The Challenges Posed by less-Involvement of Beneficiaries to the Success of Non-Governmental Organisations’ Development Programmes: A Case Study of Bubulo County, Manafwa District in Uganda.

Abstract

SEMATIMBA ISA (2011-MO92-40015) The Challenges Posed by less-Involvement of Beneficiaries to the Success of Non-Governmental Organisations’ Development Programmes: A Case Study of Bubulo County, Manafwa District in Uganda. Over the years, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have tremendously become very important and permanent institutions in the implementation of development projects worldwide especially in the third world countries of Africa. However, many NGOs have failed to successfully achieve their common goal of sustainably improving the lives of the under-served community. This study highlights the less-involvement of the beneficiaries as a major hindrance to the success of many NGO-development programmes in Manafwa district, with a case study of Bubulo County in Uganda. The major objective of this study was to establish the thesis that the full-involvement and participation of the beneficiaries is indispensable for the success of non-governmental organisations‟ Development Programmes in Manafwa district. As regards the methodology, the study employed a qualitative paradigm because it focussed on the success of NGO-development programmes which is qualitatively measured, although the indicators were quantitatively measured not as triangulation but as direct combination. The study procedure commenced with a proposal followed by data collection and finally the dissertation writing. The geographical area was Bubulo County, Manafwa district in Uganda with the study sample being one hundred and forty respondents. The sampling technique was purposive-random sampling employing; questionnaires, interview guides and observations as the instruments, with data-quality-control highly considered. The key findings of the study were that; although there are many NGOs in the district such as ARDI, LBA, World Vision, Red Cross Society and CHRISCO among others with commended work, they have generally not fully-involved their beneficiaries in the development programmes especially in problem identification, needs assessment, project planning and designing, and monitoring and evaluation. Although many beneficiaries are involved in the implementation stage, they are basically passive with limited contribution. The other key finding was that these NGOs have not generally succeeded in their ultimate goal of achieving lasting socio-economic transformation of the lives of their beneficiaries, through positive transformation of their livelihoods, behavioural change and sustainability. And the last key finding was that there is a thin line between the level of the beneficiaries‟ involvement and the success of these NGO-development programmes according to the respondents, and indeed the low levels of beneficiaries‟ involvement greatly affects their feeling of project ownership, addressing the real causes of the target problem and finding locally-replicable appropriate solutions which affects sustainability, translating into non-success. From these key-findings, including the secondary findings from other literature, therefore, it can be concluded that; indeed the less-involvement of the beneficiaries grossly challenges the success of NGO-development programmes in Manafwa district, therefore recommending full-beneficiary participations and preferably beneficiary-led project/programmes. Key Words: less-Involvement, Beneficiaries, Non-Governmental Organisations, Development Programmes, Manafwa District.