Factors influencing youth participation in community development projects in Butere sub-county, Kenya

Abstract

Youth participation in community development projects has been embraced worldwide because of the realisation of the potentiality possessed by the youth. The youth are the future leaders, parents and professionals and thus their involvement in development projects is key for they stand to benefit more from these projects. There is minimal participation by the youth in Community Development projects. Countries such as United States of America, United Kingdom and Taiwan have engaged and continuously mentor their youth in community development. In Africa, there is continuous push on the youth to be involved in community development projects in Zambia and South Africa and in Kenya, the government upon realisation of the importance of the youth has established agencies like Youth EnterpriseDevelopment Fund(YEDF) ,Youth Empowerment Projects(YEP) to support youth programmes and expansion of the positions at the National Youth Service (NYS) to equip the youth with relevant skills to meet market demands. In Butere sub-county there are many youth who are not participating in Community Development Projects meant to improve the living standards of residents and realisation of economic growth of the sub-county. Improving the living standards and development at the sub-county level will farther be reflected at the national level. The study sought to find out factors influencing youth participation in community development projects. The objectives of the study were; to determine the extent to which socio-cultural factors influence youth participation in community development projects, to establish the influence of education on youth participation in community development projects, to examine how political factors influence youth participation in community development projects and to assess how economic factors influence youth participation in community development projects. There were also other factors; they included lack of funds, government policies of the time and poor market accessibility. This research project report looked at the definition of the youth as presented by various authors and agencies. Three hundred and eighty youth were selected to fill the questionnaires, be interviewed and focussed group discussion done on them out of the targeted forty two thousand youth. Interview was also be carried out on ward administrators, youth officers in the sub county and development officers in the sub county. Single random sampling was used to give each youth an equal chance of being selected in the five administration wards of the sub-county. Each administrative ward will have seventy two youth who filled the questionnaire. Data was collected from the five administrative wards in Butere sub county, classified in line with the objectives using tables, summarised as per the administrative wards and then presented for analysis. The data will be analysed using descriptive design and statistical package for social sciences was used in the analysis. The number of youth forming groups to receive funds to be used in community development is very low in Butere sub-county and yet there are many youth who are openly unemployed and not participating in income generating activities. This has been demonstrated by few groups that have active bank accounts from the sub-county. The agencies through the special programme docket in the ministry of devolution that support youth programmes have insisted that the groups must have bank accounts for funding. This research project report sought to uncover the underlying factors to youth participation in community development projects.