Project Management Practices and the Performance of Maternity Projects in Machakos County, Kenya

Abstract

Because of the large number of deaths of women during and shortly after childbirth registered in the County of Machakos, Kenya. The county government of Machakos has introduced numerous projects to reduce the deaths. The county government has also allocated billions of shillings to maternal care projects. However, despite the resources and projects, access to maternal care was found to be very limited. Further, a review of the auditor-general reports indicates that a number of projects which are implemented under the maternal healthcare initiative remain uncompleted, under-utilised, and/or poorly managed. Consequently, the number of maternal and child deaths still remain high. These raise the question of the influence of project management practices on the implementation of maternal healthcare projects in Machakos County, Kenya. The aim of this research was to determine the influence of project management practices on the performance of maternal health care projects in Machakos County, Kenya. The objectives of the study were to determine the influence of project planning, stakeholder participation, the competence of project team, and monitoring and evaluation on the performance of maternal healthcare projects in Machakos County, Kenya. In the study, census sampling approach was used. The researcher sampled all the 21 maternal healthcare projects implemented in Machakos County, Kenya during the period 2013-2017. Respondents were all the 43 health officers charged with implementing the projects. The research design used in this project was descriptive. The data for the study was collected using questionnaires. The effect of the project management practices was determined using inferential analysis which entailed the estimation of a linear equation. The descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were obtained using the statistical packages for social sciences. The study established that project planning, stakeholder participation, competencies of the project team, and monitoring and evaluation had positive and statistically significant effect on the performance of maternal healthcare projects in Machakos County, Kenya.