Capacity Building Exit Strategies and Sustainability of Donor Funded Livelihood Projects in Kilifi County, Kenya

Donor agencies have heavily funded livelihood projects in Kilifi County but these projects struggle with sustainability with some halting operations immediately the funding is withdrawn. The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of project exit strategies on sustainability of donor funded livelihood projects. The objective of the study was to establish how capacity building exit strategies influence sustainability of donor-funded livelihood projects in Kilifi County. The descriptive correlational research design was used. A sample size of 170 was selected from a population of 295 from three livelihood projects using Slovin’s formula.7 interviews and 3 focus group discussions were carried out. Prior to data analysis statistical assumptions were tested. Standard deviations, standard error of means and arithmetic means were used for descriptive analysis while Pearson’s Product moment correlation, linear regression, F-tests and t-tests were used for inferential analysis using statistical package for social sciences. It was established that the mean perception of sustainability did not differ significantly with projects (p=0.192), gender (p=0.669), age (p=0.724), and marital status (p=0.284). However, there was a significant difference in mean perception of sustainability of projects among the different groups based on thehighest level of education attained (p=0.011) and duration of stay in the project (p=000162). H01, r=0.495, p=0.000less than0.05 was rejected and concluded that capacity building exit strategy significantly influenced the sustainability of donor funded livelihood projects. Policies should be reviewed or formulated to provide an environment to support capacity building initiatives (training, appropriate technologies, enhance resource capacities). Use of simple and direct Likert items, use of diverse projects is recommended. Further studies can be done on the influence of community ownership and project control systems on project sustainabili