The Effect of Strategic Planning on the Performance of Youth Development Programs in Kenya: A Case Study of Youth Agenda Organization

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to find out the effect of strategic planning on the performance of youth development programs in Kenya. More organizations are engaging in youth programs with the aim of developing the economic, social, and political wellbeing of the young people in Kenya. This brought about the need for the study. The main concern was to find out how strategic planning affected performance of youth programs in Kenya, examine the possible management challenges these organizations faced during the implementation of strategic planning and the perception of employees towards strategic planning. Strategic planning (SP) is a management tool used by managers to improve on employees’ work with goals to ensure better jobs and employees focus. Youth Agenda organization has an overall mission to redefine roles and contribute to the governance and development process in the country. Descriptive research design was used and data were collected through questionnaires whereby the entire staff members were included with a response rate of 53%, which made the responses adequate for analysis. SPSS tool was used to analyze the collected data. Most of the respondents agreed that proper formulation, data availability, control and evaluation, and performance measurement increased effectiveness to the use of SP, and has contributed to the achievement of the organizations’ objectives. The study also reveals that adequate allocation of available resources improved performance in youth programs carried out with the aim of developing young people. However, it was discovered that lack of transitions of SP accountability to mechanisms short-coming and resources not always readily available, were the critical challenges.