Determinants of State Funded Projects Performance in Kenya; A Case of National Youth Service, Mombasa County

Due to the importance of the youth projects implementation in the society, this study was carried out. The purpose of this research was examine the various determinants of state funded projects performance in Kenya; a case of national youth service, Mombasa County. The study was carried out based on four specific objectives that included: to examine the extent to which organizational structure; financial resources; projects monitoring and evaluation, and human capacity development influences the performance of state funded projects in Kenya National Youth Service, Mombasa County. This study was a descriptive case study research design. The target population was 180. The Krejcie and Morgan table of 1970 was used to sample 132 respondents. Primary data in the research was collected by use of a semi-structured questionnaire and an interview guide. The researcher first defended the proposal through the virtual platform at the University of Nairobi, then the researcher plus the research assistants approached the respondents and other relevant groups and informed them of the intended data collection process. The researcher then dropped the questionnaire with the help of the research assistants and picked them after one week while at the same time interviews were conducted among the 13 project managers. By the help of a statistics expert, the data collected was computed through descriptive nature to give figures that were presented and explained by use of frequency tables, means, standard deviation etc. a regression analysis was carried out to test the hypotheses. Out of the 132 questionnaires distributed, 100 were fully filled and returned. Further, 10 interviews were conducted successfully put of the targeted 13. The results indicated that majority of the respondent argued that organizational structure influences projects performance to a great extent (M= 3.64 and SD=1.115). Equally, majority of the respondent supported the idea that financial resources influence projects performance to a very great extent (M= 4.21 and SD= 0.967). The same trend indicated that majority of the respondent were neutral in relation to the idea that projects monitoring and evaluation influence projects performance (M= 3.04 and SD= 1.294). Finally, majority of the respondent supported the idea that human capacity development influence projects performance to a great extent (M=3.81 and SD= 1.454). It was recommended that all the KNYS should have well-structured and established organizational structure which integrates the internal and external partners effectively. It was also recommended that the amount of funds that are allocated to the projects run under the KNYS should be sufficient, the duration of funding these projects should be sufficient considering the various risks involved in projects implementation and the conditions of funding of these projects should be favorable. Furthermore, projects monitoring and evaluation should be well defined, planned for, objectively be integrated into projects implementation. The types of projects monitoring and evaluation should be well defined, the steps of each monitoring and evaluation be outlined and the life cycle of projects be well defined by the M& E process. Finally, the number of employees handling each given project should be sufficient in what is called proper staffing. In addition, there should be well trained projects staff and the staff should undergo continuous training so as to gain relevant knowledge on the evolving nature complexities of state funded projects.