Community Involvement in Planning and the Success of Rural Development Projects in Rwanda
Abstract
Community involvement in development of project can significantly lead to the success of such projects. The decision making done during planning process would involve community participation and the benefits of development including employment provision and business opportunities. This was also against with backdrop that rural communities sensitize themselves and community resources aim to improving their welfare through effective planning. The purpose of this paper therefore, was to document the contribution of community involvement in planning to the success of rural development projects in cooperative support project in Burera district in Rwanda. The target population was 226 respondents that provided the sample size of 144 got using Yamane formula. Questionnaire, key informants’ interview, focus group discussion and document analysis review were used as data collection instruments. Experimental research design was employed. The findings revealed that the majority of 15-29 community members corresponding to 73.1% indicated to be fully involved. This paper also showed that 72.1% confirmed that they were fully involved in the planning of project success. The effective involvement of community members strengthens the planning of project success. This paper also reveals that engagement level of the community members in project planning is also respective to the intervention of different stakeholders. The study concluded that the use of various channels increases the involvement of the beneficiaries in the project. Communities who are more engaged in the planning phase also in other stages of the project, develop the required capacities to run the project after its phase-out and can sustain the achievements of such projects. The study recommended that government should provide messages, services through the local leaders, cooperative committees and the opinion leaders for a quick and efficient delivery.
Keywords: Community involvement, Planning, Project success and rural development
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