Influence of Non-Governmental Organizations’ Financial Interventions on Community Empowerment

Non-governmental organizations play a key role in promoting community development in developing and undeveloped countries through support of various interventions such as agriculture, health, climate change, gender, family planning, water and sanitation and education. Each of these interventions play a key role in the realization of sustainable community development. However, education is an integral part in achievement of all the other 16 Sustainable Development Goals. Education is one of strategies used by non-governmental organizations to empower individuals and communities through financial interventions which enable communities to access equitable and inclusive quality education. Though non-governmental organizations have been supporting education as a way of empowering communities with the aim of realizing community development, there are still challenges in terms of social economic development. Education is an empowerment tool that is regarded as effective through achievement of individual and community empowerment. However, success of education financial interventions is measured using individual empowerment, as a result, an empirical knowledge gap exists on their influence on community empowerment. The study aimed at assessing the influence of non-governmental organizations’ education financial interventions on community empowerment in Nakuru County. The study was guided by Social Capital Theory, Empowerment Theory and General Systems Theory. The study adopted an ex-post facto and correlational research design. The accessible population was 116 non-governmental organizations in Nakuru County. Stratified random sampling and purposive sampling were used. Data collection instruments were questionnaires. The subjects involved in the study were beneficiaries of the education financial interventions and the social workers in charge of education. Statistical Package for Social Science Version 20 was used for data analysis. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used. The findings were non-governmental organizations’ education financial interventions significantly influenced community empowerment (r=0.261; p=0.008). This finding may be used to inform; community development stakeholders on the influence of non-governmental organizations’ education financial interventions on community empowerment; policy makers on adoption of education as an integral part of achieving sustainable development and recommend development of an education for community empowerment model.