DETERMINANTS OF SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF YOUTH EMPOWERMENT DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN SELECTED COUNTY GOVERMENTS IN KENYA

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INTRODUCTION
The idea of youth according to Durham (2017) is a concept of relationship in a dynamic context, a power landscape, cultural notions of agency and personhood.Youth are greatly defined by the socio economic as well as conditions in the political environment that best explains youth.Poverty, war, conflict, and HIV/AIDS are some of the experiences that differentiate the youth from the adults.People in this environment cross the frontier from childhood to adulthood and it is in this phase that people define their roles as conditions in their lives change (Boeck and Honwana, 2015).Based on these constructs, youths can be seen as fluid, but there are other definitions that consider the youth to a group of individuals in the society that is static and have distinct responsibilities depending on the age category they are in.
A report by World Bank (2012) showed that in the US people living a day on $1 are approximately 987 million which translate to 15% of global population.Those living with 2$ a day is approximated to be 2 billion people.When these two groups of people are combined it translates to 45% of the entire population in the world.However, taking into account inflation since the 1 and 2-dollar arbitrary poverty line will be introduced by World Bank economist Martin Ravallion (2008), poverty has not declined in real terms and it is in fact increasing.In this respect, a dollar today is only worth 55 percent of what it will be in 1998 or the equivalent present day worth of US $1.82.
In developing countries like Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, and South Africa since the 90s, the number of youth projects launched have been on the rise.These projects are expected to enhance the standard of living of the people, deal with hunger, and improve the level of education and the state of health of the people.The global trend of investing in the youth especially in developing countries has reached sub-Saharan Africa, and is focusing on creating stability in the livelihood systems and community as well as safety of families (Asep et al, 2003).
Poverty is a prevailing feature amongst many youths in the developing countries around the world with ever increasing severe effects of social and economic backdrop felt in countries within sub-Saharan Africa despite much effort put in place to contain the situation (World Bank report, (2012).It is arguably a multidimensional challenge found in different forms both in urban and rural areas only possibly differing in its intensity in most of these affected IRJBSM ISSN 2710ISSN -2742 (online), www.irjp.org (online), www.irjp.orgPage 64 International Research Journal of Business andStrategic Management, 2(1), 62-78, 2021 (David Hill, 2008).Report by Nigerias central bank titled "Integrating financial services into poverty reduction strategies" presented in a workshop in West Africa in 2005 indicated that in Africa, 60% of its population living in the rural areas is of the age 25 and 50 years.
Reduction of poverty in these regions therefore requires coordinated measures to be developed and can't just depend on policies on the economy.This is therefore the only solution that can be used globally to deal with the issue of youth unemployment and this will include having funds set aside for poverty eradication (UN World Social Summit, 2010).In the 80s, sub-Sahara Africa recorded an increase in average GDP per capita but still the level of poverty remained constant (World Bank report, 2012).
In Kenya, the definition of a youth according to the ministry of youth affairs is any person that is between childhood and an adult and is of the ages 15 to 30.Development of the nation is highly dependent on the youth this is because the government directs different programs to them and there are a times when they give credence.

Statement of the problem
In the recent years, the government of Kenya has tried to enhance livelihoods of youths by initiating a number of projects.Despite having good intentions, these projects have experienced challenges in their teething for instance, change in scope, overrun in budget, failure to adhere to procedures and delaying in delivery of projects.The result of these challenges is that their execution has doubled inevitably and in other cases the result has been that, the cost of projects has doubled.Some other challenges are poor leadership and management, lack of appropriate participants, poor coordination and relations, lack of control, motivation, monitoring or systems for decision-making; lack of adequate infrastructure, political, cultural and economic challenges (Strenman, 2012).
Apparently, Youths have also always tried to organize themselves to plan, start and implement many projects of their own that is of their common interest, without waiting to be probed by the government to do so (Githenya & Ngugi 2014).However, most of these projects are not able to exist for more than two years (Wanjohi, 2010).While some of these projects succeed, a considerable number of them fail along the way before reaching the intended destination.Consequently, the collapse of these projects may mean that their projects end prematurely and do not meet the objectives or the goals.This is an indication of poor implementation of the projects initiatives (Speer & Perkins, 2006).
There are several researches that have been carried out and this includes a research study by Mwangi and Ngugi, (2014)  our present stud will be conducted in Nairobi County.There is also conceptual gap because the study focused on M&E on performance of projects while the present study will be on all factors affecting projects on poverty eradication.
Mathis (2011) researched on best M&E practices in Turkey USAID projects.There is a conceptual gap since the study was focused on M&E best practices but present study focused on factors determining successful implementation of projects.Additionally, there is a contextual gap because the study was conducted in Turkey while our present study will be conducted in Kenya.Hillson and Grimalai (2015) sought to provide an understanding on project exposure to risk with the use of two dimension of breakdown matrix for risk.this creates a conceptual gap because it focused on projects exposure to risk.From the reviewed literature, most of the studies were conducted in developed countries or using different concepts and therefore this study sought to fill this gap in research that narrows on the gaps identified.This study will therefore seek to find out the determinants of successful implementation of youth empowerment projects in selected county governments in Kenya.

