Risk Management Planning and The Sustainability of Donor-Funded Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Projects in Nairobi City County, Kenya
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53819/81018102t2512Abstract
In recent years, the quest for sustaining water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) projects has become a critical global concern, particularly in developing countries where infrastructure failures continue to undermine access to essential services. Several donor-funded WASH projects in Nairobi City County have failed to achieve long-term operational success after donor withdrawal, largely due to inadequate integration of strategic risk management planning despite significant investments by development partners and governments. The study aimed to examine the influence of risk management practices on the sustainability of donor-funded WASH projects in Nairobi City County. The theoretical underpinnings of the study were the sustainability theory and the prospect theory. The study adopted a convergent (parallel) research design, which is a type of mixed research methods that required the researcher to engage in simultaneous collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data. The targeted a population 403 expert staff members of donor-funded WASH projects completed by NCWSC and AWWDA in Nairobi City County. The respondents included 200 expert staff of donor-funded WASH projects determined using Yamane’s formula. Data was collected using a survey questionnaire comprising of “closed-ended and open-ended items. Data collected was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences and content analysis. The statistical measures used included means, standard deviations, Pearson’s correlation coefficients, ANOVA, and p-values. The analyzed data revealed that risk management planning (B = 0.285, p = 0.005) have a significant positive influence on the sustainability of donor-funded WASH projects” in Nairobi City County. The study findings articulate the recommendation to prioritize and adopt comprehensive risk management plans to enhance sustainability of donor funded WASH projects in Nairobi County, Kenya.
References
Ali, F., Ciftci, O., Nanu, L., Cobanoglu, C., & Ryu, K. (2021). Response rates in hospitality research: An overview of current practice and suggestions for future research. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 62(1), 105-120. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1938965520943094
Bauhoff, S. (2024). Self-report bias in estimating cross-sectional and treatment effects. In Encyclopedia of quality of life and well-being research (pp. 6277–6279). Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/978-3-031-17299-1_4046
Beske, P., & Seuring, S. (2021). Sustainable supply chain management practices and dynamic capabilities in the food industry: A critical analysis of the literature. International Journal of Production Economics, 152, 131–143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2013.12.026
Bishoge, O. K. (2021). Challenges facing sustainable water supply, sanitation and hygiene achievement in urban areas in sub-Saharan Africa. Local Environment, 26(7), 893–907. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2021.1916895
Challa, J. M., Getachew, T., Debella, A., Merid, M., Atnafe, G., Eyeberu, A., … & Regassa, L. D. (2022). Inadequate hand washing, lack of clean drinking water and latrines as major determinants of cholera outbreak in Somali region, Ethiopia in 2019. Frontiers in Public Health, 10, 845057. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.845057
Creswell, J. W., & Plano Clark, V. L. (2023). Revisiting mixed methods research designs twenty years later. Handbook of mixed methods research designs, 1(1), 21-36. https://www.torrossa.com/en/resources/an/5730651#page=56
Crossley, R. M., Elmagrhi, M. H., & Ntim, C. G. (2021). Sustainability and legitimacy theory: The case of sustainable social and environmental practices of small and medium‐sized enterprises. Business Strategy and the Environment, 30(8), 3740–3762. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2831
Daniel, D., Djohan, D., & Nastiti, A. (2021). Interaction of factors influencing the sustainability of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services in rural Indonesia: Evidence from small surveys of WASH-related stakeholders in Indonesia. Water, 13(3), 314. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13030314
Elsawy, M., & Youssef, M. (2023). Economic sustainability: Meeting needs without compromising future generations. International Journal of Economics and Finance, 15(10), 23-31. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mahmoud-Elsawy-5/publication/373642302
Emina, K. A. (2021). Sustainable development and the future generations. Social Sciences, Humanities and Education Journal (SHE Journal), 2(1), 57-71. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b000/c783b575a10360e2a312d07dcf7dd4c99d82.pdf
Fleisher, C. S., & Bensoussan, B. E. (2020). Business and competitive analysis: Effective application of new and classic methods (2nd ed.). London: Pearson.
