Donor Funded Project Activities And Development Of Rural Entrepreneurship: A Case Study Of Living Project

ABSTRACT

Tanzania rural entrepreneurship is facing a number of challenges such as limited access to capital, market, entrepreneurship skills and technology. Understanding the importance of assessing donors projects and to ascertain their contribution on rural entrepreneurship, this study examined the USAID funded Living Project implemented by CARE International in Mvomero district, Morogoro region from January 2007 to December 2009. The objective was to assess the projects‘ contribution towards the development of sustainable rural entrepreneurship, using both primary and secondary data. Survey methods were applied to collect primary data using questionnaires, in addition to interviews and focus group discussions. The results revealed that, the project offered essential business development services that included access to capital, entrepreneurship and production skills as well as mentor support through apex organization. The outcomes were that, they created conducive entrepreneurial environment as the result of which beneficiaries have invested in various entrepreneurial activities and hence improved their standard of living. Nevertheless, they have reported challenges such as lack of market, limited training and unmet expanding need for capital that the apex organization could not solve. The study recommended additional support to apex organization especially on venture financing, entrepreneurial skills and empowering it to establish its own investment to enhance its ability to manage village and saving loan groups towards sustainable entrepreneurship.