Abstract:
Local churches drawn from different denominations can enter into a partnership with Compassion International for holistic development of children who come from economically poor households. The result of the partnership is an entity called Children Development Center (CDC). Each CDC has an oversight committee called Church Partner Committee (CPC). CDCs have been observed to have a wide range of program and operational results from excellent to poor. Why such a wide disparity in performance among CDCs that operate in similar context and have access to similar resources is not well understood. But one important variation is how CPCs are composed and operate. The study examined the effect of composition of management committees on performance of children development centers in Kenya.
The study design is a descriptive survey using an exploratory approach. The study population was 340 centers. Using stratified random sampling, a sample size of 241 or 71% of 340 was selected for the study. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. The overall response rate was 93% representing 67% of target population. Primary data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics and variables association analysis. The study found no statistically significant relationship between dependent variable performance and independent variables gender and level of education. However, managerial experience and proportion of outsiders in CPC (independence) had statistically significant effect on CDC performance. Additionally, data analysis by denominations found statistically significant variation in performance meaning a local church denomination affect CDC performance. The study recommends including in CPC selection criteria a requirement to have a higher proportion of members having managerial experience and eligible persons from outside the local church.
