Determinants of Effective Performance of Community Based Projects in Kandara Constituency of Muranga County

Abstract

The importance of projects cannot be overemphasized. Projects are one of the principal means by which we change our world. Community projects are projects meant .for community well-being (economic, social, environmental and cultural) initiated to support sustainable rural development and livelihood enhancement, members of the community come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems. When these initiatives fail it leads to declining people's standard of living and increased poverty level. Projects operate in an uncertain environment and therefore they are prone to factors which influence their performance leading to large percentage projects failure to perform and achieve the intended goals. This study aimed at determining factors which influence effective performance of self sponsored/donor sponsored community based projects in Kandara Constituency, Muranga County. Members of the project management and ordinary project members served as respondents to enable the researcher investigate the factors which influence performance of community based projects in Kandara in relation to the identified key project processes of initiation, planning, implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation as well as stakeholder's participation which are associated with successful project performance. The researcher used descriptive survey method. The study targeted 96 CBOs carrying out various community projects where stratified random sampling was used to pick 49 CBOs. Data was collected using semi-structured questionnaire and to investigate the relationship between the variables, the statistical package for social science (SPSS) was used. The researcher sought an expert opinion and conducted a pilot study to test. validity and reliability of the questionnaire. The data was analyzed and presented in form of tables, charts and figures. The research findings show that there is a strong positive relationship between performance of community based projects and the study dependent variables of initiation, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation as well as stakeholders participation besides, the study further found funding to have a strong positive correlation with performance of community projects according to previous research study and as supported by this study. In order to enhance community project performance and achieve the set goals the study recommends increased community participation at all levels of project, diversification of source of funding, use of better and modem monitoring and evaluation tools and techniques as well as use of experienced external assessors, members and leaders empowerment through training to enable them engage effectively throughout the project initiation, planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation processes. Once the community projects performance has been enhanced this will lead to well being of the community which in turn will lead to well being of tHf country at large.