An Assessment of Stakeholders’ Participation in Smile Community Centre Programs Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

Stakeholder participation in programs implementation is key to accountability, sustainability and ownership of community projects. This study assessed stakeholders’ participation in Smile community centre programs in Kayole, Nairobi County. The specific objectives of the study were to; to determine the level of stakeholders’ participation in the implementation of Smile Community Centre’s Feeding and Education programs and assess the roles of stakeholders in monitoring and evaluation of the Smile Community Centre’s Feeding and Education programs. The study used cross-sectional research design and data was collected through a questionnaire for beneficiaries and KIIs for donors, project managers and volunteers. Data was collected from the community centre 108 beneficiaries, 4 Volunteers, 2 project managers and 4 donors. Stakeholders were adequately involved during planning, design of the program and its activities. The findings reveal that 36% of the respondents participated in needs assessment. This provided a basis for which the tailor-made programs are planned, implemented and meet the desired goals of the primary stakeholders. The study findings revealed that stakeholders’ participation was significant during implementation phase of the Smile community centre food and education programs. Program records and Key Informants interviews revealed that stakeholder participation was highest at the implementation phase of the programs. The research found out that 62% of the stakeholders were involved in the implementation process. The level of stakeholder participation during implementation was critical in the success of the programs. The beneficiaries were actively involved in training, packaging and distribution of materials in the food program. However, most of the stakeholders were not actively involved in M&E because of inadequate skills. The study recommends that Smile community Centre board should focus on the needs assessment and involve more stakeholders especially the beneficiaries in monitoring and evaluation of the smile community centre programs cycle. The Smile community centre board should empower the stakeholder in M&E skills through capacity building. This will help stakeholders to be actively involved in monitoring and evaluating program activities.