarienda Sub-county, Siaya County, Kenya

Abstract

The influence of women participation on performance of fish Banda projects has not been studied adequately. This study is therefore seeking to determine the influence of women participation on performance of Fish Banda projects in Rarienda constituency in Siaya County. The purpose of this research is to determine influence of women participation on performance of Fish Banda project in Rarienda Constituency. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The target population of the research was 388 and consisted of 350 women representatives and 20 management committee members 18 project management officers of Fish Banda Project. The study adopted stratified random sampling technique to select 192 respondents. The primary data for this study will be collected using the questionnaires. Pilot testing was conducted for a preliminary test of data collection tools and procedures to identify and eliminate problems, allowing programs to make corrective revisions to instruments. Descriptive statistics such as means, standard deviation and frequency distribution was used to analyze the data. Data presentation was done by the using frequency tables for ease of analysis, understanding and interpretations of the findings. Qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis to generate qualitative report which was presented in a continuous prose. Inferential statistics such as regression and correlation analysis was used to establish influence of women participation influence the performance of community Fish Banda Project in Rarienda Sub-county, Siaya County, Kenya. The study established positive correlation between the the influence of women participation and performance of Fish Banda project. And the established regression equation with positive unstandardized coefficients results; Y = 1.000 +0.571X1 +0.728X2 +0.817X3 +0.816X4 that were statistically significant with a P-Value of 0.02, 0.001 and 0.04, 0.03 at 95% confidence level. The study concluded that significantly involving women in project activities is a vital aspect of community development projects. Women participation in project implementation is important as it helps to manage the operation, decision making and election of project management committee. The study recommends that for improved performance of Fish Banda project, the management should give women an opportunity to participate in the project activities in order to enhance the project performance. Women play important role in project participation of enhancing transparency and accountability to the beneficiaries. The study recommended that there should be women participatory in financial management in order to produce actual welfare that effects the improved and effective public investments.