Factors Influencing the Implementation of Sustainable Child Safeguarding Programs. A Case of Child Based Programs in Mombasa County, Kenya
Abstract
Child safeguarding is increasingly becoming a vital social issue in the contemporary world. This is due to the fact that children are increasingly being exposed to violence, exploitation and all forms of violation of their rights. Mombasa County is one of the regions where childrens lives are being threatened by several forms of abuse. However, the county has actually benefitted from various child safeguarding programs but unfortunately not all have achieved what they had set to do so. The purpose of this study was to establish the factors influencing the implementation of sustainable child safeguarding programs in Mombasa County. The study was guided by four objectives which were financial resources(X1), project team competencies (X2), inter agency partnerships (X3) and monitoring and evaluation (X4) and their influence on implementation of sustainable child safeguarding programs(Y) in Mombasa County. Descriptive research design was adopted for the study. The study sampled (70) respondents who were drawn from (9) child safeguarding programs with a total population of (669) in Mombasa County. Data collection was carried out using questionnaires and key informant interview guide. The quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 24). The study results were presented through tables and narratives. The data was then presented through frequency tables and narrative analysis. All measures were recorded on five-point Likert scales anchored by Strongly Disagree (1) to Strongly Agree (5). The findings clearly showed that all the factors were present in child protection programs with high means of 4.09 for X1, 4.09 for X2, 3.94 for X3 and 4.19 for X4 while the dependent variable Y had a mean of 4.05. Hypothesis was tested after each question as per the objective of the researcher using the simple Chi-Square test. The findings further showed that all the four factors have a positive influence on sustainable implementation of child protection programs in Mombasa County.The study concludes that monitoring and evaluation has highest influence on sustainable implementation of child protection programs with a significant positive change of 0.48 if a unit of it is increased, followed by inter-agency partnership with 0.40, project team competencies had the least influence of 0.027 and financial resources with a 0.169 influence. The study recommends that firms should improve monitoring and evaluation as well as monitor the relationship of interagency partnership because they highly impact the sustainability of child protection programs followed by financial resources and project team competencies. The researcher hopes that other studies in another context will be done to verify the findings.
Key words: Child safeguarding, implementation, sustainability, financial resources, partnerships, monitoring and evaluation.
