Community participation in Non-Governmental Organisations’ projects management: a case study of Plan-Luwero

Abstract

The major purpose of the study was to analyse the impact of community participation in project management and to suggest how best communities can participate in NGO projects management. The objectives of the study were: To find out the level of community participation; investigate the factors that influence their participation in project management; analyse how the benefits accrue to different beneficiaries and also to analyse how these factors can be mitigated to ensure effective community participation in projects management. The study employed the case study research design where careful and complete observation of a single unit or NGO was done in order to understand the phenomenon deeper. The study was about community participation and focused on Plan-Luwero from 2000-2005 where the sample size comprised respondents drawn from Luwero. The researcher employed both the qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse the data. Data were analysed using the thematic approach and descriptive statistics. The study established that the people were knowledgeable about community participation and NGO projects management however, there were few activities in which they participated and most of the local community members do not participate in Plan-Luwero projects. On the level of community participation in Plan-Luwero projects management, it was established that the people are not given chance to adequately participate in Plan-Luwero projects. The evidence suggests that people’s participation is passive, that training and capacity building can influence participation, and the benefits of participation were proved to be direct and indirect. Therefore, the whole study indicates that there are few people who participate in Plan-Luwero projects.