Community Participation in Project Decision Making and Sustainability of Community Water Projects in Kenya

Abstract

Water sector has been undergoing various reforms in the past decade aimed at promoting projects sustainability. There is a general acceptance that community project participation influence project performance, however the influence of participation in decision making on sustainability of community water projects is not clear. This study sought to establish the influence of community participation in decision making on sustainability of community water projects in Kenya, a case of Nyeri County. The study adopted a mixed method research anchored on a concurrent triangulation. The study was conducted in three sub counties of Nyeri County, Tetu, Mathira and Nyeri central which had a total of 10 water projects with 1052 beneficiaries. Respondents for this study comprised three strata. In the first strata were water project beneficiaries picked using Yamane formula (1967) and resulted into a sample size of 290 and later proportionately stratified across the ten water projects. Individual respondents of beneficiaries were identified using a systematic sampling procedure and subjected to self administered questionnaire. Out of 290 contacted respondents 207 positively responded to the survey questionnaire representing 71.38 percent successful return rate. The second strata comprised of 8 respondents who were included in focus group discussions of which 3 were committee members purposely selected and 5 randomly selected ordinary project beneficiaries. The third strata comprised of 10 water officers one each from the 10 water who were subjected to a semi structured interview. Instrument validity was ensured with input from two supervisors from the University of Nairobi while reliability was determined using a split-half testing technique. Quantitative data was analyzed using linear regression model in SPSS software. The study established a significant independent influence at (p < 0.000) of community participation; in decision making on sustainability of community water projects at 5% level of significance. The increasing strength of participation from weak, moderate to strong was positively correlated to the level of project sustainability. To guarantee project sustainability the study recommends that community projects ensure project beneficiaries are involved in all the stages of the project implementation and management.

The Role of Routine Programme for Monitoring and Evaluation on Sub-national Water Services in Kenya

“…Investments in improving the monitoring functions are a valuable addition to the long-term management of water resources. Similar results were demonstrated in studies conducted on community-based water projects (Muniu, Gakuu, & Rambo, 2018& Muniu, Gakuu, & Rambo, 2017. The predicting ability of routine monitoring practices on long-term progression of water resources demonstrated in the study was also replicated in previous studies by Mutekhele (2018), Muniu, Gakuu, and Rambo (2018), Mugo (2017), Muniu (2017), Muniu, Gakuu, and Rambo (2017).…”

Households’ Involvement in the Preparation of Monitoring and Evaluation Plan and Performance of Tanzania Conditional Cash Transfer Project

“…Despite that influence, M&E was not established at the planning stage because the implementers were not supporting it, something that resulted in the underutilization of M&E results. Similarly, Kiumbe, Wambungu & Luketero (2018) support that stakeholders' involvement in the utilization of M&E influenced the performance of the fish farming project in Kenya although the involvement was found to be moderate. The findings were supported by Otieno, Munyua and Olubandwa (2016) who observed that the improvements of stakeholders partake in M&E influenced the performance of development programs.…”

The Influence of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Information on Project Success in Teacher Colleges in Tanzania

“…Empirical reviews were in line with what inferential results revealed, as the study by Maijo, [18] revealed about involvement of the community in the use of agro-inputs contributed to sustainability of the community based projects in Kisarawe district in Tanzania. Moreover, the study by Muniu,[43] also revealed a positive and significant relationship between community involvement and sustainability of water projects at Nyeri county in Kenya. The study further revealed that community involvement in decision making, mobilization of resources and institutional collaboration all had significant influence on sustainability of community water projects.…”