NGOs empowerment of rural communities toward sustainable development projects: a case study of Mwanga in Kilimanjaro region

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have gained an important role in development initiatives during the last two decades. The development funding channeled through NGOs that are engaged in development activities has increased tremendously both in the North and South. NGOs have been seen as one way to strengthen community development in the South and to provide development than the state, through participatory development and community empowerment. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the NGOs empowerment of rural community towards sustainable development projects. The study covered three NGOs in Mwanga district. Specifically, the study assessed the extent to which NGOs empowered rural communities towards sustainable development projects; determined the extent of local communities towards participation in development projects; examined the sustainability of development projects supported by NGOs, and identified factors behind the observed degree of empowerment of rural communities. The targeted populations were NGOs officials, Local government officials and Community members. Documentary evidence, questionnaires, FGD, structured and unstructured interviews and observations were employed in data collection. Both purposive and random samplings were used to select respondents. The findings of this study revealed that, generally, the NGOs have explicit intentions to bring about community empowerment through their interventions but these stayed as NGOs hidden practices.