Project Management Strategies and Implementation of Donor Funded Health Care Projects in Mathare Constituency, Kenya.

Abstract

Donor funded projects have played a significant role in uplifting the lives of the vulnerable people globally particularly in least developed countries. They however have faced both implementation and sustainability challenges. In Kenya, both local and international donor have invested in healthcare projects. Several projects have been implemented in Mathare constituency by donors but unfortunately majority do not end up achieving their objectives. Several factors have been attributed to the failure but little is known on the influence of project management strategies. This study assessed the influence of project management strategies on the implementation of donor funded healthcare projects in Mathare constituency, with particular focus on the influence of stakeholder management, monitoring and evaluation, risk management, and resource management on implementation of health care projects. The study was anchored on resource dependency and systems theories. Pragmatic paradigm and mixed methods research design were applied. The study targeted three healthcare projects with a population of 137,470. A sample of 100 was obtained using the Yamane formula. Stratified simple random sampling was used in selection of project beneficiaries while project managers, project accountant, and the donor representatives were selected purposively. Data collection was by use of semi-structured questionnaires and interview guides. Normality test was checked by use of Kolmogorov-Smirnov test with all the variables returning p-values greater than 0.05 implying they satisfy the normality condition. Multicollinearity was checked by use of the variance inflation factor with all variables giving values less than 5, indicating lack of multicollinearity. Stakeholder management had a moderate positive (0.539, 0.000) association with implementation, monitoring and evaluation had a strong positive (0.669, 0.000) association with implementation, risk management a moderate positive (0.551, 0.000) association with implementation, and lastly, resource management had a strong positive (0.618, 0.000) association with implementation. The study recommends that project managers should foster effective stakeholder participation by conducting regular project meetings, workshops, and consultations to gather diverse perspectives and ensure community ownership, allocate sufficient resources for M&E activities, including budget and technical expertise, to enhance project oversight and stakeholder engagement, and consider diverse sources of project resources and ensure their predetermined identification to secure consistent funding throughout the project lifecycle.