Project Design and Sustainability of Dairy Goat Projects for Livelihood Improvement in Kenya

The debate around sustainability of development projects is intriguing, emerging as a contemporary development paradigm. Nevertheless, empirical literature insinuates that sustainability of development projects is seldom realized. Perhaps because the sustainability drivers are not well articulated at the project design stage making sustainability uncertain. This paper calls for a decisive paradigm shift in dairy goat project designs for sustainability. The paper is based on a study conducted in Tharaka Nithi County, Kenya, to investigate the influence of project design factors on the sustainability of dairy goat projects. Design factors considered for this study are the Project Beneficiary Selection Process, Community Capacity, Institutional Linkages and Project Infrastructure. The study was anchored on the structural-functional theory, diffusion of innovations theory and collective action theory. The sample size was 196 respondents sampled using sequential and stratified random sampling. Purposive sampling was used to sample 13 key informants. Further, six focus group discussions each with 8 participants were conducted. Questionnaires, interview guide and FGD guide were used respectively to collect data. Descriptive statistics were computed for all variables and frequencies, percentages, arithmetic mean and standard deviation. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation (r), simple regression, multiple regression and stepwise regression (R squared), F-tests were used to test hypotheses. Hypothesis (H0) that the combined project design factors have no significant influence on the sustainability of dairy goat projects was tested. Results; r = 0.389 implying a positive slope between project design and sustainability. R- Squared = 0.152, that 15.2% of the variation in sustainability was explained by variation in project infrastructure, community capacity, project beneficiary selection process, and institutional linkages. ANOVA indicated the model was statistically significant at (F (1,183) = 8.176) and the p-value = 0.000≤0.05, shows that there exists a positive correlation and the slope of the population regression line is not zero. therefore, H0 was rejected. The study concludes that combined project design factors are critical and important in enhancing project sustainability and recommends that dairy goat project design should incorporate authentic project beneficiary selection Process, their capacities developed and the project linked to supportive institutions as well as promoting the requisite infrastructure. The study found a gap in literature on the social economic contribution of dairy goats to the community livelihoods, as a measure of sustainability and recommends further study on this area.