Influence of Community Participation on Performance of Donor Funded Projects: a Case of Kiwash Sanitation Project in Makueni County, Kenya

Abstract

Successful Donor Funded Projects are those that are sustainable over a longer period of time once the funds have been used up. This brings to perspective the performance of Donor Funded projects which calls for particular skillfulness and knowledge like decision making, project accountability, project monitoring and evaluation as well as capacity building. There has been a general acceptance that community participation is integral to the performance of donor funded projects. However, the various aspects of community participation that guarantee project successful project implementation are not clear. This research therefore aimed at analyzing the influence of community participation on performance of donor funded projects in a case of Kiwash sanitation project in Makueni County. Objectives are: To investigate the extent to which decision making influences the performance of donor funded project in improving Kiwash sanitation project in Makueni County, To establish how project accountability influences performance of donor funded projects in improving Kiwash sanitation project in Makueni County, To investigate the extent to which project M&E influences the performance of donor funded project in improving Kiwash sanitation project in Makueni County and To investigate the extent to which capacity building influences the performance of donor funded projects in improving Kiwash sanitation project in Makueni County. The study adopted a mixed method research design on a target population comprising Kiwash project officers, Sub-county health and sanitation departmental heads and Community leaders in Makueni County who were 80 in total. In order to select samples from the population, the study utilized Krejcie and Morgan (1970) to determine the sample size from a known population. From the target population, the sample generated included 5 sub-county health and sanitation departmental heads, 56 Kiwash project officers and 5 county Community leaders. The study employed probability sampling in selecting the study participants. Specifically, in probability sampling, this research utilized proportionate random sampling to select the Kiwash project officers, Community leaders and sub-county health and sanitation departmental heads who participated in the study. Questionnaires was employed as the key data collection tool in this research. Data gathered was analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Statistical analysis was made possible by utilizing SPSS and summarized descriptively using frequency, percentages and tables. Additionally, Chisquare tests was utilized in unveiling existing associations between variables and test the hypotheses. In qualitative analysis, open-ended questions from the questionnaire was transcribed and qualitatively analyzed in a thematic approach before merging them with quantitative data findings. Findings from this study shall offer insight on which specific parameters indicate that a Donor Funded Project is performing as expected.