Sustainability of Youth Empowerment Projects: The Role of Project Governance in Makueni County, Kenya

The sustainability of projects, as indicated in literature, hinges on the effective governance of projects and their diverse stakeholders. Studies have documented evidence of both significant and insignificant effects of project governance-sustainability outcomes but such studies lack empirical justification in Kenyan context. It is against this backdrop that this study investigated the relationship between project governance and sustainability of youth empowerment project in Kenyan context. From a survey of 196 respondents who were project managers and youth leaders involved in Youth Empowerment Projects, data were collected and thereafter analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings from the analysis revealed that the composite construct of project governance significantly predicted sustainability of Youth Empowerment Projects in Kenyan context (R = .863, R 2 =.745, p = 0.000). In addition, each of the variables that made up the composite construct of project governance had significant effect on sustainability of Youth Empowerment Projects (stakeholder management: β = .173, t = 2.313, p = 0.022; governance structure: β = .659, t = 8.159, p = 0.000; project team diversity: β = .298, t = 3.728, p = 0.000).  The study concludes and recommends that stakeholders in Youth Empowerment Projects such as county governments in Kenya and Non-Governmental Organisations to put in place effective project governance structures in terms of stakeholder management mechanisms, properly established governance structures and strategies to improve project quality as these aspects significantly improve sustainability of the established projects. Keywords: Project Governance, Sustainability, Youth Empowerment Projects, Non-governmental Organisation, Kenya. DOI: 10.7176/JESD/11-20-14 Publication date: October 31 st 2020


Introduction
Projects have become gradually globalized, significantly contributing to economic growth in the countries where they have been executed, and also for developing countries' local industries [Aarseth et al., 2017]. However, projects are inundated with challenges, and sustainable development is one of these challenges. The sustainability of youth empowerment projects is an issue of concern not just in Kenya, but also in many of the low-income economies. Most of the implemented projects, involving large amounts of money, often face sustainability challenges. Donors for instance, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), World Bank (WB), Department for International Development (DFID) and other bilateral aid agencies lament over project sustainability. Implementation trends of these projects demonstrate substantial improvement; however, post-implementation sustainability is comparatively unsatisfactory since only few of the projects are being sustained [Gupta & Kumar, 2013]. While evidence has been documented in literature that the sustainability of developmental projects hinges on governance issues ranging from stakeholders' involvement, project team effectiveness, project structures, and other knowledge areas of project management, such evidence lacks empirical justification in the context of low-income economies. In Kenya, studies have highlighted the challenges and hiccups to youth projects [Amenya et al., 2011;Jassor, 2016;Lenjo, 2018]; however, project governance practices towards enhancing the sustainability of projects have not attracted adequate scholarly attention. It is on this backdrop that this study investigated the relationship between project governance and sustainability of Youth Empowerment Projects in Kenya Context. The Resource-Based View theory (RBV) is acknowledged as a modern-day approach that highlights the way competitive advantage (CA) can be generated through organizational resources. It sourced contributions from several scholars in the disciplines of economics and strategic management [Penrose, 1959;Porter, 1985;Wernerfelt, 1984]. The contribution of Barney in 1991, therefore, formalized RBV as a present-day approach to understanding the significance of developing and maintaining organizational internal resources as a means of creating sustainable CA [Barney, 1991].
RBV is that resources are heterogeneous and immobile across firms; therefore, sustainable CA could be achieved by a firm that is able to develop internal resources that are considered rare, valuable, inimitable and also non-substitutable. For Barney (1991), the internal resources entail assets, capabilities, information, knowledge, firm's attributes and organizational processes, among others. These are controlled by a firm, allowing it to conceive of and implement strategies that would enhance its effectiveness and efficiency.
RBV has often been criticized because of its inability to specify the particular organizational resources that possess the attributes of valuableness, rarely, inimitability, and nonsubstitutability. However, RBV Theory has been an important theoretical lens for underpinning the relationships hypothesized in studies among scholars in different fields of discipline. RBV was a theoretical paradigm for developing unique capabilities, assets, information, tacit knowledge, tools and processes for managing project in an organization [Jugdev & Mathur, 2013].
RBV, therefore, becomes relevant because of its significant contribution to creating sustainable projects, as resources in terms of finance, personnel and facilities are essential during project implementation. Therefore, leveraging on governance practices in various organizations would lead to development of capacities that would enhance project sustainability.

Stakeholder Theory
Stakeholder Theory is a heuristic approach to the understanding of who and what stakeholders are to organizations. The theory was advanced by [Freeman, 1984]. Freeman's explanation of stakeholders is traced to the research conducted by Stanford Research Institute in 1963. In the said research, stakeholders were seen as shareholders, and defined as individuals or group of people whose existence determines the continued success and going concern of an organization [Bailur, 2006] In the Stakeholder Theory, Freeman categorized stakeholders as owners, employees, suppliers and customers. He described them as individuals or groups affecting or being affected by the realization of corporation's purpose. This theory has since become a theoretical lens for viewing studies from different spheres of discipline. In project management, this theory postulates that in any development project, active stakeholder participation in is very essential. It is supportive to the recipient or beneficiary community, thus, without stakeholder management in terms of participation and engagement, it would be difficult to determine the constraints, problems and confined desires of a certain community [Harvey & Reed, 2014]. Project beneficiaries' participation is thus greatly essential as it contributes to enhancing a sense of ownership amongst members.
The theory suggests that it is difficult to shape any type of a sustainable organization including profitable business, if that organization does not meet its stakeholders needs most of time [Lynda, 2011]. This theory also posits that the business purpose is to ensure that they value their stakeholders as much as possible. The project managers must ensure that the interests of suppliers, customers, communities, shareholders and employees are well aligned and heading to the same direction, so as to succeed and be sustainable over time [Aaltonen & Kujala, 2016] Stakeholder Theory becomes relevant in this study because project sustainability is affected by project governance practices. As such, drawing from this theory, identification and assessment of the necessary stakeholders involved in project governance will significantly affect the continued project sustainability once it has been implemented. Therefore, this study's independent construct was anchored on the theoretical lens provided by this theory.

