Influence Of Community Participation On Sustainability Of Donor Funded Projects: Case Of Kenya Coastal Development Project Kilifi County, Kenya

Abstract

Sustainability has been a major challenge for most donor funded projects in least developed countries Kenya included as most projects usually collapse after the donor withdrawal or projects closure. Several NGOs and government agencies have implemented projects which do not last to benefit the targeted beneficiaries long after the donor exits. Generally these projects lack sustainability aspect which is contributed by several factors including lack of community participation in projects, political instability and corruption among others. Kilifi County has several donor funded projects by World Vision, AMREF, Red Cross International among others implementing projects in different sectors like agriculture and livestock, health, education and many others but most of them cease to benefit the target beneficiaries after the closure of projects. According to the literature review, approaches applied by most NGOs and government agencies have failed to ensure that project continue to benefit the targeted beneficiaries after the exit of the donor. These approaches lack the active involvement of the local community right from the project formulation stage to the project monitoring and evaluation stage after the project closure. Therefore, the study was aimed at investigating the influence of community participation on sustainability of KCDP, a donor funded project case of ‘Where Talent Lives’ Youth group in Kilifi County. The study objectives were how community involvement during the projects life cycle affects sustainability of donor funded projects during selection of projects, during project planning & design, execution of project and during project monitoring & evaluation. The total target population for the study was 770 out of which a sample size of 170 was selected. Out of the 770 beneficiaries, 750 were households while 20 were WTL Youth group members who benefitted from the donor funded project. A simple random sampling method was used to select 150 households; while census method was applied to select the 20 WTL youth group members. Key informant persons were 2 KCDP Kilifi County Liaison officers who were also interviewed to give additional information. A total of one hundred and seventy (170 no.) questionnaires were administered out of which 151 questionnaires were returned. The data collected was presented in form of cross tabulations, frequencies, percentages and tables and Chi square method was used to analyze the data and test the hypothesis. According to the findings, involvement of locals during project planning and designing and project monitoring and evaluation significantly affects sustainability of donor funded projects in Kilifi County. However involvement of locals during project selection and during execution has no effect on sustainability of donor funded projects in Kilifi County. Therefore community participation plays a key role during project life cycle by influencing sustainability of that project. However other factors should also be considered like level of education, political instability and economic level among others which might have an effect on sustainability of projects. It is therefore recommended during project selection phase proper training is carried out for awareness creation. It is also recommended that the education standards of the locals to be raised by encouraging enrollment to tertiary level of education.