ASSESSING SOCIAL ECONOMIC INFLUENCE ON PERFORMANCE OF COMMUNITY PROJECTS

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the social-economic influence on the performance of community projects, A case study of Arusha region. The specific objective of this study was: to assess community engagement on the performance of projects, to examine financing mode used on community projects, and to evaluate business aspects on performance of community projects in Arusha region. Many factors influence the performance of community projects but this study specifically focused on assessing community engagement in the project, examining financing mode used on performance project and evaluating business aspects on performance of a project, and deeply assessing how social economic influence the performance of community projects. Simple random sampling was used to select a population of 135 people, a sample size of 100 people from fields of construction engineering, project management, Stakeholders and Beneficiaries, and project financing. This includes construction engineers working on a government institution, and a private company, people who supervise and evaluate projects, Projects Implementers, and Project Sponsors. Primary data was collected using a structured survey questionnaire while secondary data was gathered from various sources include both published and unpublished sources such as journal articles (research reports dissertations, seminar and conference proceedings) the data was analyzed by use of descriptive and inferential statistics hence presented in figures and tables. Stata was used to aid in the statistical analysis of the data. The validity and reliability of the instrument were ensured in this study. Findings show that assessing community engagement, examining financing mode used on a project, and evaluating business aspects of projects have a positive direction on influencing the performance of community projects which implies that for any increase in one of the independent variables they are a positive increase in influencing the performance of community projects. Engaging the community in the project has 0.439 influences on the performance of community projects; the financing model used has 0.513 influences on the performance of projects and business aspects implemented influence by 0.434 to the performance of community projects. The study recommends that engaging the community and examining the financing mode used on projects should be the top criteria and priority for influencing the performance of community projects.