Hajian, M., & Kashani, S. J. (2021). Evolution of the concept of sustainability: From Brundtland Report to sustainable development goals. In Sustainable resource management (pp. 1–24). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-822352-6.00001-4
Hakkarainen, V., Anderson, C. B., Eriksson, M., Van Riper, C. J., Horcea-Milcu, A., & Raymond, C. M. (2020). Grounding IPBES experts’ views on the multiple values of nature in epistemology, knowledge and collaborative science. Environmental Science & Policy, 105, 11–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2019.12.003
Hiratsuka, T. (2025). The volunteer participation paradox: Ethical tensions between self-selection and targeted sampling. Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, 4(2), 100206. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772766125000278
Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1979). Prospect theory: An analysis of decision under risk. Econometrica, 47(2), 263–291. https://doi.org/10.2307/1914185
Kapwata, T., Kunene, Z., Wernecke, B., Lange, S., Howard, G., Nijhawan, A., & Wright, C. Y. (2022). Applying a WASH risk assessment tool in a rural South African setting to identify risks and opportunities for climate resilient communities. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(5), 2664. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19052664
Karuoya, E. W., & Waithaka, P. (2023). Strategic planning and performance of Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies in Nairobi City County, Kenya. East African Scholars Journal of Economics, Business and Management, 6(6), 113–121. https://doi.org/10.36349/easjebm.2023.v06i06.002
Kim, J., Hagen, E., Muindi, Z., Mbonglou, G., & Laituri, M. (2022). An examination of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) accessibility and opportunity in urban informal settlements during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from Nairobi, Kenya. Science of the Total Environment, 823, 153398. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153398
Lockwood, H., Smits, S., Schouten, T., & Moriarty, P. (2020). Providing sustainable water services at scale. In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Rural Water Services, Kampala, Uganda (pp. 13–15). IRC. https://www.ircwash.org/sites/default/files/Lockwood-2010-Providing.pdf
Marcus, H., Muga, R., & Hodgins, S. (2023). Climate adaptation and WASH behavior change in the Lake Victoria Basin. Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 13(3), 174–186. https://doi.org/10.2166/washdev.2023.023
Munene, R., & Nyaga, J. (2021). Strategic planning and performance of non-governmental organisations in Nairobi County, Kenya. International Research Journal of Business and Strategic Management, 3(3), 1–14.
Neely, K., & Valcourt, N. (2024). Review of systems thinking in rural WASH programming and research. Cambridge Prisms: Water, 2, e12. https://doi.org/10.1017/cwa.2024.12
Ochieng, E., Zuofa, T., & Badi, S. (Eds.). (2021). Routledge handbook of planning and management of global strategic infrastructure projects (Vol. 2). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Odhiambo, E., & Njuguna, R. (2021). Strategic management practices and performance of health non-governmental organizations in Nairobi City County, Kenya. Journal of Strategic Management, 6(1), 1–16. https://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/server/api/core/bitstreams/c30c146f-2332-4486-9583-e337af7910b1/content
Osei-Kyei, R., Jin, X., Nnaji, C., Akomea-Frimpong, I., & Wuni, I. Y. (2023). Review of risk management studies in public-private partnerships: A scientometric analysis. International Journal of Construction Management, 23(14), 2419–2430. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1900972
Otundo, R., M. (2024). Strategic intelligence systems and performance of donor funded projects; an empirical review from project management expertise point of view. Strategic Intelligence Systems and Performance of Donor Funded Projects. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4823890
Rasmussen, C., & Thøgersen, J. (2020). Sustainability theory: Applications and critiques. Sustainability Science Review, 8(3), 234–249. https://doi.org/10.1093/sustrev/008345
Roberts, L. (2022). Water, sanitation and hygiene: Reflections on research and practice. Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 12(5), 367–372. https://doi.org/10.2166/washdev.2022.016
Rouder, J., Saucier, O., Kinder, R., & Jans, M. (2021). What to do with all those open-ended responses? Data visualization techniques for survey researchers. Survey Practice. https://www.surveypractice.org/article/25699-what-to-do-with-all-those-open-ended-responses-data-visualization-
Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2019). Research methods for business students (8th ed.). Harlow, UK: Pearson.
Taherdoost, H. (2021). A review on risk management in information systems: Risk policy, control and fraud detection. Electronics, 10(24), 3065. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10243065
Tian, X., Ma, J., Li, L., Xu, Z., & Tang, M. (2022). Development of prospect theory in decision making with different types of fuzzy sets: A state-of-the-art literature review. Information Sciences, 615, 504–528. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2022.10.023
UNICEF. (2021). Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene: 2000–2020. New York: United Nations Children’s Fund.
USAID. (2020). Water, sanitation and hygiene fact sheet – Kenya. Washington, DC: United States Agency for International Development.
Valcourt, N., Javernick-Will, A., Walters, J., & Linden, K. (2020). System approaches to water, sanitation, and hygiene: A systematic literature review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(3), 702. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17030702
Wang, T., Li, H., Zhou, X., Huang, B., & Zhu, H. (2020). A prospect theory-based three-way decision model. Knowledge-Based Systems, 203, 106129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.knosys.2020.106129
Ward, P. J., Daniell, J., Duncan, M., Dunne, A., Hananel, C., Hochrainer-Stigler, S., … & De Ruiter, M. C. (2022). Invited perspectives: A research agenda towards disaster risk management pathways in multi-(hazard-) risk assessment. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 22(4), 1487–1497. https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-1487-2022
Win, C. Z., Jawjit, W., Thongdara, R., Gheewala, S. H., & Prapaspongsa, T. (2024). Towards more sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) projects in Magway Region, Myanmar. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 26(9), 22149–22173. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-023-03727-7
Wong, W., Ng, A., & Ochieng, D. (2022). Assessing the role of risk management in the sustainability of WASH programs: Evidence from Kenya. Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 12(1), 15–28. https://doi.org/10.2166/washdev.2020.177
World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). (1987). Our common future. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5987our-common-future.pdf