Explore publications.

This paper examines the financial sustainability problems encountered by the Kuyasa Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project, which renovated 2,309 low-income residences with solar water heaters, compact fluorescent lighting, and insulated ceilings.  Notwithstanding its environmental and social advantages, the project encountered considerable financial deficits, especially in maintenance funding, attributed to decreasing Certified Emission Reduction (CER) values and delays in payout.  A concurrent triangulation mixed-methods approach was utilised.  Quantitative data were gathered from 370 people of Kuyasa using structured questionnaires, while qualitative insights were acquired through semi-structured interviews with 20 specialists in the energy sector.  The analysis was based on the "Integrated Participatory Sustainable Framework," which integrates systems theory, sustainability theory, community empowerment, and energy availability.  The findings indicated that the project's financial unsustainability stemmed from constraints in the revenue stream, contribution channels, loan repayment strategies, and community empowerment initiatives, culminating in a negative Net Present Value (NPV).  The paper introduces the "Sustainable Chameleon Strategy to Overcome Challenges," which figuratively utilises ten adaptive traits of the chameleon to guide context-specific, sustainable financial processes.  The study presents a replicable framework for renewable energy initiatives, proposing techniques to enhance financial viability via innovative design, stakeholder engagement, and adaptable finance mechanisms beyond the CDM.  This study presents the innovative "Sustainable Chameleon Strategy to Overcome Financial Sustainability Challenges," which provides a creative and integrative method for addressing financial sustainability issues in community-based renewable energy initiatives, particularly in low-income and developing nations.

Community participation is a means of empowering people by creating the space for them to engage in developing their skills and abilities to negotiate their needs in the face of the forces that often appear to obstruct and discourage them. Community participation which results in the development of communities is determined by the extent to which community members and beneficiaries of the process take part in decision-making, to ensure meaningful community participation. Three thematic areas of literature were reviewed, that is: community participation, community development, and service delivery. The study investigated the impact of community participation in community development at Collins Chabane Local Municipality. A quantitative cross-sectional descriptive design was adopted and a total of 120 respondents were purposefully selected to take part in the study. A self-constructed structured questionnaire was applied to collect data and the data were analysed using descriptive statistics. A total of 120 respondents took part in this study, and out of 120 respondents, 53 (44.2%) were males and only 67 (55.8%) were females. The study found that 103 (85.8%) of the respondents agreed with the idea that community members participate in community development. Fifty-eight (58) which constitutes 48.3% of respondents indicated that there is a lack of resources to capacitate rural citizens to actively participate in the development of communities. Forty-nine (40.8%) of the respondents revealed that community members do not contribute resources such as money, materials and labour towards the development of the community. The implications of enduring the challenge of community development at the grassroots are discussed in line with the literature.

Stakeholder empowerment strategies are globally recognized as a critical factor in enhancing the success of young people in their development. Despite this in Rwanda, some strategies are not well implemented due to inadequate findings. The general objective of this study was to assess the influence of Stakeholders Empowerment Strategies on Performance of Community Development Projects in Rubavu District, Rwanda, including, Capacity Building, Seed Capital and Social Network. The study used stakeholders’ theory, descriptive and correlation design. Questionnaires and interview guide were used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data from 310 respondents. The respondents were selected randomly and purposively from a total population of 1610. The pilot study was conducted with a pre-test of 20 respondents from sample size, which is above the minimum recommended 10% of the sample size. The validity was confirmed to 0.78 while Reliability was measured with Cronbach’s alpha result of 0.84, indicating that the research instruments are accurate to be used.  The study used descriptive statistics of percentage, frequency, mean and standard deviation, and the inferential statistics of Correlation and Regression were done at a significance level of 0.05 using SPSS.  The findings for four hypotheses were tested at ?=.05 level of significance and the results were: There is no significant influence between Entrepreneurial Capacity Building (p=0.000<0.05), Seed Capital (p=0.000<0.05), and Social Network (p=0.000<0.05) and Performance of Community Development Projects were all rejected since (p=0.000<0.05. The study showed that the performance of community development projects is perceived as highly satisfactory, with participants reporting strong agreement on aspects such as timely implementation, adherence to budgets, and stakeholder satisfaction. The highest-rated item was the increase in beneficiaries due to improved service quality. It is recommended that community development project implementers should strengthen the engagement and communication with stakeholders, and organizations should prioritize long-term investments in entrepreneurial training programs, as well as establish partnerships with financial institutions. Future researchers should explore the long-term sustainability of community development projects, focusing on the enduring impact of entrepreneurial capacity-building initiatives, seed capital utilization, and social network development.