No abstract

Green Technology Market projects have immensely developed in the 21st Century with global spotlight on design of green techniques for preservation of farm produce and Environmental conservation at the market. However, the pragmatic literature posits that they plan on huge budgets and yet mainstream of the projects have aborted in less than five years. Perhaps, the project drivers are not well expressed at the design phase obstructing their performance. In the light of this, study seeks to establish the influence of project design factors on the performance of Green Technology Market projects in Meru County, Kenya. Design factors under study are infrastructure, Stakeholders’ Involvement, Quality management practices and beneficiary Selection. The study was found on theory of Value-Belief-Norm and Environmentally Responsible Behavior. The sample size was 85 total populations of 204 sampled using stratified random sampling criteria. Questionnaires were administered to collect primary data. Descriptive statistics and multiple regressions were utilized. The multiple regressions established the influence amid variables. The results across the area of study on major gaps were analyzed. The data was tabulated for presentation. There was a spike in years of operation of Green Technology Market Projects for the last five years. Traders share facilities at the market. Traders accessed quality facilities at the market. Furthermore, to great extent traders comprised of project committee identified in fair process and had knowledge and skill on project design. Locals supplied labor needed in the project design where beneficiary’s selection was fair prioritizing the local traders and also tenders were awarded to locals. The study also found that traders accessed quality of services. The study initiate that a unit increase in project infrastructure would lead to 0.067 increase in the performance of Green Technology Market Projects in Meru County, Kenya; a unit change in beneficiary’s selection would lead to 0.050 increase in performance of the project; a unit change in the score of stakeholders’ involvement would lead to a 0.046 change in performance of the project and a unit change in the score of quality management practices would lead to a 0.040 change in performance of the project. The variables were significant since p-values were more than 0.05 and alternative hypothesis were accepted while the values for F-calculated were greater than F-critical (4.001). The study concluded that project infrastructure had the greatest influence, followed by stakeholders’ involvement, Quality Management Practices while Beneficiary’s selection had the least influence on the performance of Green Technology Market Projects in Meru County, Kenya. The study also recommends that market designs should embrace greener technologies such as harness of solar energy through roofing of markets with solar panel materials, proper waste disposal with biogas production technologies from green wastes, proper clean water supply, proper parking and green landscapes for aeration, adequate refrigeration facilities to preserve Agri-foods from yield loss hence enhancing food security for growing population and achieve poverty reduction as a key focus in the sustainable development goals and also achieve the Big Four Agenda of the Kenyan Government.

The debate around sustainability of development projects is intriguing, emerging as a contemporary development paradigm. Nevertheless, empirical literature insinuates that sustainability of development projects is seldom realized. Perhaps because the sustainability drivers are not well articulated at the project design stage making sustainability uncertain. This paper calls for a decisive paradigm shift in dairy goat project designs for sustainability.  The paper is based on a study conducted in Tharaka Nithi County, Kenya, to investigate the influence of project design factors on the sustainability of dairy goat projects. Design factors considered for this study are the Project Beneficiary Selection Process, Community Capacity, Institutional Linkages and Project Infrastructure. The study was anchored on the structural-functional theory, diffusion of innovations theory and collective action theory. The sample size was 196 respondents sampled using sequential and stratified random sampling.  Purposive sampling was used to sample 13 key informants. Further, six focus group discussions each with 8 participants were conducted. Questionnaires, interview guide and FGD guide were used respectively to collect data. Descriptive statistics were computed for all variables and frequencies, percentages, arithmetic mean and standard deviation. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation (r), simple regression, multiple regression and stepwise regression (R squared), F-tests were used to test hypotheses.   Hypothesis (H0) that the combined project design factors have no significant influence on the sustainability of dairy goat projects was tested.  Results; r = 0.389 implying a positive slope between project design and sustainability.  R- Squared = 0.152, that 15.2% of the variation in sustainability was explained by variation in project infrastructure, community capacity, project beneficiary selection process, and institutional linkages. ANOVA indicated the model was statistically significant at (F (1,183) = 8.176) and the p-value = 0.000≤0.05, shows that there exists a positive correlation and the slope of the population regression line is not zero. therefore, H0 was rejected. The study concludes that combined project design factors are critical and important in enhancing project sustainability and recommends that dairy goat project design should incorporate authentic project beneficiary selection Process, their capacities developed and the project linked to supportive institutions as well as promoting the requisite infrastructure. The study found a gap in literature on the social economic contribution of dairy goats to the community livelihoods, as a measure of sustainability and recommends further study on this area.

The objective of the study was to determine the influence of monitoring and evaluation data collection practices on the performance of livelihood programmes at Caritas Meru, Kenya. The target population was 465 composed of 441 smallholder farmer group leaders 21 project staff and 3 senior managers of Caritas Meru. The Sample size was 215 in clusters of 191 farmer group leaders, 21 project staff, and 3 senior managers, calculated using the Cooper and Schindler (2003) formula. Questionnaires, Key informant interviews, and Focus Group Discussions were utilized to collect data. Descriptive statistics comprises frequencies, percentages, means, and composite mean whereas Pearson correlation (r) and multiple regression analysis were used as inferential statistics. The study found that M&E data collection practices are effectively used at Caritas Meru with a composite mean of 3.98 and that the livelihood programmes had good performance with a composite mean score of 3.87. The results indicate that there was a positive correlation between monitoring and evaluation data collection and performance of livelihood programs, r (207) = .453, p < .05. The null hypothesis (H0) was thus rejected since p=0.000<0.05. The study concluded that M&E data collection practices were a significant variable influencing the performance of livelihood programs at Caritas Meru. The study recommended effective and efficient use of M&E data collection best practices to deliver, valid and reliable data to promote project performance. The study recommends a further study using a similar methodology on programmes in other sectors for the generalization of the results.

The purpose of this study was to determine the major drivers of performance in community water projects – a case of water projects in Saku sub county, Marsabit County, Kenya. The study investigated; the role of management planning, availability of funding, community participation and projects governance policies on performance of community water projects in Saku Sub County. The study used Community Development theories’ and adopted a descriptive research design. The target population for this study was 106 with a sample of 84 respondents. The study use questionnaire where quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS 25.0, qualitative data using thematic content and inferential data using multiple regression. The research found that stakeholder involvement and planning all levels of project implementation influence performance of community water projects in Saku Sub County in Marsabit County, Kenya to a great extent. The study further found that trained, adequate human resource influence performance of community water projects to a very great extent. The research found that frequency of meetings; project ownership; and level of involvement influence performance of community water projects to a great extent. The study concluded that management planning had the greatest influence on performance of community water projects followed by funding, and then project governing policies while community participation had the least influence on the performance of community water projects. The study recommends inclusive planning at all levels of the project cycle and request the government develops mechanisms to curb corruption occurrences especially in the face of project implementation.