dc.description.abstract | Youth participation in community development projects has been embraced
worldwide because of the realisation of the potentiality possessed by the youth. The
youth are the future leaders, parents and professionals and thus their involvement in
development projects is key for they stand to benefit more from these projects. There
is minimal participation by the youth in Community Development projects. Countries
such as United States of America, United Kingdom and Taiwan have engaged and
continuously mentor their youth in community development. In Africa, there is
continuous push on the youth to be involved in community development projects in
Zambia and South Africa and in Kenya, the government upon realisation of the
importance of the youth has established agencies like Youth EnterpriseDevelopment
Fund(YEDF) ,Youth Empowerment Projects(YEP) to support youth programmes and
expansion of the positions at the National Youth Service (NYS) to equip the youth
with relevant skills to meet market demands. In Butere sub-county there are many
youth who are not participating in Community Development Projects meant to
improve the living standards of residents and realisation of economic growth of the
sub-county. Improving the living standards and development at the sub-county level
will farther be reflected at the national level. The study sought to find out factors
influencing youth participation in community development projects. The objectives
of the study were; to determine the extent to which socio-cultural factors influence
youth participation in community development projects, to establish the influence of
education on youth participation in community development projects, to examine
how political factors influence youth participation in community development
projects and to assess how economic factors influence youth participation in
community development projects. There were also other factors; they included lack
of funds, government policies of the time and poor market accessibility. This research
project report looked at the definition of the youth as presented by various authors
and agencies. Three hundred and eighty youth were selected to fill the questionnaires,
be interviewed and focussed group discussion done on them out of the targeted forty
two thousand youth. Interview was also be carried out on ward administrators, youth
officers in the sub county and development officers in the sub county. Single random
sampling was used to give each youth an equal chance of being selected in the five
administration wards of the sub-county. Each administrative ward will have seventy
two youth who filled the questionnaire. Data was collected from the five
administrative wards in Butere sub county, classified in line with the objectives using
tables, summarised as per the administrative wards and then presented for analysis.
The data will be analysed using descriptive design and statistical package for social
sciences was used in the analysis. The number of youth forming groups to receive
funds to be used in community development is very low in Butere sub-county and yet
there are many youth who are openly unemployed and not participating in income
generating activities. This has been demonstrated by few groups that have active bank
accounts from the sub-county. The agencies through the special programme docket in
the ministry of devolution that support youth programmes have insisted that the
groups must have bank accounts for funding. This research project report sought to
uncover the underlying factors to youth participation in community development
projects. | en_US |