Stakeholders Involvement in Strategy Implementation at VI Agroforestry Programmme in Kisumu County, Kenya

Abstract

Success of a strategy should not just be looked at from the outcomes of the strategy but also to the extent to which it involves stakeholders. Stakeholder involvement in strategy implementation is an integral part in success of the strategy; it involves sharing information, consulting, dialoguing or deliberating on decisions and actions with stakeholders. It should be seen always as a meaningful part of formulating and implementing good policy. The strategic planning process for VIAFP began in 2005 which culminated into the development of VIAFP strategic plan 2008-2012 the strategy was to reach the target through newly formed and existing groups under a programme known as Regional Environmental Sustainability and Agricultural Productivity Programme. The purpose of this study was to explore the stakeholder involvement in strategy implementation at VI Agro forestry programme. The study used a case study design involving a census survey was used to study all the 13 stakeholder organizations. The study collected primary data using questionnaires and interview schedules. The study analyzed data using descriptive statistics using frequency distributions and inferential statistics using factor analysis. The study found that the stakeholders were involved to a great extent in assessing the projects, exercising a controlled influence on the strategies and projects of the organization and deciding the strategies and projects of the organization. The stakeholders were to a fair extent acting as originators of most alternative courses of action during strategy implementation process. The stakeholders were involved to a less extent to joint decision making with stakeholders during all stages of strategy implementation. The study examined the factors affecting the factors influencing stakeholder's involvement in strategy implementation. There were two factors affecting influencing stakeholder's involvement, they include:- one, efficiency of strategy implementation and two, the resources and relationship between the stakeholders. These two factors affected stakeholders' involvement in strategy implementation to up to 52.75%. The study recommends that the stakeholders should be involved more in alternative courses of action during strategy implementation process and in decision making during all stages of strategy implementation, the efficiency of the projects should be improved to have more stakeholders involved in the strategy implementation and there should be increased resources for stakeholder involvement or optimization of the available resources to involve more stakeholders in the strategy implementation.