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.