factors influencing sustainability of development projects

Abstract

The general objective of the study was to examine the factors influencing development projects sustainability in Mercy Ministry International projects. The specific objectives were to establish whether organizational leadership, Monitoring and evaluation, community participation and government policies influence development projects sustainability of Mercy Ministry International projects. The study was guided by leadership contingency model theory and stakeholder theory. A descriptive research design was adopted in the study. Mercy Ministry International Rwanda in the Rubavu community was the unit f analysis and the unit of observation was project managers and project team members of the organization. A census of 95 respondents was carried out. The study collected both secondary data and primary data. Primary data was collected using questionnaires. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation and presented in form of tables, pie-charts and bar-graphs where applicable with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. The study used inferential statistics to establish the extent to which variables studied related to each other. The study established that organizational leadership, monitoring and evaluation, community participation and government policies had a positive and significant influence on development projects sustainability. The study concluded that organizational leadership plays a critical role in fostering decision development, developing policies and disseminating project management best practices throughout the organization. Monitoring and evaluation helps those participating with some form of project to determine if change is needed. Government policies assist in mitigating legal risk and encourage the company to explain the advantages and incentives that the organization provides its employees in terms of project sustainability. The study recommended that the organization’s management should focus on the common project goals and encourage their employees to work towards the shared goal even during conflicts. The organization should conduct a readiness assessment to determine the capacity and willingness of the organization and its development partners to construct a results based M&E system. The organization should encourage active and representative engagement in order to allow all members of the community to have a substantive effect on the decisions that concern sustainability of the project. The organization management should develop a series of high-level policy statements that provide guidance to employees at all levels towards effective project sustainability.