Participatory Planning and Performance of the Health Immunization Programme in Marsabit County, Kenya

Abstract

Marsabit County is situated in Kenya's North Eastern region, and it is one of the country's biggest counties, with a population of over 400,000 people. Despite the fact that the health centers in Marsabit County have initiated a number of programmes to support local people, there exist various health challenges including acute cases of malnutrition, poor sanitation and hygiene condition and low access to quality health care among the people living in the county. The present study sought to determine how participatory planning affects performance of the immunization programme in Marsabit County, Kenya. Specifically, the study sought to determine the role of collective stakeholder analysis, joint need identification, resource planning and information sharing on performance of immunization programmes in Marsabit County. The stakeholder theory and the resource based view theory guided the inquiry. Descriptive survey study design was used targeting 77,849 project beneficiaries, project managers, community leaders, religious leaders and county government officials of health from Marsabit County. The sample size was determined by utilizing the Yamane formula, which resulted in 397 respondents who were chosen using both probability and non-probability techniques. Interview guides and questionnaires helped in collection of data, which were pilot tested to ensure they were valid and reliable. Using descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages, as well as inferential statistics such as regression analysis, the data was put into an excel spreadsheet before being uploaded to the SPSS program for further examination. Tabular methodologies were key in presentation of the results. The study established that collective stakeholder analysis (β=0.068, p=0.028 & M=3.73) joint need identification (β=0.251, p=0.012 & M=3.69), labour provisions (β=0.135, p=0.019 & M=3.69) and decision making (β=0.321, p=0.000 & M=3.55) were practiced to a great extent among the immunization project organizations in Marsabit County. According to the findings of the research, participatory planning has a substantial impact on the success of vaccination programs in developing countries. The study recommended that the project managers of the immunization programme in Marsabit County should involve more stakeholders during the analysis of the needs of the stakeholders The human resource managers of the immunization project organizations in Marsabit should adopt modern methods of managing the human resources The finance managers of the immunization programme in Marsabit County should improve on the financial resource management practices that are in place. The public relation managers and communication managers of the immunization programmes should seek to improve on information sharing mechanisms in place for greater performance of the public health are programmes in place. The study recommended further studies to be conducted in other counties like Narok, Wajir and Mandera apart from Marsabit County.