Influence of Public Participation Practices on the Quality of Social Service Delivery in Rwanda

Abstract

Public participation in public institutions is important for the quality of social delivery of services. Public participation encourages citizen- focused service delivery and improves credibility among the citizenry. Public participation is the process through which stakeholders input and share control over development initiatives, decisions and resources which affect them. The purpose of this study was to establish the influence of public participation practices on the quality of social service delivery in Rwanda. The investigation focuses on service providers' views of the qualities, as it is only through their understanding of the situation that service quality can be improved. This is a qualitative study based on interviews with employees of government organizations and document analysis. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey research design. The target population of the study was 7000 respondents. Both qualitative and quantitative data was collected through structured questionnaires. A pilot test was conducted to detect weaknesses in design and instrumentation. The sample size of 378 respondents is determined using the Yamane's formula. The questionnaire was pretested before data collection for validation and reliability. The collected data was coded and analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods with the help of descriptive and inferential statistics. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21 was used. Testing of hypotheses was done using analysis of variance. Variance Inflation Factor was used to illustrate the significance of the association between governance practices on the quality of social service delivery by local governments in Rwanda. Analyzed data was presented using tables and percentages. coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.658, which means that this variable alone can explain up to 65.8% of the variations in the dependent variable, quality of social service delivery by local governments in Rwanda. The findings further confirm that the regression model of public participation practices on quality of social service delivery by local governments in Rwanda is significant for the data F=156.122, p<0.01) since p-values was 0.00 which is less than 0.05. The study recommends that Public sector in Rwanda must provide training, workshops and sessions in the workplace to assist officials to understand the process of public participation. Manuals need to be provided to officials of the public sector guiding them on procedures of public participation.