Objective of the Study
The main purpose of this study was to find out the determinants of successful implementation of youth empowerment projects in selected county governments in Kenya.

The specific objectives were;
 To establish the effect of managerial skills on successful implementation of youth empowerment projects in selected county governments in Kenya. To establish the effect of stakeholder involvement on successful implementation of youth empowerment projects in selected county governments in Kenya.

Empowerment theory
According to Tones and Tilford (2001) empowerment theory has been identified as a rincipal theory across various disciplines.Adapted from Zimmerman's (1984) work, Rappaport (1987) adapted it to community psychological studies.Ever since, the theory has found its way into social studies as a key concept in remedying inequalities and towards achieving better and fairer distribution of resources for communities (Rose, 2011).
According to the theory, empowerment refers to the ability of people to gain understanding and control over personal, social, economic and political forces in order to take action to improve their life situations.The process whereby a person or the community is in a position to take power and effectively act to gain great control, efficiency and social justice in transforming their livelihood and environment.This process enhances people's power to use on their own lives, the community or the entire society through their actions on practices considered to be important (Zimmerman, 2000).
According to lee (2005) empowerment is a notion of people having the ability to understand and control themselves and their environments, expanding their capabilities and horizons and elevating themselves to greater levels of achievement and satisfaction.This can have deduced to mean that empowerment is a process that has a number of qualities such as: having decision making power, having access to information and resources, having a range of options from which to make choices.
In fact, Zimmerman (2000), the originator of this theory, argues that empowered individuals have the characteristics of high self-esteem, self-efficacy, and control and over their life and increased socio-political and civic access.Viewed in this light, cash based intervention program can be seen as a perfect initiative aimed at improving the life of the people with disabilities, by correcting the social unfair discrimination.In this case, empowerment is in line with the definition of the theory as given by Lee (2005) that is empowerment is concerned with the transformation of individual's lives.As such, this theory expounds on the skills of the management to provide successful implementation of youth empowerment projects.

Stakeholder Theory
Development of this theory was back in 1980 by Richard Edward Freeman.This theory was developed based on studies on practices of management (Wagner, Alves and Raposo, 2011).The theory proposes a framework comprising of three stages of balance, process and transaction (Freeman, 2010).This theory will be applied in this study to explain the aspect of stakeholder participation.In order to ensure that the proposed project meets the needs of the community the project is created in, it is important to involve the people.Rationally, comprehending who organizations stakeholders are and what their opinions are is very important.A generic stakeholder's map is a system that an organization uses as a guide in categorizing stakeholders based on their interest or stake and also based on power.
Generally, this theory suggests that each company needs to consider each person who the project might affect.Thus the managers of the proposal are fully responsible for balancing the interest of various groups to ensure that the project implemented is of quality.When the community is involved in identifying the project location, it tends to be more successful.
Therefore, involvement of the local community in project identification to ensure community needs are met is very important because it will ensure projects acceptability.
Therefore, this stud will apply this theory to help understand the importance of stakeholders in implementing empowerment projects for the youth by considering interests and powers, involvement of the community and level of participation.

Conceptual Framework
Armstrong (2012) explains that the conceptual framework aims to update and refine the existing concepts to reflect the changes.According to Walliman (2009) the diagrammatic representation of relationship existing between stud variables is defined as a conceptual framework.Mille and Marsh (2014) explained that the key challenge facing people in development is the hard truth that performance of isolated projects can only be done to a particular level.

Independent variables Dependent variable
On the other hand, those successful in the weaving of programs ensuring their ability to work with other companies end up delivering more and the result is wider ownership among those communities being developed.In the end those projects are the ones suitable.
In his encounter with women of Beit Shemash, Maritim (2013), she explains that it is important to emphasize on the participation of members of a community in developing initiatives; this will ensure successful implementation of projects.She explained the way various communities and health institutions came up with proposals that based on guiding empowerment, collaboration, participation and equity strategies and principals and therefore enhance the attainment of the set objectives and goals.

