Effect of Stakeholders’ Participation on Sustainability of Community Projects in Ruhango District, Rwanda

Abstract

Stakeholders' participation is a major concern in this modern global economy whenever it comes to the sustainability of community development projects. The international community is constantly pushing the less developed world to engage community members in deliberations concerning problems that impact their well-being. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of stakeholders' participation on sustainability of community projects in Rwanda. The study was anchored on sustainability and stakeholder theory. The study adopted descriptive research design with the sample size 401 participants. The results revealed that passive participation and interactive participation had a positive and significant relationship on sustainability of community projects(β = 0.739; p<0.05;β = 0.194; p<0.05). Thus, the study concluded that predictor variables positively and significantly affect sustainability of community projects. Stakeholder participation is a vital activity as it ensures that every member of the project is part of the decision making. The study recommends the community projects needs to increase the extent of extent of passive participation amongst the stakeholders as this will yield better sustainability outcomes. Also there is need to enhance the extent of interactive participation with the stakeholders' to strengthen their capacities in project management hence greater sustainability for projects success.