Determinants of Sustainability of Community-based Projects

Community involvement

community involvement is all about the opportunities one gives the community to take part in decision making of matters concerning their projects. This involvement refers to the direct interaction between project management and the community thus encourages the community to take ownership of the outcome of a project. involvement practices include training, motivation and equipping members. these projects are initiated for the sake of the community and so excluding them from the project beats their primary purpose.in the long run, the project will not be responsive to the community but will serve selfish interest of a few individuals. This will lead to loss of community goodwill, interest and eventual closure.

Financial resources

Financial Resources is the set of liquid assets of an organization and includes cash, bank deposits and liquid financial investments such as shares, bonds etc. The major source of finance for community projects are donors. They may also receive finances from Public appropriations, Contracts with other agencies, Loans, Gifts, Income from sales, User fees etc. Financial resources are used to carry out the main operations of the business, like purchasing supplies, paying bills, salaries, financing operations such as transport, events etc. finances are also use for long term investments e.g. buildings ,machineries ,equipment etc. without finances all project activities will grind to a halt leading to closure of the project.

Organizational Systems

An organizational system is the structure of how an organization is set up. That structure defines how each division of a business is set up, the hierarchy of who reports to whom and how communication flows throughout the organization (Levinson, 2018). Without structures in place, a community project can become chaotic. Project members and employees may not understand who is responsible for what, causing important things to fall through the cracks. A solid organizational structure streamlines an organization and ensure measures are put in place to ensure accountability. since most community projects are nonprofit oriented, they rely on donors for funding. they need to be accountable to the donor agencies and individuals who support your cause. With proper systems in place ,they can keep track of expenditures and submit timely reports to them. They also minimize fraud, theft, Malpractices and illegal deeds such as overuse of resources. This enhances trust between the project and the donors, thereby increasing the chances of the project getting continuous support from them ensuring sustainability.

Being accountable to the donors: Most NGOs rely completely on funding and therefore having proper accounting systems in place becomes all the more important. 

Resources may simply be stolen. Misappropriation of resources negatively affects an organization's reputation, and its ability to carry out its mission. Costs are increased, and thus its ability to accomplish its mission and to attract additional resources is jeopardized. To protect against these eventualities, organizations should institute and administer policies and procedures designed to discourage and prevent these behaviours. There should be appropriate supervision and a periodic auditing of financial records and procedures.

Human resource; this relates to the people involved in running the project. It includes the management and staff. The management are custodians of the project’s assets. they should be accountable for the resources assigned. It is incumbent upon them to establish workable systems that will enable project members and staff to know availability and utilization of resources. Management makes decisions on behalf of members and staff of the project and so wrong decisions will lead to unintended results and eventually closure of the project.Staff implement decisions made by the leadership. they need to be skilled and equipped in order to achieve their mandate. People are the resource which run organizations. They make decisions and implement them and so they are a critical factor in the success of failure of the project.

The management are custodians of the projects assets. they should be accountable for the resources assigned. It is incumbent upon them to establish workable systems that will enable project members and staff to know availability and utilization of resources. Staff implement decisions made by the projects leadership.they need to be skilled and equipped inorder to achieve their manadate.without hr, decisions and their implementation will not be possible and so the project will not achieve its objective.this means iot will have failed leading to iys closure. 

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