METHODOLOGY
This study adopted a descriptive research design.This is a scientific method of investigation in which data is collected, processed, analyzed and presented in order to describe the current conditions, terms or relationships concerning a certain field (Mugenda, 2003).The target population consists of 1395 youths in five selected counties of Kenya (Nairobi, Machakos, Kiambu and Kajiado).A sampling formula yielded a sample size of 93 respondents; this sample is deemed good representation of the population since the sample size is greater than 10% of the target population according to Ngechu (2009).This study used probability sampling since the population and location of the respondents is known.
Specifically, the study used stratified random sampling in order to account for the uneven distribution of respondents in various counties.
The study used questionnaires as the main collection instrument that contains both open ended and close ended questions.A pilot test was conducted to assess the questionnaire's validity and the likely reliability of the data that was collected.Analysis of closed ended questions was done with the use of nominal scale where descriptive statistics were computed; analyses were done in SPSS.Open-ended questions were analyzed using conceptual content analysis.Analyses involved the production and interpretation of frequencies counts and tables that described and summarize the data.The collected data was analyzed using multi linear regression to determine the relationship between the dependent and independent variables.

Managerial Skills and Successful Implementation of Projects
From the results, the respondents agreed that interpersonal skills influence the implementation of youth empowerment projects.This is shown by a mean of 4.200 (std.dv = 0.370).In addition, the participants agreed that technical skills are paramount in time of implementing youth empowerment projects in county government.This statement is supported by a mean of 4.136 (std.dv = 0.429).As shown by a mean of 4.118 (std.dv = 0.482), the respondents agreed that the communication skills are important in the implementation of youth empowerment projects.
From the results, the respondents agreed that conceptual skills are vital in the implementation of youth empowerment projects.This is shown by a mean of 4.100 (std.dv = 0.402).In addition, the respondents also agreed that communication skills are effective on implementing social protection on the beneficiaries.This is shown by a mean of 3.981 (std.dv = 0.319).Further, with a mean of 3.881 (std.dv = 0.482), the respondents agreed that interpersonal skills influence the scope of implementing projects in county government.The respondents also agreed that the technical skills influence the implementation of youth empowerment projects.This is shown by a mean of 3.854 (std.dv = 0.648).

Stakeholders Involvement and Successful Implementation of Projects
From the results, the respondents agreed that interest and power from politicians influence the implementation of youth empowerment projects.This is shown by a mean of 3.890 (std.dv = 0.705).In addition, the respondents also agreed that local community influences the cost of implementing social protection proposal.This is shown by a mean of 3.820 (std.dv = 0.0573).Further, with a mean of 3.818 (std.dv = 0.490), the respondents agreed that interest and power influences the cost of implementing youth empowerment projects.

Implementation of youth Empowerment projects
The respondents disagreed with the statement indicating that youth empowerment projects are implemented within the scheduled time frame.This is shown by a mean of 1.963 (std.dv = 0.505).In addition, the respondents disagreed with the statement indicating that youth empowerment projects always achieve their objectives.This is shown by a mean of 1.945 (std.dv = 0.485).Further, with a mean of 1.963 (std.dv = 0.381), the respondents disagreed with the statement indicating that youth empowerment Projects are implemented within the Scheduled budget.The respondents also disagreed with the statement indicating that youth empowerment projects always meet the requirements of the beneficiaries.This is shown by a mean of 1.663 (std.dv = 0.454).Youth empowerment Projects always achieve their objectives 40.0 33.6 3.6 17.3 5.5 1.945 0.485

Correlation Analysis
The present study used Pearson correlation analysis to determine the strength of association between independent variables (managerial skills and stakeholder involvement) and the dependent variable (successful implementation of youth empowerment projects in selected county governments in Kenya).According to the results, there was a very strong relationship between managerial skills and successful implementation of youth empowerment projects in selected county governments in Kenya (r = 0.849, p value =0.000).The relationship was significant since the p value 0.000 was less than 0.05 (significant level).The findings are in line with the Ansong et al.
(2015) there is a very strong relationship between managerial skills and successful project implementation.
Further, the results revealed that there is a very strong relationship between stakeholder involvement and successful implementation of youth empowerment projects in selected county governments in Kenya (r = 0.876, p value =0.000).The relationship was significant since the p value 0.000 was less than 0.05 (significant level).The findings are in line with the findings of Mangundjaya et al. (2015) that there is a very strong relationship between stakeholder involvement and successful project implementation.

