INFLUENCE OF MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON EFFECTIVENESS OF DONOR FUNDED PROJECTS IN DEEPSEA SLUM, NAIROBI COUNTY, KENYA.

                                                           ABSTRACT

Donors play a very crucial role in the social development process in all the spheres of the world. They are particularly vital in situations where state funds are limited, political situations are fluid and volatile, natural disasters resulting from both predictable and unpredictable environmental circumstances occur, ethnic animosity is rampant and the level of capita income severely restricts the purchasing power both social, educational and economic. However, many of the projects funded or initiated by most donors have ended up collapsing, either within the project period or after the termination of donor support. The purpose of this study was therefore to examine the influence of management practices namely; monitoring, staff competence, stakeholder participation and accountability on the effectiveness of donor funded projects in the Deepsea slum, Nairobi County, Kenya. The study was guided by the following objectives: (a) To evaluate the influence of monitoring on the effectiveness of donor funded projects, (b) To assess the influence of staff competence on the effectiveness of donor funded projects, (c) To determine the influence of accountability on the effectiveness of donor funded projects and (d) To establish the extent to which stakeholder participation influence the effectiveness of donor funded projects. In order to undertake the study, it targeted 150 project staff of the six donor funded projects undertaken in the Deepsea slum from which the sample was picked. The respondents included project managers, project coordinators, field officers, finance staff and other staff. This was achieved through stratified and purposive sampling in which every project was used as a stratum. The 75 respondents sampled out of the 150 projects’ staff were formally interviewed using structured questionnaires and respondents came from various projects. The data was collected through closed ended questionnaires. Tools of descriptive statistics were employed to analyze data. To aid and speed up data analysis process, Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to generate the statistics. SPSS is also systematic and covers a wide range of most common statistical and graphical data analysis. Multiple regression analysis was used as the statistical tool which enabled the researcher to analyse the relationship between the four independent variables and the dependent variable. The data was presented in form of pie charts, bar graphs, frequency tables, percentages, among others so as to provide a complete and accurate presentation of the findings. The study revealed that the monitoring practices in the projects were inefficient and didn’t match the acceptable international standards. It revealed that staff were competent; however, due to poor leadership styles, culture, lack of respect and recognition in terms of remuneration and promotions had led to poor performance by the staff. It was established that the accountability practices in the projects were insufficient and not subjected to external and internal auditing. It finally revealed that stakeholder involvement was not participatory and both staff and service users were just on the receiving end. Multiple regression findings show that each regression coefficient does not explain the total effect on the dependent variable of its corresponding variable, as it would if it were the only variable in the model. The study concluded that monitoring, staff competence, accountability and stakeholder participation are very vital management practices and they need to be embraced if the projects have to realize effectiveness. The study recommended that sound participatory monitoring and accountability procedures must be embraced for project effectiveness and projects should put in place sound human resource management guidelines to motivate and make use of staff competence to ensure participatory stakeholder involvement from the community.

                                                      TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION.............................................................................................................................ii

DEDICATION................................................................................................................................iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT..............................................................................................................iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................................................v

LIST OF TABLES .........................................................................................................................ix

LIST OF FIGURES.........................................................................................................................x

LIST OF ACRONYMS..................................................................................................................xi

OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS..............................................................................xiii

ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................................xiv

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................1

1.1  Background of the study............................................................................................................1

1.2  Statement of the problem...........................................................................................................6

1.3  Objectives of the study..............................................................................................................8

1.3.1        The General Objective.........................................................................................................8

1.3.2        The Specific Objectives.......................................................................................................8

1.4  Research Questions...................................................................................................................8

1.5  Significance of the Study..........................................................................................................9

1.6  Scope of the Study....................................................................................................................9

1.7  Limitation of the study.............................................................................................................10

1.8  Organization of the Study........................................................................................................10

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................11

2.1 Introduction..............................................................................................................................11

2.2 Theoretical Framework............................................................................................................12

2.2.1 Social Attribute versus Social Spending Theory…..............................................................12

2.2.2 Elitist Democratic versus Pluralist Democratic Theory........................................................13

2.3 Empirical Review.....................................................................................................................15

2.3.1 Effectiveness of donor funded projects.................................................................................15

2.3.2 Monitoring on effectiveness of donor funded projects.........................................................19

2.3.3 Staff competence on effectiveness of donor funded projects...............................................22

2.3.4 Accountability on effectiveness of donor funded projects...................................................25

2.3.5 Stakeholder participation on effectiveness of donor funded projects...................................26

2.4 Summary of Research Gaps.....................................................................................................29

2.5   Conceptual Framework..........................................................................................................29

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY................................................................31

3.1 Introduction..............................................................................................................................31

3.2 Research Design.......................................................................................................................31

3.3 Target Population.....................................................................................................................31

3.4 Sampling Design......................................................................................................................32

3.5 Data Collection Instrument and Technique.............................................................................33

3.6 Validity and Reliability of instrument.....................................................................................35

3.6.1 Validity of instrument...........................................................................................................35

3.6.2 Reliability of instrument.......................................................................................................35

3.7 Data Analysis and Presentation ..............................................................................................36

3.8   Ethical Considerations...........................................................................................................37

CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS, PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION...........38

4.1 Introduction..............................................................................................................................38

4.2 Demographic Information........................................................................................................38

4.2.1 Response Rate.......................................................................................................................38

4.2.2 Gender of Respondents.........................................................................................................39

4.2.3 Respondents’ Role................................................................................................................39

4.2.4 Age category of Respondents...............................................................................................41

4.2.5 Duration of working in Projects............................................................................................42

4.2.6 Educational level of Respondents.........................................................................................44

4.2.7 Sources of projects’ fund......................................................................................................44

4.3 Monitoring.............................................................................................................................. 45

4.4 Staff Competence....................................................................................................................48

4.5 Accountability.........................................................................................................................52

4.6 Stakeholder Participation.........................................................................................................55

4.7 Multiple Regression Analysis and Interpretation....................................................................61

CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS..................64

5.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................................64

5.2 Summary of Findings..............................................................................................................64

5.2.1 Monitoring............................................................................................................................64

5.2.2 Staff Competence.................................................................................................................65

5.2.3 Accountability......................................................................................................................65

5.2.4 Stakeholder Participation.....................................................................................................66

5.3 Conclusions.............................................................................................................................67

5.4 Recommendations...................................................................................................................69

5.5 Recommendations for Further Research.................................................................................72

   References..................................................................................................................................73

  Appendix I Researcher Introduction letter..................................................................................78

  Appendix II University Authorisation Letter..............................................................................79

  Appendix III Questionnaire.........................................................................................................80