An investigation of the factors that affect sustainability of community based projects in Bomet County
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Date
2014-02-11
Authors
Chepkoech, Rita
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Abstract
In order to achieve the goals of community based programmes with the planned resources, there is need to find a way of how best they can be sustained or managed by the community after the phase-out. This is through making them self-reliant or selfdependent. The scope of this study was to examine the community projects in Bomet District in terms of their ability to stand alone and the factors that influence their sustainability. The literature and field research was formulated following the observation made after the phasing out of the projects and by the failure of the communities to manage the projects or sustain them. This implies that there are some gaps in the lines and development of the area. The projects are developed to improve the lives of people but there is continued failure to manage or sustain them. The researcher used questionnaires as the major data collection instrument where they were dropped and later on picked by the researcher after a set time. The quantitative and qualitative data was subjected to descriptive and inferential analysis and the findings thereof presented using tables, charts and graphs. The purpose of this study was to find out the critical determinants of sustainability of projects in a rural setting. The target population for this study was the community projects stakeholders from all agricultural projects in Bomet District totaling to 150 projects. As the demand for workers with higher educational qualifications rises, many rural project policymakers view local educational levels as a critical determinant of project sustainability. The need for rural project based organizations to link their projects back to their corporate strategies and to train project sponsors to increase the likelihood that projects will survive shifting organizational priorities is important. Based on the findings, it was clearly manifested that participatory development is fundamental as regards the rural project. The quality of any asset or piece of infrastructure will have direct bearing on its economic life. With regard to infrastructure projects, findings indicates that the central agencies that typically constructed rural infrastructure did not have the recurrent budget to maintain it properly or perhaps more accurately, that central agencies gave operation and maintenance low priority relative to new construction. More critically, the findings provided clear linkages between sustainability and any of the independent variables identified for this study, namely; Infrastructure, Management System, Literacy Levels, and Community Ownership Participation. The several factors highlighted had some influence on project sustainability. Some of the factors can be taken care of right at the design stage of a project, whereas, others can be tracked and corrected during implementation, through monitoring.
Description
Department of Business Administration, 85p. The HN 49 .C6C47 2011
Keywords
Community development --Kenya--Bomet County