Regression Analysis
Multivariate regression analysis was used to assess the relationship between independent variables (managerial skills and stakeholder involvement) and the dependent variable (successful implementation of youth empowerment projects in selected county governments in Kenya).The model summary was used to explain the variation in the dependent variable that could be explained by the independent variables.The r-squared for the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable was 0.681.This implied that 68.1% of the variation in the dependent variable (successful implementation of youth empowerment projects in selected county governments in Kenya) could be explained by independent variables (managerial skills and stakeholder involvement and monitoring and evaluation).The ANOVA was used to determine whether the model was a good fit for the data.F calculated was 117.987 while the F critical was 3.101.The p value was 0.000.Since the Fcalculated was greater than the F-critical and the p value 0.000 was less than 0.05, the model was considered as a good fit for the data.
Henceforth, it can be used to predict the influence of managerial skills and stakeholder involvement on the successful implementation of youth empowerment projects in selected county governments in Kenya.According to the results, managerial skills have significant effect on the successful implementation of youth empowerment projects in selected county governments in Kenya β 1 =0.277, p value= 0.001).The relationship was considered significant since the p value 0.001 was less than the significant level of 0.05.The findings are in line with the findings of Ansong et al. (2015) there is a very strong relationship between managerial skills and successful project implementation.
Furthermore, the results revealed that stakeholder involvement has significant effect on the successful implementation of youth empowerment projects in selected county governments in Kenya β1=0.312,p value= 0.000).The relationship was considered significant since the p value 0.000 was less than the significant level of 0.05.The findings are in line with the findings of Mangundjaya et al. (2015) that there is a very strong relationship between stakeholder involvement and successful project implementation.

Conclusions
The study concludes that managerial skills have significant effect on the successful implementation of youth empowerment projects in selected county governments in Kenya.
The study found that managerial skills (technical ability, interpersonal proficiency and conceptual expertise) influence the successful implementation of youth empowerment projects in selected county governments in Kenya.This implies that improvement in managerial skills (technical ability, interpersonal proficiency and conceptual expertise) would facilitate the successful implementation of youth empowerment projects in selected county governments in Kenya Further, the study concludes that, stakeholder involvement has significant effect on the successful implementation of youth empowerment projects in selected county governments in Kenya.The study found that stakeholder involvement (local community participation, political interest and administrative participation) influence the successful implementation of youth empowerment projects in selected county governments in Kenya.This implies that improvement in stakeholder involvement (local community participation, political interest and administrative participation) would facilitate the successful implementation of youth empowerment projects in selected county governments in Kenya.

Recommendations
This study recommends that the management of county governments should work together with the human resource departments to ensure technical ability, interpersonal proficiency and conceptual expertise hence improving successful implementation of youth empowerment projects Further, findings revealed that stakeholder involvement has significant effect on the successful implementation of youth empowerment projects in selected county governments in Kenya.This study therefore recommends that in any youth empowerment project, all stakeholders should be involved from the first stage to the last.
on factors determining the effectiveness of implemented projects in Kenya on eradication of poverty.This study and the current study have a conceptual gap; the study focus was on determinants effective implementation while our current study is on implementation of youth empowerment projects.Ling and Ma, (2014)    researched on the impacts of competency and communication on outcome of China's projects.The study has a contextual and geographic gap with our current study; this study was conducted in China while our current study will be conducted inKenya.Roggio (2016)    assessed the effect of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) on performance of projects using the case of YEDF in Kisii county, Mirani district.This study and the present study have contextual gap because the study was carried out in Mirani district in Kisii County while

Figure
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework Empirical Framework In a research study conducted in Kajiado County, Karimi (2014) sought to establish how household lives are affected by projects.The study was conducted in Nkaimurunya division established that the poor performance of the projects was attributed to lack of training.Business people who have been trained have the ability of evaluating the course of venture considering both internal and external forces and once they identify any affect thy fix it.Projects executed by untrained people might fail because they lack the required skills.Czerniawska and Toppin (2010) manual operations that depend on bare strength are steadily being faced out in projects execution, and instead, technology is replacing human labor geared towards obtaining maximum gains, while reducing the cost of projects.This is an indication that soon, only skilled personnel will be required rendering large population of untrained workers jobless.Strategies that are superior in nature are developed for use in organizations through manipulation of internalized skills and knowledge learned through training and refined by experience.
The industry has improved in the recent past with the introduction of brick making machines.People have been trained on how to use the introduced machines and therefore enhanced the productivity of the projects.
Bricks industry in India provides employment opportunities to a number of individuals but when the company is thought of traditionally, it is considered to be a great environment