International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue IX, September 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

Effect of Stakeholders’ Participation on Sustainability of Community Projects in Ruhango District, Rwanda

Jean Baptiste Habumuremyi¹, Thomas K Tarus^2
1Masters student, Graduate School. University of Kigali-Rwanda
²Lecturer, Graduate School. University of Kigali-Rwanda

Abstract: Stakeholders’ participation is a major concern in this modern global economy whenever it comes to the sustainability of community development projects.The international community is constantly pushing the less developed world to engage community members in deliberations concerning problems that impact their well-being. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of stakeholders’ participation on sustainability of community projects in Rwanda.The study was anchored on sustainability and stakeholder theory. The study adopted descriptive research design with the sample size 401 participants. The results revealed that passive participation and interactive participation had a positive and significant relationship on sustainability of community projects(β = 0.739; p<0.05;β = 0.194; p<0.05). Thus, the study concluded that predictor variables positively and significantly affect sustainability of community projects.Stakeholder participation is a vital activity as it ensures that every member of the project is part of the decision making. The study recommends the community projectsneeds to increase the extent of extent of passive participation amongst the stakeholders as this will yield better sustainability outcomes. Also there is need to enhance the extent of interactive participation with the stakeholders’ to strengthen their capacities in project management hence greater sustainability for projects success.

Keywords: Project Sustainability, Stakeholders’ participation, Passive Participation, Interactive Participation, and stakeholder theory

I. INTRODUCTION

In this new global economy, stakeholder’ participation is increasingly becoming a part of project practice in order to deliver excellent project outcomes (Karlsen,et al.,2008).A well-managed stakeholder engagement process helps the project stakeholder to work together to increase comfort and quality of life, while decreasing negative environmental impacts and increasing the economic sustainability of the project.Stakeholder engagement should therefore be taken as a core element of any sustainable development plan (Balet al., 2013). According to Lyonset al., (2001) project sustainability refers to the ability of the project to continue with its intended impacts either after community or beneficiary take over or withdrawal of the donor support.Local participation is seen as one of solutions to the problem of project sustainability. Not only would participatory approaches assist project sustainability but it is also argued that participation would make projects more efficient and effective (McGee et al., 2002).