International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue II, February 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186

Determinants of Sustainability of Donor Funded Projects in Kenya. A Case Study of Donor Funded Projects in Turkana County.

Nyaga G. Juster
Lecturer, Management University of Africa

ABSTRACT
Sustainability is one of the key focus of any donor funded projects. However, achievement of sustainability of such projects from economic, social and environmental aspects has been a great challenge. The effort to ensure sustainable projects by donors has been hindered by complex procedures they have to undergo to register with the authority, the donor policies, misappropriation of the resources allocated as well as lack of community ownership to the project. Hence there is a need to carry out a study on influence of management accountability and donor policies and regulations as main determinants for sustainable of donor funded projects with a case study of Turkana County. Explanatory research design was adopted. The target population was 36 donor funded projects in Turkana County. Since the study geographical area is small, census was carried out to include all the 36 projects. The potential respondents were 43 households which were direct beneficiaries of the donor funded projects in Turkana County, 10 religious’ leaders through who donors channeled the resources for projects and 36 project leader whose projects were handed to by donor or are in charge of the donor funded projects in Turkana County. This gives a total of 89 respondents. Questionnaire was used to collect the data. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics (means and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (regression and correlation models). The study established that management accountability and donor policies and regulations had positive significant correlation with the sustainability of Donor Funded Project (r=0.654; p≤0.05 and r=0.587; p≤0.00). From the regression model, R squared calculated was 0.723 meaning variability of the study variables explained 72.3% of the variation in the project sustainability. The study recommends leadership accountability and auditing of the project management in order to ensure that the beneficiaries and all stakeholders are satisfied with the implementation of the project as well as creating sense of ownership of the project sustainability.
Terms: Donor funded projects, accountability, management, sustainability, donor policies and regulations

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Donor-funded Projects are externally-funded activities in which a formal written agreement, such as a grant, contract, or cooperative agreement, is entered into between the recipient and the donor (Kremer, 2009). Any donor of a development project funds a project which a recipient has: a specified statement of work, clear project deliverables, detailed financial accounting and budget specifying direct and indirect cost (Kagwathii, 2014). Mostly, donors would support the interventions in vulnerable communities with rampant ethnic strife, facing natural disasters, struck with repeated draught and have limited access to clean water and education.

A development project is said to be sustainable when it meets environmental challenges, responds to social and cultural demands and delivers economic improvement (Karlsen, 2008). The fundamental concept of sustainable development is to deliver long term affordability, quality and efficiency, value to clients and users, whilst decreasing negative environmental impacts and increasing the economic sustainability. The social aspect is seen in reforms of in people way of life – a new approach to how to build, to achieve development that meets the economic, social and environmental needs of future generations.