Determinants Influencing the Performance of Child Welfare Protection Project: A Case of Charitable Children Institutions in Kilifi County, Kenya

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to examine the key determinants influencing the performance of child welfare protection project in Kilifi county, Kenya. The study aimed to achieve the following objectives: to examine the extent to which training of workers influences performance of child welfare protection project, to determine the extent to which stakeholder engagement influences performance of child welfare protection project, to establish the extent to which availability of financial resources influences performance of child welfare protection project and to assess how monitoring and evaluation approaches influences the performance of child welfare protection project.Methodology: The study adopted the descriptive research design.  The target population was 20 directors and 110 project workers which summed to 130 persons. The study sampled 101 respondents which included (15) directors and (86) project workers in the social department of 15 child charitable institutions. Purposive sampling and proportionate sampling were utilized respectively. Primary data was collected by use of close ended questionnaire and the return rate was 70%. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version) latest version. The study results were presented through frequency tables and narratives analysis.Results: The findings clearly depict that all determiners: training of workers, stakeholder engagement, availability of financial resources and monitoring and evaluation approaches were present in child welfare projects constituting of the composite mean of 3.9468, 2.988, 3.6798 and 3,9434 respectively while the dependent variable had a composite mean of 4.34. Hypothesis was tested on each alternative as per the objective using the simple Chi square test determined that training of workers had no significant influence on the performance of child welfare protection projects while stakeholder engagement, availability of financial resources and monitoring and evaluation had a significant influence on the performance of child welfare protection projects.Unique contribution to theory, policy and practice: The study recommends that further research be conducted on training to provide more insight of this variable. The study recommends training of workers through university-agency partnerships be fortified to bring about new ideas and skills among project workers in addition, firms should ensure child welfare practitioners are endowed with valuable M&E skills and suitable approaches to meet the set target and objectives.