Influence of Project Management Practices on The Implementation of Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations’ Projects: A Case of World-Wide Fund for Nature- Kenya, Kwale County

Abstract

Purpose: Non-Governmental Organizations are faced with project implementation challenges specifically 70% of environmental projects fail to meet their estimated timeline, budget and objectives. These factors have led researchers to look for possible solutions to pilot smooth execution of projects. The study’s’ drive was to institute the effect of Project Management Practices on Implementation of environmental Non-Governmental Organizations’ projects: A Case of World-Wide Fund for Nature- Kenya-Kenya, Kwale County. The study measured Stakeholders’ Engagement, Project Design, Project Team competence and Monitoring and Evaluation to establish their influence the execution of environmental projects of Non-Governmental Organizations.

Methodology: Descriptive research design was adopted for the study. The target population was 3,486 drawn and a sample of 90 respondents was arrived using purposive sampling. Data collection was carried out using questionnaires and analyzed using Statistical Package to develop descriptive statistics and draw inferences.

Results: The findings clearly showed that all the factors were present in environmental NGOs projects since they had high average means of 4.45, 4.22, 4.37 and 4.5 for the independent variable while the dependent variable Y had a mean of 4.35. Hypothesis was tested after each alternative as per the objective of the researcher using the Chi-Square test and it was determined that all the factors have significant influence on successful implementation of environmental donor-funded projects since they had a significance P value of less than 0.05. The findings further showed that all the four factors; Stakeholders’ Engagement, Project Design, Project Team competence and Monitoring and Evaluation have a positive influence on implementation of environmental Non-Governmental Organizations’ projects. The study established that Stakeholders’ Engagement, had the highest influence on successful implementation of environmental Non-Governmental Organizations’ projects with a significant positive change of 77% if a unit of it is increased, followed by Project Team competence with 72%, Monitoring and Evaluation had an influence of 63% and lastly Project Planning process, had a 47% influence on sustainable implementation of environmental Non-Governmental Organizations’ projects

Unique contribution to theory, policy and practice: The study recommended improved stakeholder involvement and project team competence and improving the monitoring and evaluation function for better performance of environmental Non-Governmental Organizations’ projects.