An assessment of the contribution of the Roman Catholic Church leadership to entrepreneurial projects in Soroti Diocese

Abstract

The study assessed the contribution of the Roman Catholic Church leadership to entrepreneurial projects in Soroti Diocese. The Roman Catholic Church leadership’s contribution to entrepreneurial projects aims at extending services to the local people with the emphasis of uplifting the conditions of the poor and disadvantaged. The specific objectives of the study focused on which leadership styles are used in the entrepreneurial projects, assessing the contribution that the Roman Catholic Church leadership is extending towards planning and management of entrepreneurial projects and assessing the types of training and their effectiveness. The study used qualitative method of investigation. They included in-depth interviews, questionnaires and focus group discussions (FGDs). In-depth interviews were used because the researcher wanted to get a wider understanding of the problem especially group opinions, views and experiences of the informants while questionnaires were for personal experience. The FGDs revealed more insight to the problems faced in the entrepreneurial projects. From the study, it became clear that the Roman Catholic Church leadership has not met their expected contribution as per the leadership styles in the deanery of serere. The majority of the respondents 65% did say that the Church leadership has not offered any help. The findings also established that as far as training of the entrepreneurs was concerned, it revealed that the VOEP projects in the two deaneries recorded successes and the members were equipped with the training facilities as well as short courses. The study recommended the Roman Catholic Church leadership should use democratic methods, relax autocratic tendencies and decentralize of authority as evident in the VOEP projects. The findings also recommended that the SSD office should put in place a policy regulating the uniformity of planning of projects and also budgets and budgetary control system should be introduced to aid management in planning and controlling the entrepreneurial projects. The salary review is recommended and general morals emphasized so as to minimize on the mismanagement of the entrepreneurial projects by the managers.