Sustainability of Youth Empowerment Projects: The Role of Project Governance in Makueni County, Kenya

Abstract

The sustainability of projects, as indicated in literature, hinges on the effective governance of projects and their diverse stakeholders. Studies have documented evidence of both significant and insignificant effects of project governance-sustainability outcomes but such studies lack empirical justification in Kenyan context. It is against this backdrop that this study investigated the relationship between project governance and sustainability of youth empowerment project in Kenyan context. From a survey of 196 respondents who were project managers and youth leaders involved in Youth Empowerment Projects, data were collected and thereafter analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings from the analysis revealed that the composite construct of project governance significantly predicted sustainability of Youth Empowerment Projects in Kenyan context (R = .863, R 2 =.745, p = 0.000). In addition, each of the variables that made up the composite construct of project governance had significant effect on sustainability of Youth Empowerment Projects (stakeholder management: β = .173, t = 2.313, p = 0.022; governance structure: β = .659, t = 8.159, p = 0.000; project team diversity: β = .298, t = 3.728, p = 0.000). The study concludes and recommends that stakeholders in Youth Empowerment Projects such as county governments in Kenya and Non-Governmental Organisations to put in place effective project governance structures in terms of stakeholder management mechanisms, properly established governance structures and strategies to improve project quality as these aspects significantly improve sustainability of the established projects.