Critical Success Factors and the Performance of HIV/AIDS Projects. A Case of Non-Governmental Organisations in Kisumu County, Kenya.

Abstract

Today‟s organizational environment has become very competitive; hence organizations need to engage in proper project planning and management skills to enable them to succeed. It is paramount for the project management team to be well conversant with information about specific factors critical to project success for the project objectives to be realized optimally. World over, studies have shown that most projects do not perform as expected and fail to meet the requirements of the golden triangle of project management, that is time, cost and scope (Standish research report, 2013). It is in that light that this study investigated the relationship between critical success factors and the performance of the projects undertaken by NGOs in the HIV/AIDS world within Kisumu County. Study objectives included: to investigate how proper project planning, monitoring and evaluation, adequate funding and stakeholder involvement influence performance of HIV/AIDS projects among NGOs in Kisumu County. The descriptive research design was used and a population of 54 projects, hosted by 26 NGOs was targeted. Qualitative and quantitative data was gathered from respondents through questionnaires and thereafter analyzed using SPSS Version 25.0. From the findings, 71.8% of the respondents affirmed that planning affects performance, 80.4% reported that funding affects performance while 63% reported that stakeholder involvement affected performance. Regression analysis gave an adjusted R2 of 0.75 meaning that the 4 independent variables under consideration affected performance by 75%. Also the p value was at 0.023 which is less than 0.05, pointing out that the model was significant. The study recommended that planning should be detailed to include sustainability measures and risk management, M&E should be included throughout the project cycle, portfolios of mixed financing should be explored and beneficiaries should be involved right from project inception to promote buys in