An evaluation of critical success factors influencing the performance of non-governmental organizations within the sports for development sector in Kenya: case of Nairobi county
Abstract
The youth population is increasing the world over with UNICEF estimating a figure of over 1.3
billion among those aged 15-24 years. In Kenya and indeed elsewhere, the youth population is
faced with myriad problems including unemployment, low literacy levels among others. Sportsfor-
development NGOs can address many of those problems if optimally managed. Using sports
as platform for their programs, these NGOs have proved to be critical in advancing youth's
technical skills, talent development, leadership development and offer entrepreneurial skills as a
means for self reliance among the youth. However, recently there has been proliferation of
sports-for-development NGOs leading to duplication of their programs, competition for donor
support, lack of innovation in their programs, lack of community involvement and total reliance
on the donor community. Many of these NGOs have failed to take risks and have become
victims of donor manipulation. That notwithstanding, some of the sports-far-development NGOs
have registered impressive growth and come up with sustainable programs that have become a
model for replication. With this in mind, it is the purpose of this research to establish the critical
success factors in the management of these sports-for-development NGOs. The study aims to
find out why there is a gap in performance of these NGOs. To assist in this, the study proposes
four objectives. First is to find out how community involvement affects management of sportsfor-
development NGOs, to find out the extent to which development partners affect management
of sports-for-development NGOs, to establish how leadership skills affect management of these
NGOs and lastly to determine how information dissemination affects the management of the
NGOs. The research questions employed. by the study are, how does community development
affect the management of sports-far-development NGOs? To what extent do development
partners affect the management of these NGOs, how do leadership skills influence the
management of the NGOs? And lastly what is the effect of information dissemination in the
management of those NGOs. The study will be conducted in Nairobi County. It will focus on 31
sports-far-development NGOs according to NGO Coordination Board (see appendix) as the
population from which simple random sampling will come up with 14 NGOs representing 45
percent of the population. From the resulting sample the managers, assistant managers and
community representatives will be engaged using questionnaires. The study proposes
quantitative research design. The data collected will be analyzed using SPSS and presented using
pie charts, tables and bar graphs. Advanced statistical analysis will be performed to establish
correlation ships between the variables from which candid recommendations will be drawn.