Management practices and their role on sustainability of income generating projects in Kilifi county in Kilifi county, Kenya

Abstract

Sustainability has become a major challenge that isfacing many projects in developing countries despite the efforts by the implementing partners. The nature of project management has taken a direction that focuses on proper design, planning, effective implementation, monitoring and evaluation and it aims at making projects sustainable even after the financiers have left. This is to ensure that project remain relevant to society long after the end of donor funding. The aim of this study was to establish whether the management of projects in Kilifi County enhanced sustainability of income generating projects with objectives coiled around determining the influence of leadership, financial management, training practices; and monitoring and evaluation on the sustainability of income generating projects in Kilifi County, Kenya. The research adopted a descriptive design with questionnaires as data collection tools. The research targeted a population of 1700 beneficiaries and 17 officials of Bamba projects in Kilifi County. A stratified sample of 60 respondents made up of 10 officials and 50 non-officials was used. However, only 8 officials and 31 non-officials actually provided data used in the analysis. This led to a response rate of 65 %. Chi-square was used in hypothesis testing. The study found that leadership, financial management, training practices; and monitoring and evaluation influenced the sustainability of Bamba project in Kilifi. To improve the sustainability of projects it is recommended that: financial systems should be digitized; training programs should be tailored to fit the kind of projects found in Kilifi County; frequency of monitoring should be improved; data obtained from the monitoring and evaluation should be used to make financial and non-financial decisions for the projects. Further studies can be done on socio-cultural factors influencing the sustainability of income generating projects.