Stakeholder Participation in the Project Cycle and Performance of End Child Marriage Project in Homa Bay County, Kenya

Abstract

An evaluation carried out by Plan International noted that the sustainability and performance of community development projects is poor. This was greatly attributed to weak participation of stakeholders. The evaluation did not pay attention to participation of stakeholders in the different phase of project cycle and its effect on performance of the project even though a relationship had been noted by Pretty. The purpose of the study is to determine the influence of stakeholder participation in the project cycle on the performance of end child marriage (ECM) project in Homa Bay County. Descriptive survey design was adopted using quantitative the approach. The study utilized positivism and interpretive paradigms. The population of the study was the approximate three staff from each of the 51 civil society organizations and the community based organizations working together in the implementation of the End Child Marriage project in Homa Bay County. This gave a population of 153 people/staff. Using Sekeran sample determination, the sample was determined as 113 respondents. Simple random sampling was used to pick the respondents. The study employed questionnaires for data collection. Descriptive and inferential analysis techniques were used; mean, standard deviations, frequencies and percentages, cross tabulations and Spearman correlations. The logit regression model will also be used to analyze the relationship between the dependent and the independent variables. It was established that was a moderate significant positive correlation between the performance of ECM project and participation in formulation r=0.500, p=0.000.There was a moderate significant positive correlation between the performance of ECM project and participation in financing. Spearman's rho=0.422, p=0.000.It was determined that there was a strong significant positive correlation between the performance of ECM project and participation in implementation. Spearman's rho=0.607, p=0.000.There was a moderate significant positive correlation between the performance of ECM project and participation in Monitoring and Evaluation. Spearman's rho=0.523, p=0.000.There was need to strengthen stakeholder participation in project formulation. The researcher recommends that there is need to enhance stakeholder participation in project financing. Plan Kenya should promote the participation of stakeholders in project implementation. Plan Kenya should also make efforts to bolster the engagement of stakeholder in the monitoring and evaluation of the end child marriage project, this would lead to better project performance. The researchers suggest further research on determinants of stakeholder participation in the project cycle of the end child marriage project in Homa Bay County.