Influence of Stakeholders Participation on Performance of Hunger Safety Net Project in Isiolo County
Authors: Hapicha Jillo , Nyaboga Ibrahim 
Published: June 2024

For the past 10 years, the government of Kenya has been supporting hunger safety net programs as evidenced by the annual increment in budgetary allocation. By March 2019, a total of Kshs. 22 billion had been disbursed across the four counties with women directly accessing 60% of the amount. Yet, most initiatives have been found to be unsustainable, with just 10% of them succeeding in producing the anticipated results. Particularly, it is unclear whether living conditions have improved in Isiolo County despite the Hunger Safety program's operation since inception. The study aim was to determine the influence of stakeholders participation on performance of hunger safety net project in Isiolo County. The study was guided by following specific objectives; to examine influence of stakeholder capacity building on performance of hunger safety net project in Isiolo County, to establish the effect of stakeholder human resource management on performance of hunger safety net project in Isiolo County, to determine the influence of stakeholder communication management on performance of hunger safety net project in Isiolo County and to assess the effect of stakeholder monitoring and evaluation on performance of hunger safety net project in Isiolo County. The study was guided by three theories including Stakeholder Theory, Resource-based View Theory and System Theory. A descriptive research design will be used be followed by the study. The target population will be a total of 250 respondents including community members and project managers directly involved in the implementation of projects for at least the past three years who were selected using purposeful sampling. Data was collected using questionnaires and analyzed using inferential and descriptive statistics. In addition, documents were analyzed including: project reports, project independent evaluations, social protection policies, scientific journals, other related reports both international and local and websites. Tables and figures were be used in data presentation. This meant that stakeholder influence has a positive and significant influence on performance of hunger safety net project in Isiolo County. The study findings were that stakeholder human resource management had negative influence on performance of hunger safety net project in Isiolo County. This meant that stakeholder human resource management will reduce performance of hunger safety net project in Isiolo County. Further Stakeholder communication management is crucial in ensuring that performance of hunger safety net project in Isiolo County is enhanced. This implied that stakeholder monitoring and evaluation will positively improve performance of hunger safety net project in Isiolo County. Stakeholders participation practices were found to positively improve project performance for up to 39.8 percent. Thus, stakeholder participation is crucial in project performance management. This study concluded that stakeholder influence has a positive and significant influence on performance of hunger safety net project in Isiolo County. The study also concluded that stakeholder human resource management has negative influence on performance of hunger safety net project in Isiolo County. Further, stakeholder communication management is concluded to positively improve performance of hunger safety net project in Isiolo County. The study recommended that project managers to ensure stakeholders capacity is enhanced since this will lead to improved project performance. For enhanced project performance, stakeholder human resource management function to be internal function since stakeholder involvement is likely to increase conflict within the project team and thus reduce performance of the projects. The study recommends that stakeholder communication management and stakeholder monitoring and evaluation to be enhanced across all stages of implementation of the projects.