Effect of Project Formulation Process on Sustainability of Projects in Rwanda: A Case Study of Project for Rural Income through Exports

The general objective of this study was to assess the effect of project formulation process on sustainability of government projects in Rwanda. Specifically, the study intended to determine the relationship between project formulation process of government projects and their sustainability. The study adopted the correlation research design where quantitative methods of data collection and analysis were used. For this study the target population was 62 employees of all categories in the project. A sample size of 54 respondents was determined from a total population of 62 individuals. The primary data were collected using questionnaires. The data were collected, examined and checked for completeness and comprehensibility. The study findings, revealed that Identification of tasks and their deliverables within Price was mainly done by putting in place a well detailed work breakdown structure or a list of all tasks that will be performed from the start to completion according to all research participants, identifying of all deliverables attached to each task in the WBS to be performed from start to completion of the project as it was reported by 88.9 % of the respondents, results of correlation between identification of tasks and their deliverables and Sustained increase of returns to farmers was at the rate of 0.787 meaning that the act of identifying tasks and their deliverables influence the sustained increase of return to farmers at the level of 78.7 %. Research findings demonstrate that the correlation between identification of tasks and their deliverables and empowered capacity for rural farmers was at the rate of 0.685 revealing that empowered capacity for rural farmers is influenced by identification of tasks and their deliverable at the level of 68.5 %. The result of correlation between identification of tasks and their deliverables and Sustained increase of economic opportunities for poor farmers as shown in the above table, was at the rate of 0.858. There is a significant relationship between identification of tasks and their deliverables on project sustainability because their p-value (0.017) is statistically significant at 5 % level of significance with lower bound of -3.76 and upper bound of.183, the result of Correlation of estimating resources needed to perform task and Sustained increase of returns to farmers was at the rate of 0.859 meaning that the influence of estimating resources needed to perform task on sustained increase of returns to farmers is 85.9 %. The research findings revealed that, project managers perform identification of known and unknown risks according to 92.6 % of all respondents, a 100.0 % of all respondents, 70.8 % reported that the organization assess the risks in terms of severity of impact, likelihood of occurrence and controllability. According to the interpretation of collected and analyzed data during the course of this study the researcher came up with the following conclusions: The collected and analyzed data during the course of this study showed that the effect of the variables like identification of tasks and their deliverables, estimating resources needed to perform tasks, identification of the anticipated and known risks in executing the project, identifying stakeholders, their involvement and contribution are important to the project sustainability.