Thesis:

Local Stakeholders Involvement and the Success of Basic Education Projects in Rwanda: A Case of Mayange Millennium Villages Project In Bugesera District

This research thesis is entitled Local stakeholders involvement and the success of basic education projects in Rwanda. The main purpose was to find out the effect of local stakeholders involvement on the success of basic education projects using Mayange Millennium Villages’ project in Bugesera district as a case study. The specific objectives were; to find out the different levels that the local stakeholders are involved in, the how the levels of involvement lead to the success of basic education projects and the level of involvement that has more influence on the success of basic education projects. The levels of stakeholder involvement were looked at as planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation. The significance of the study was to help not only project managers but all people in general who are involved projects including government and future researchers. In the methodology, both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis were used. The targeted population were teachers, local leaders, parents, project staff and PTA members who were considered as local stakeholders. These made up a sample size of 118.The study employed purposive and stratified sampling techniques. The data was collected by use of interviewing, questionnaire and documentary reviews. It was analysed using SPSS and presented using descriptive statistics with percentages and frequencies, tables, and bars to show the main findings of study. The findings of the study revealed that more than 70 percent of the respondents agreed that they are involved in the MVP activities and at different planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation and as result helped achieve success in basic education. Involvement has helped identify their needs, achieve set objectives, and increase in school enrollment, completion rates, pupil-teacher ratio and improved performance in national examinations. The level of involvement that has more significance on the success of basic education projects was found to be the planning stage. The researcher concluded that the involvement of local stakeholders in the project is very crucial for its success. The researcher therefore recommends that MVP and other locally entrenched projects should emphasize local stakeholder involvement at all levels of the project, that project managers should be keen at linking the stages of planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation to the project since they are so much related and interconnected and that MVP and other projects should involve their stakeholders more in planning stage of projects than other stages.