Institutional factors influencing implementation of Peace Building Projects in Turkana County, Kenya

Abstract

Despite substantial investment in peacebuilding and reconciliation programmes in the Rift valley region of Kenya by the government, bilateral donors and multilateral agencies, conflicts still continue unabated, resulting in theloss of lives, property and injuries. The purpose0of0this0study was to investigate institutional factors influencing the implementation of peace building projects in Turkana county, Kenya. Empirical literature of the works of widely published scholars was reviewed in the study and the gaps in literature documented. The study was grounded on sytems theory and stakeholder theory. The study targeted a total population of 72 members of staff of 18 NGOs implementing peace building projects in Turkana county. A sample size of 60 respondents was used in the study. This sample size was obtained from Krejcie and Morgan (1970) table for a population size of 72 individuals. Purposive sample was drawn from the 18 peacebuilding NGOs to capture responses from the targeted project team staff. From each NGO, a sample among the following individuals were interviewed: project managers/ officers, monitoring and evaluation leads, communications specialists, grants officers/managers and any other staff member of these NGOs with specialized skill sets and work in the peace building project. A six level data collection questionnaire of structured questions was used to obtain responses from the interviewees. The reliability of the questionnaire was ensured through tse-retest method which yielded a score of 0.92. Content and construct validity were determined through review of the data collection questionnaire by peacebuilding professionals and practitioners to ascertain that it was comprehensive for the proposed study. Pilot testing was conducted with twelve respondents who were not included in the final survey. The researcher scrutinized all questionnaires for completeness, accuracy as well as the conformity. The data used purely quantitative and therefore descriptive and inferential statistic was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 22).Spearman correlation analysis was used to predict existing relationship between the variables in the study.The study found that all the four institutional factors studied had a positive correlation on the implementation of peace building projects which was significant at 99% confidence with p values of 0.000<0.01 and Spearman’s correlation coefficient of 0.780, 0.000<0.01 and 0.799, 0.000<0.01 and 0.662 and 0.000<0.01 and 0.618 for project planning, competency of staff, stakeholder involvement and monitoring and evaluation respectively. All the four null hypotheses tested in the study were therefore rejected. It was concluded that all the four institutional factors influence implementation of peace building projects in Turkana county with project planning leading to timely and efficient availability of project inputs, competency of staff leading to better understanding of the project context and identification of beneficiary needs, stakeholder involvement leading to higher acceptability and therefore implementation support, and monitoring and evaluation leading to better learning and adaptability of implementation strategies for better quality project outputs that meet beneficiary requirements. The study recommends that adequate resources both human, material and financial needs to be allocated to the M&E functions and project activities need to be regularly monitored to ensure proper implementation. The study recommends that the recruitment of staff to peace building projects should consider the employee’s knowledge of the local context besides the professional peace building skills. The study further recommends that project planning for peace projects need to be as participatory as possible and be aligned to the government’s priorities and strategies concerning conflict management.