ABSTRACT

Donor assisted water supply and sanitation development projects have been of immense help to the communities living in Wajir County. While these water projects are a top priority for residents, majority are unsustainable, ineffective, inefficient, either broken, damaged, or abandoned due to failures in operation and maintenance, inappropriate technology, or insufficient community interest. As a result, the communities continue to depend on unimproved drinking water sources and unsafe sanitation and hygiene conditions, which contribute significantly to the high incidence of water-related diseases, high mortality and morbidity, especially among children under the age of five and great losses in productive time for women and school going time for children. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to establish the influence of facilitation strategy on the performance of donor assisted water supply and sanitation development projects in Wajir County, Kenya. Anchored on the resourcebased view theory, stakeholders’ engagement theory and the agency theory, the study sought to investigate the extent to which funding, strategic partnerships, system maintenance and stakeholders’ engagement influence the performance of donor assisted water supply and sanitation development projects in Wajir County. The study was based on the descriptive survey research design. The target population was 51 donor assisted water supply and sanitation development projects and the 220 households in the study area which were Elnur, Lakoley, Wargadud and Sarman. Systematic sampling and purposive sampling techniques was applied in selecting a sample size of 111 heads of household and 51 project members from the target population. The study used questionnaires to collect data from the respondents. Validity of the questionnaire was ensured through content validity and face validity while reliability of the instrument was ensured through a test-retest procedure. Quantitative data was analyzed using correlation analysis and regression analysis. The findings of the study revealed that most of the water supply and sanitation development projects in received funding. It also found that there was presence of strategic partnerships and these partnerships helped the project leadership to do the work more efficiently. Further findings indicated that most of the water supply and sanitation development projects lacked or had improper system maintenance practices. Another finding revealed that there was involvement of stakeholders in several aspect of the project. The study concluded that funding is crucial in the running of a project. The projects would not have achieved their goals without the partnership. The stakeholders of the donor assisted water supply and sanitation development projects were involved in several aspects of the project. The study recommended that there is need to ensure timely disbursement of project funds; all organizations that intend to enter into a relationship put in place mechanisms that will ensure that they adhere to them otherwise the partnership will not be successful; management of the water and sanitation facility should devise ways of reducing the high maintenance costs, and that project leaders should be communicating with and involving all the key stakeholders in any donor funded projects.