Influence of institutional pressures on sustainability of selected agriculture-related donor-supported project activities in Tanzania

Abstract

Projects are increasingly failing to sustain activities and benefits beyond the funding period. Informed by the
institutional theory, this study employed a comparative case study design to examine the influence of institutional pressures
on the sustainability of project activities for two selected donor-funded projects. The study was done in Tanzania’s districts of
Chamwino and Namtumbo. A total of 274 respondents - 123 from the ECO-ACT project and 151 from the ISFM project -
were sampled proportionately. Household respondents were interviewed using a five-point Likert scale. Key informant
interviews (KIIs) and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were also held. Descriptive statistics and cumulative logit regression
techniques were used to analyse quantitative data. The findings show that local beneficiaries' participation in project
activities has mildly decreased, with 20.1%, 2.6%, 20.8%, and 56.5% of respondents reporting no, low, moderate, and high
sustainability. Besides, coercive pressure (p=0.003), normative pressure (p=0.010), and mimetic pressure (0.008) were
positively related to the sustainability of project activities suggesting that they can influence local beneficiaries to sustain
project activities. Furthermore, project beneficiaries were likely to sustain 0.149, 0.97, and 0.118 times more projectsupported
activities for every additional unit of coercive, normative, and mimetic pressures. Based on these findings, the study
concludes that institutional pressures foster local beneficiaries’ participation in project activities post-exit. The study
recommends that project implementers should reinforce coercive, normative and mimetic pressures apart from addressing
community-specific problems.