Project Planning Approaches and the Sustainability of Donor Funded Healthcare Projects in Makueni, County Kenya

Abstract

The sustainability of donor-funded healthcare projects remains a critical concern in developing countries, where continued positive impacts beyond the funding period are often uncertain. In Makueni County, Kenya, the success of such projects in delivering long-term benefits is heavily influenced by the project planning approaches adopted. This study was motivated by the need to understand how specific planning strategies—namely project design, implementation strategies, community engagement, and monitoring and evaluation—affect the sustainability of these healthcare initiatives. Grounded in the human capital theory, resource dependency theory, and the sustainable livelihoods approach, the study aimed to investigate the influence of these project planning approaches on the sustainability of donor-funded healthcare projects in Makueni County. A descriptive correlational research design was employed, utilizing structured questionnaires to collect primary data from 92 project managers involved in donor-funded healthcare projects in the county. The study's dependent variable was project sustainability, while the independent variables included project design, implementation strategies, community engagement, and monitoring and evaluation. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and regression analysis to examine the relationships between the variables. The study found that project design had the most significant positive impact on project sustainability, with a standardized coefficient (Beta) of 0.642 and a p-value of 0.000. Monitoring and evaluation also played a crucial role, with a Beta of 0.309 (p = 0.000), followed by community engagement (Beta = 0.270, p = 0.008) and implementation strategies (Beta = 0.219, p = 0.022). The model was statistically significant, with an R Square of 0.735, indicating that 73.5% of the variance in project sustainability could be explained by the independent variables. The ANOVA results further supported the model's overall significance (F = 52.058, p = 0.000). The study concluded that comprehensive project design, effective implementation strategies, robust community engagement, and continuous monitoring and evaluation are essential for sustaining donor-funded healthcare projects in Makueni County. These findings underscore the importance of integrating sustainability principles into project planning from the outset, ensuring that projects are not only well-designed but also effectively implemented and continuously evaluated. The study recommends that policymakers and project managers prioritize these elements in their planning processes to enhance the long-term impact of healthcare interventions. Furthermore, the study suggests that future research should adopt a longitudinal approach to track project sustainability over time, expand the scope to include multiple regions for comparative analysis, and explore the impact of specific community engagement models and innovative financing mechanisms on project outcomes.