PARTICIPATORY PLANNING AND THE SUSTAINABILITY OF DONOR-FUNDED PROJECTS: EVIDENCE FROM A FAITH-BASED ORGANISATION IN AN URBAN INFORMAL SETTLEMENT IN NAIROBI, KENYA

Abstract

Donor-funded projects continue to play a significant role in addressing socio-economic challenges in developing countries, yet their long-term sustainability remains a persistent concern, particularly within urban informal settlements. Although stakeholder participation is widely acknowledged as central to project continuity, limited empirical attention has been given to how specific dimensions of stakeholder participation, particularly participatory planning, influence sustainability. This article focuses exclusively on participatory planning, one dimension of stakeholder participation examined in a broader postgraduate thesis, within faith-based organisations operating in urban informal settlements. The study investigated the influence of participatory planning on the sustainability of donor-funded projects at Mukuru Promotion Centre (MPC) a faith-based organization in the Mukuru informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya. The findings presented in this article relate only to the participatory planning dimension. Grounded in Participation Theory and Sustainability Theory, the study adopted a mixed-methods approach and convergent parallel design. Quantitative data were obtained from 157 stakeholders through a structured questionnaire, while qualitative data were drawn from 17 purposively selected key informants through semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Spearman’s rank-order correlation, and multiple linear regression on SPSS version 27, with thematic analysis for the qualitative strand. The findings revealed that participatory planning had a moderate, positive and statistically significant relationship with project sustainability (r = 0.501, p < 0.01) and emerged as the strongest individual predictor in the regression model (β = 0.367, p = 0.001). The study concludes that meaningful, inclusive participatory planning is positively related to ownership and continuity. Additionally, the study recommends improving inclusive participatory planning forums to priorities quality and inclusivity over frequency.