An evaluation of the effectiveness of training programes offered by NGOs to empowe communities in Kenya: a case study of World Vision Kabarnet area development program

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of training programs offered by World Vision to empower communities. The general objective of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of training programs offered by World Vision to empower communities in Kenya. The study was conducted at the Kabarnet Area Development Program communities. Questionnaires and interview schedules were instrumental in data collection. The respondents were randomly selected after stratification of the research universe and this formed a fair and scientific representation of the entire population. The items that were analyzed included the relevance and adequacy of training programs, and their effectiveness in promoting community empowerment. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics including frequencies, standard deviations, means and percentages. SPSS computer software was used as the preferred software for data management and analysis. The data was collected from the executive and non-executive project committee members who have benefited from the training programs. In total, thirty six executive committee members and thirty six general committee members filled out the questionnaires. A total of seventy two questionnaires were received, analyzed and interpreted. The findings of the study revealed that the training programs offered by World Vision were relevant, adequate and effective for community empowerment. The highest percentage of respondents said that the training programs were relevant, adequate and effective as compared to the respondents who said that the training programs were not relevant, not adequate and are therefore not effective for community empowerment. One hundred and eighty general community members were interviewed so as to gather information on whether those who were trained were able to deliver the same message to the rest of the community. The study found out that the highest percentage of respondents had benefited from the training programs either directly or indirectly. A smaller percentage of the respondents had not benefited from the training programs. It is worth noting that there was no single respondent who had attended all the listed training programs in the questionnaire. Most respondents had attended between three and five training programs as at the time of this study. The interpreted data has been summarized, conclusion made and the report closes with the recommendations for future studies in the same area.