Factors influencing community ownership of donor funded projects: a case of Saidia, Samburu County, Kenya

Abstract

In this study, community ownership of Donor Funded Projects (DFPs) involves two related concepts; community right to expect benefits from the project and the community responsibility to the project that ensures returns to same community. Having worked in a donor funded project in Samburu County for over five years, the researcher has observed low level of community ownership for such projects prompting the need for the current study. The scope of this study was the randomly chosen trained beneficiaries of Health, ECD and WASH projects of SAIDIA in the Samburu County. A survey and observation methodology was used to collect the research data.

The researcher sought to find the factors influencing community ownership of donor funded projects. Using a combination of survey and descriptive research methodologies, and guided by the following objectives: to establish how expected benefits, community participation, and how mobilization and awareness influences community ownership of donor funded projects. The findings revealed that there was low level of resource commitment in terms of time and physical resources, low levels of community participation in SAIDIA projects and poor mobilization and awareness strategy.

Despite SAIDIA doing community mobilization in Samburu County, there was still low level of participation and ownership of the projects to the extent that the sustainability of project after their exit is doubtful. There were no emphasis on the project benefits consequently there is no participation and ownership of the project is also doubtful.

The study recommends that donor funded projects should improve their mobilization and awareness strategies for better community ownership of such projects, donor funded projects should encourage the community to commit their time and physical resources, and finally donor funded projects should embrace high community participation at all levels of project implementation.