An Empirical Investigation into Determinants of Success of Foreign Financed Development Projects in Sri Lanka

Abstract

By this empirical study it was aimed to investigate into the factors that affect the success or performance of foreign financed community based development projects in Sri Lanka. Out of the 548 existing project implementing organizations (Action Plan 2006) for the convenience of the analysis 64 organizations covering 15 districts were taken into consideration. The selected organizations are mixed with UN organizations, government and semi-government ventures, international NGOs, local and national NGOs. For collecting data 250 questionnaires which were received back without rejection were administered among the selected organizations. The key purpose of the study was to evaluate the influence made by identified couple of factors on success of considering projects. Specific objectives were to examine the interrelationship between main two factors and to identify the influence made by infrastructure facilities on success of these projects. For this purpose three research questions were addressed. They are; what is the degree of influence made by two factors on success? What is the interrelationship between two factors? What is the influence made by infrastructure facilities on success? Success of the projects was estimated in terms of allocation of resources, goal attainment and other impacts associated with productivity and quality improvement. Univariate analysis and bivariate analysis were employed in analyzing the data. Furthermore, "t" test and "F" test were applied for testing respective two hypotheses. In computing P value it was considered that for high significant level it should be equal to 0.05 and for it significant level should be equal to 0.10. For more clarification SPSS computing software version was associated. As indicated by the results of discussion it was noted that though both endogenous factors and exogenous factors make influence on success of projects, a dominant and vital role is played by endogenous factors in determining the performance of community based development projects in Sri Lanka. Thus a great attention should be paid on endogenous factors in strategically planning and implementing these projects.