Determinants of the performance of youth enterprise development funded projects. A case of Isiolo Central Sub-county, Kenya.

Abstract

Youth unemployment is one of the biggest development challenges in the Third World today. In Kenya over 15 million people live below the poverty line, with over three million classified as unemployed. Youth account for about 55% of the unemployed in Kenya, implying that unemployment is a predominantly youth issue. The rapidly increasing youth unemployment levels have been aggravated by changes in economic policies. Subsequently, over the past decade, there has been a steady shift from formal to informal sector employment, popularly known as ‘Jua Kali’. Secondary negative effects such as the systematic erosion of the social value of education, crime, prostitution and drug abuse have increased as a direct consequence. The study aimed at establishing the determinants of youth enterprise development funded projects performance in Isiolo County. The study was guided by the following objectives: to establish influence of monitoring and evaluation on youth enterprise development funded projects performance in Isiolo County; to assess influences of entrepreneurial skills on youth enterprise development funded projects performance in Isiolo County; to evaluate the influence of training and development on youth enterprise development funded projects performance in Isiolo County; to determine the influence of access to market on youth enterprise development funded projects performance in Isiolo County and to assess the influence of youth group dynamic on youth enterprise development funded projects performance in Isiolo County. The study was grounded on the Joseph Schumpeter’s Entrepreneurship Theory and Human capital theory. Descriptive survey design was selected since the researcher did not have direct control over the independent variables as their manifestation had already occurred and these variables did not render themselves to manipulation. The target population of the study was 474 individuals from Isiolo county, who had in one way or the other been involved in youth enterprise development funded projects. Two hundred and eighty-six respondents were then sampled in the study, with each of the three stratums having sample sizes. Data was collected from the identified respondents using questionnaires that were distributed by the research assistants. The questionnaire utilized two sections. Section A of the questionnaire had questions on the demographic characteristics of respondents and Section B consisted the questions on the variables under study. After the questionnaires were returned, the raw data collected was cleaned, edited, coded and tabulated in line with the study objectives. The quantitative data was collected using the closed ended questions. Multiple regression analysis was used to establish the relations between the independent and dependent variables. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, mean score and standard deviation were estimated for all the quantitative variables and information presented inform of tables. The qualitative data from the open-ended questions were analyzed using conceptual content analysis and presented in prose form. The study found that entrepreneurial course, record keeping training, business management training influence the performance of youth enterprise development funded projects in Isiolo County to a great extent. The study concluded that Monitoring and evaluation had the greatest influences on the performance of youth enterprise development funded projects in Isiolo County followed by entrepreneurial skills then training and development then access to market while youth group dynamics had the least influence on performance of youth enterprise development funded projects in Isiolo County. The study recommends that that to enhance youth groups’ performance including productivity, the government (county and national) to release adequate resources and equipment preceded with formal training to youth groups and that the Youth groups should be assisted to increase uptake of available resources through project management skills building in line with government regulations which they most preferred to cease dependency on members’ monetary contributions in running groups since most youth have low income