Factors Influencing Sustainability of Rural Community Development Projects in Kilungu Sub-County, Makueni County, Kenya

Abstract

The challenge facing rural community development projects is lack of sustainability after Donor phase out or before project completion. Community development projects have been executed in rural areas in order to improve livelihoods of people. However, projects often do not meet the intended objectives, despite huge finances spent on the projects. The project beneficiaries may not get benefits, value of involvement and ownership of project. It is sustainability which determines project success and failure of community projects. The study Sought to determine social and management factors influencing sustainability of rural community development projects inKilungu Sub-County of Makueni County. The study employed a descriptive research design and target population included project beneficiaries, managers and management committee members. A sample size of 210 respondents was selected using simple random sampling technique. Questionnaires and interview schedules were used for data collection. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciencesand data was presented using Tables and prose. The results on social factors showed 58% and 56% of respondents agreed gender and education had high influence on sustainability of community development projects while 56.7% strongly disagreed that marital status influenced sustainability of community projects. The findings on management factors showed that 66.7% of respondents had management knowledge and skills to enhance sustainability. However, 53% of respondents indicated that people who were appointed as managers of projects were not competent. The 48.7% of respondents agreed that organizational structure helps in division of activities into manageable units. It was concluded that social and Management factors influence sustainability of rural community projects if the factors were integrated in the project cycle. It was recommended that the two factors should be implemented in the sustainability of community projects. The results are beneficial to Government officials, Non-Governmental Organizations and Managers.