Factors Influencing Participation Of The Youth In Community Based Projects In Narok North Constituency, Narok County.

Abstract

The Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the regions highly affected by youth unemployment. It is estimated to be more than 21 %. It is estimated that 64% of unemployed persons in Kenya are youth. Interestingly, only 1.5% of the unemployed youth have formal education beyond secondary school level and the remaining over 92% have no vocational or professional skills training and the majority is found in the rural Kenya. Youths in Kenya who number about 12 million account for about 32% of the population. Participatory development is the most important approach towards enabling communities to help themselves and sustain efforts towards development work. Despite efforts by the government and other relevant such as NGOs to empower the youth through participation in community based projects, the youth have not fully participated. This study established the factors that affect the participation of youth in community based projects in Narok North constituency. The study was guided by four objectives, the first objective established how education and training of the youth influences their participation, established how capital and credit facilities among the youth influence their participation, determined how technology influences youth participation and the last objective examined the extent to which organizational policy of the CBOs influences youth participation in community based organizations, in Narok North constituency. The study was justified because there has not been any previous documentation on youth participation in Narok North constituency. The study conceptualized youth participation in community based organizations and it was guided by two theories ; the systems theory of management and the stakeholders theory. The relationship between the independent and the dependent variable was conceptualized. The study adopted a descriptive research design and focused on the 300 youth who are active on youth groups registered by the ministry of social services as its target population. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the officials of the groups while simple random sampling was used to select 30% that is 90 of the youth to participate in the study. The study used both primary and secondary data. Secondary data was obtained from existing literature while primary data was collected using questionnaires. A pilot study, Validity and reliability of the research instrument were done. Data was analyzed descriptively by the aid of Excel soft ware where the means, percentages and frequencies were computed and then presented using tables and charts, and interpretations made based on the study objectives. The study drew conclusions and recommendations based on the findings.