Abstract: Community participation and community based management are topical themes in current policy and discussion revolving around decision-making processes especially those dealing with natural resources management. To manage stakeholders, project managers tend to use traditional stakeholder management approach which emphasizes on giving more attention to those who can affect the project over those who are affected by the project. Using tradition stakeholder management approach implies that project managers should focus more on complying with donors’ requirements. The challenge for project managers is therefore, to find the right balance between complying with the requirements of donors who in most cases are likely to assess the project in terms of accuracy of financial accountability and appealing to the needs of beneficiaries throughout the life of the project. The fact is that numerous studies have been conducted to know whether or not the involvement of stakeholders in community development project is beneficial. However, in Africa and in Rwanda particularly projects continue failing or are not sustainable at long run. Many reasons may be behind but one of them should be the approaches of involvement of beneficiaries in project management process. Although stakeholders are involved, stakeholders are not always beneficiaries and the studies which have been conducted put the stakeholders in the same basket, which probably hinders the involvement of direct beneficiaries of the project. Another aspect to examine is the approaches of involvement of beneficiaries in the project management process and its effect on sustainability of the project. The general objective of this study was to demonstrate the effect of beneficiary involvement approaches on water supply project sustainability with three specific objectives; to assess the effect of information dissemination with beneficiaries on water supply project sustainability, To examine the effect of consultation with beneficiaries on water supply project sustainability and to evaluate the effect of beneficiary participation on water supply project sustainability. This study used descriptive survey design. The study population was made up by53,111 beneficiaries of the project in Nyaruguru district. The researcher collected data from 397 respondents. Multiple regression analysis was used to establish the effect of beneficiary involvement approaches on the sustainability of water supply project in Rwanda. It was found out that the project could not be sustainable without information dissemination and that beneficiary consultation has a great effect on project sustainability. Regarding beneficiary participation it has been found out that there was a moderate relationship between beneficiary participation and project sustainability.
Keywords: Beneficiary involvement, water sanitation, project sustainability.
Title: EFFECT OF BENEFICIARY INVOLVEMENT APPROACHES ON SUSTAINABILITY OF WATER SUPPLY PROJECT IN RWANDA: A CASE OF POTABLE WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION PROJECT IN SOUTHERN PROVINCE
Author: Sharon L. Kyomukama, Dr. Patrick Mulyungi
International Journal of Management and Commerce Innovations
ISSN 2348-7585 (Online)
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