Factors influencing the effective performance of community -based projects in Kenya: A case of Thika District.

Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate the factors that influence the effective performance of community based projects in Kenya. CBOs are important vehicles of social development and a great contribution to the development agenda of the 2030 vision in Kenya. However most of these organizations are not able to exist for more than two years. Consequently the collapse of these CBO may mean that their projects end prematurely and do not meet the objectives or the goals. This is an indication of poor performance of the projects initiatives. This study sought to understand why the poor performance or failure-of this projects by examining the leadership of this CBO projects. Exploring how the community participation, project management training and funding could affect the performance of these projects. The study involved the thirty four CBOs which were active and have been in, operation for at least two years according to the District Social Development Assistant report. Purposive sampling was used to select two participants from each CBO, one leader and one member. The data was collected using questionnaires which were administered face to face. Descriptive statistics such as frequency arid percentages was used for data analysis. Tables and figures were used for qualitative data analysis and presentations. The findings of the research showed that all the factors influenced the project performance in CBOs in one way or another. Community/ member participation was selected by the majority of respondents to be the most influential because majority of the members did not participate in the most important activities which affected project performance. Funding was selected the second by most of the respondents as in the burden of sourcing funds was left to the members only with very little support from the government and other sponsors. Leadership and project management training had the least influence. With their effects being indirect they were chosen to be less influential though they played a major role in the performance of CBO projects.