Effect of Stakeholder Participation on Sustainability of Women Empowerment Projects Implemented by Care International

EFFECT OF STAKEHOLDER PARTICIPATION ON SUSTAINABILITY
OF WOMEN EMPOWERMENT PROJECTS IMPLEMENTED BY
CARE INTERNATIONAL, GHANA

Emmanuel Oduro

Background to the Study

Stakeholder participation is a major concern regarding the sustainability of women
empowerment projects, and that the international women continuously pushes the less
developed world to engage women members in discussing issues that affect their
wellbeing. The World Bank and the United Nations emphatically state that the empowerment
agencies have a crucial role in promoting women involvement approaches, specifically the
bottom-up approach is crucial for project performance and sustainability ( Bal, Bryde,
Fearon, & Ochieng, 2013). The approach is preferred to the top-bottom approach because it
facilitates implementation and makes the women members feel that they are part of the
project and own the process.

Stakeholder participation is a prerequisite to a perfect delivery of project outcomes since a
well-management women engagement process assists the participants to work towards
increasing the wellbeing of humans, while reducing negative environmental influences, and
scaling up economic sustainability of projects (Maina, 2013).Stakeholder participation should,
therefore, be adopted a core ingredient in any sustainable empowerment project (Golicha,
2010). It is crucial for governments and international agencies that implement women
projects, and can adopt different participation approaches to make sure that they succeed in
their project goals.

Passive participation allows the women members to assume a full role of looking for
solutions to their problems. External agents implements projects without necessarily having
any control over decision-making and resources. Their tasks are reduced to teaching the
women members appropriate ways to look for solutions to their own problems (Boon,
Bawole, &Ahenkan, 2012). The intention of the external players is to legitimize their
participation in the project while the women members charge of receiving and paying
attention to suggestions the external agencies propose.

Interactive participation allows people to take part in joint analysis, designing action Cares, and
strengthening local institutions (Chifamba, 2013). The process makes participation viewed as a
right and not a mere means to attain project goals. It involves interdisciplinary methodologies
that adopt multiple perspectives, systematic, and structured learning approaches to produce
positive and empowering influences which improve performance and sustainability of
women empowerment projects.

Functional participation is more action-oriented towards achieving project goals. For example,
participants can form groups to discuss ways of cutting down costs involved in project
implementation (King’ori, 2014). High costs are likely to compromise the sustainability of
empowerment projects, and that they should be minimised. The involvement gives every member a chance to present evidence and opinion considered necessary for the decisionmaking process (Oino, Towett, Kirui, &Luvega, 2015).

Optimum participation enables allows women members to participate in the empowerment
projects by taking initiatives independently of the external agencies to change systems (Ofuoku,
2011). Although the women stakeholders maintain contacts with the external actors for
resource-help and technical expertise, they retain the control over the manner in which
resources are used (Ayuso, Rodríguez, Castro, & Ariño, 2011). However, a lack of optimum
engagement of women member is cited as a major cause of poorly performing and
unsustainable projects often witnessed in the less developed countries (Masanyiwa & Kinyashi,
2008).

Better performance and sustainability of women projects in these areas are key to the wellbeing of the households who live below the poverty line, and this can only be achieved through the effective participation of the stakeholders. It is against this background that the study seeks to provide empirical evidence on  the level of stakeholder involvement in women empowerment projects in Ghana and its influence on project sustainability.

Statement of the problem

A study by Plan Kenya (2014) noted in its evaluation that the sustainability of women empowerment projects in Homa Bay Town Sub-county was poor, with one of the leading causes
being weak participation by stakeholders. The evaluation in in Homa Bay Town Sub-county did
no pay attention to the levels of participation and how it affects project sustainability, this is
important because according to Pretty (1995) opined a relationship between the two variables.
Care Kenya acknowledges that the levels of participation of its stakeholders in in Homa Bay
Town Sub-county remains unknown, and attempt have been made to establish this through
qualitative approaches with little success. According to Scoones (2007), weak sustainability of
projects is a challenge to organization competitiveness and effectiveness in fundraising from
donors. He noted that project sustainability is of great interest to donors.

Sponsorship funds have dwindle and Care Ghana is currently downsizing through a
restructuring process. This was a huge investment whose expenditure would only be justifiable if the projects are able to generate benefits to the primary beneficiary long after the project closes. The researcher did not identify any study that assesses the level of participation and how it affects project sustainability in the Ghanaian context hence the current study.

Objectives of the study

The main objective of the study is to investigate the influence of stakeholder participation on
sustainability of women empowerment projects implemented by Care International in Ghana.

1. The study intends to address the following specific objectives:
2. To determine the influence of passive participation among stakeholders on sustainability of women empowerment projects implemented by Care International in Ghana
3. To examine the influence of interactive participation among stakeholders on sustainability of women empowerment projects implemented by Care International in Ghana
4. To establish the influence of functional participation among stakeholders on sustainability of women empowerment projects implemented by Care International in Ghana
5. To investigate the influence of optimum participation among stakeholders on sustainability of women empowerment projects implemented by Care International in Ghana

Study Hypotheses

1. There is no significant relationship between passive participation among stakeholders and
   sustainability of women empowerment projects implemented by Care International in
   Ghana
2. There is no significant relationship between interactive participation among stakeholders
   and sustainability of women empowerment projects implemented by Care International
   in Ghana
3. There is no significant relationship between functional participation among stakeholders
   and sustainability of women empowerment projects implemented by Care International
   in Ghana
4. There is no significant relationship between optimum participation among stakeholders on sustainability of women empowerment projects implemented by Care International in
   Ghana

Study Methodology

The study adopted a descriptive survey design, the approach was quantitative in nature. The population of the study was the approximate three staff from each of civil society organizations and the women based organizations working together with Care international in the implementation of women empowerment projects in Ghana. It is estimated that Care has actively engaged three/staff from the partner organizations.

The study will apply Sekeran (2003) sample determination table to determine the sample from
the population. The researcher will apply a simple random sampling to select the 200 respondents. The researcher will develop a sample frame list of 200 people from the women organizations who have often represented their organization in stakeholder for with Care International. The selection criteria is such that those staff/volunteer who have been partnering with Care International in the implementation of women empowerment projects six months preceding the study is eligible. This is to ensure that the respondents have adequate knowledge to respond to the questions. The study will use questionnaires to collect primary data.