Project Management Practices and Sustainability of Projects Funded by World Food Program in Kenya: Case Study of Feeding Programs in Primary Schools in Kibera, Nairobi
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Date
2023
Authors
Ramadhan, Saida Abdul
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
The government of Kenya has food security as one of its big four agendas. In partnership
with World Food Programme, feeding projects have been designed for various
communities living in Kenya. Nairobi slums have been the center of focus for many
world food programmes funded projects. Despite the astronomical costs of supplying the
world's food demand on an economic, social, and ecological level, efforts to improve
food security have not had the desired effects. Although many countries have seen
significant advances in the execution of food programs, the trends for sustainability are
generally disappointing since fewer projects exhibit continuity. The aim of this research
was to explore the project management practices and sustainability of projects funded by
the World food program in Nairobi County, Kibra constituency. Determine how project
management, stakeholder need assessment, cost management, quality management, and
monitoring and evaluation management affect the sustainability of World Food
Programme sponsored projects in Kenya, among other specific objectives that led the
research in Constituency of Kibra. This study was anchored on the theory of Change,
Empowerment Theory, and Institutional Theory. Descriptive research design was
adopted. The targeted population was 150 respondents from the Ministry of Education,
County, constituency officials, and staff associated with the feeding programs of 20
primary schools in Kibra constituency. This study was based on primary data gathered by
the utilization of structured questionnaires (both closed ended and open ended questions).
The pilot study was done to help the researcher to modify and improve the validity and
reliability of the questionnaire. The collected data was analyzed descriptively and
inferentially, and presented in frequency tables, pie charts, mean and standard deviation.
Ethical issues were adhered to by ensuring that authorization was obtained from the
university prior to data collection. The normality and multicollinearity tests were done to
check the accuracy of the data before estimation was done. The findings of the study
found that evidence to support the existence of project management practices as it affects
sustainability of WFP funded projects in Kibera constituency, Kenya. Regression analysis
result shows that project management practices had a positive significant impact on the
project sustainability of funded projects. Besides, it was established that 68.8% of the
changes in project sustainability is explained by changes in project management practices
that is; stakeholder needs assessment, project quality practices, project cost management
and monitoring and evaluation. The study recommends that the organizations should pay
keen attention to project cost management practices especially the aspect of budgeting by
ensuring that the budgets are realistic and reflect the actual cost of the projects. The
variances should be continuously assessed and where there are significant variances,
there has to be proper justification. Secondly, the study recommends that project quality
management practices should be enhanced through benchmarking and ensuring that they
are ISO Certified. Benchmarking will help in understanding the standards that guides
similar processes in project management. Through benchmarking the organization can
also be able to do a SWOT analysis. Lastly, on the issue of monitoring and evaluation,
the study recommends that a monitoring committee should be established to review the
projects on regular basis for instance it can review the projects on daily basis to ensure
that in case of any challenge, the challenge can be addressed in time. Future studies may
be conducted on other similar projects particularly in the governmental organizations
given that the current study focused on the nongovernmental organizations that engage in
feeding programs.
Description
A Research Project Submitted to the School of Business,
Economics and Tourism in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Award of Degree of Master of
Business Administration (Project Management Option) of
Kenyatta University
Keywords
Project Management Practices and Sustainability, World Food Program, Kenya, Feeding Programs, Primary Schools, Kibera, Nairobi