Empirical Literature Review
Project governance is a structure comprising responsibilities, processes, policies and value systems that enable projects tend towards achieving organizational objectives and fostering implementation that supports preeminent interests and needs of both external and internal stakeholders besides the project itself [Müller, 2009]. Thus, projects have become the key engine towards the achievement of organizational constructive change and strategic goals [Biesenthal & Wilden, 2014;Kaumbulu & Sang, 2018]. Effective project governance is essential in sustainable and successful achievement of value for the involved stakeholders and the organization [Beleiu & Nistor, 2015]. In project management literature, a number of concepts have been employed to measure project governance. Project governance is measured as stakeholders' participation and resource mobilisation [M'aburi, 2017]. Project governance has been operationalised in terms degree of shareholder versus stakeholder orientation and the degree of behavior versus outcome control, mutually applied on projects through the central organization [Joslin & Müller, 2016]. In the study investigated by [Too & Weaver, 2014] project governance is operationalised as a composite construct of intertwined governance structures and management functions. Project governance involves people networking from diverse experiences towards project delivery, and it is on this basis it is conceptualised as project team diversity [Obare, 2017;Wu, Zhao, Zuo & Zillante, 2019].
The engagement of stakeholders in the discussions of projects often leads empowerment and promotes meaningful participation by diverse stakeholder groups [M'aburi, 2017]. The engagement level of stakeholders has been identified to either make or mar the sustainability of a project [Sang, 2015]. In addition, project governance that is anchored on governance structure will ensure transparency, accountability, effectiveness and achievements of project goals in future [Zwikae & Smyrk, 2015]. Therefore, governance structure will help in solving problems and managing issues arising in the project life cycle and providing adequate consideration on recommendations made on planning project deliverables. Furthermore, working in teams from diverse orientation, experience, culture, and trainings may affect team member satisfaction, performance, and innovativeness [Wu et al., 2019].
A handful of studies have shown that project governance contributes to the success and sustainability of projects. Effective project governance has been identified as a major determinant of project success [Lechler & Dvir, 2010]. In a similar vein, project governance has been identified to be the essential in sustainable and successful achievement value for the involved stakeholders and the organisation [Beleiu & Nistor, 2015]. Furthermore, effective project governance reduces conflicts among diverse stakeholders' group and contributes to greater firm's performance [Petri et al., 2014]. However, misalignment or underdevelopment of project governance mechanisms may impair performance [Sanderson, 2012]. In addition, ineffective project governance structures in project organization may delay improvements in the project management context [Aubry, Richer & Lavoie, 2014;Zwikae & Smyrk, 2015].
Sustainability, as a construct, has been conceptualised in different forms in project management literature. Sustainability in relation to project is conceptualised as the ability of the project to achieve its main objectives after the project initial sponsors have withdrawn their support [Marcelino, González & Pérez, 2015]. It is also conceptualised as organizational ability to continue its program and mission far into the future as all projects eventually have to end, retaining the positive impact of the project [Morfaw, 2014]. Project sustainability is often referred to as an abstract construct, and therefore scholars have employed several indicators as measures of project sustainability. Sustainability of a project could be measured with regard to social, economic, and environmental benefits to the necessary stakeholders. Project sustainability integrates economic, environmental, and social measures Sustainability is seen comprehensively as an essential understanding tool towards the economic, environmental and social concerns concomitant in the manner in which the projects and their support systems are constructed, designed, maintained, operated and eventually eliminated [Thompson et al., 2011]. It may be operationalized in relation to the users' intended flow of benefits, facilities' operational level, evidence of existing project outcome, project design and institutional support [Tian et al., 2013]. In addition, project sustainability may be measured in terms of project continuity, increase in number of beneficiaries (youth), and reduced unemployment. In a similar vein, project sustainability may be measured in terms of project financial strength, recorded growth, project's ability to meet its objectives, improvement in standards and recorded profitability [Odenyo & James, 2018].
Intense debate exists as to which sustainability indicator best measures project sustainability, however, scholars have argued that project sustainability should be measured in Triple Bottom Line -TBL: economic, environmental and social dimensions. This is because project sustainability is crucial to its short-term and long-term survival. Likewise, sustainability of youth empowerment project will be best measured using TBL indicators.
The Resource-Based View of firm is premised on the tenet that a sustainable competitive advantage can be achieved provided a firm leverages on building and developing internal resources and capabilities that are valuable, rare, inimitable, and not substitutable (Barney, 1991). Inferring from the theoretical lens of RBV, the internal resources entail assets, capabilities, information, knowledge, firm's attributes and organizational processes, among others which are controlled by a firm and made use to conceive of and implement strategies that would enhance its effectiveness and efficiency. In project management literature, RBV has been employed as a theoretical paradigm for developing unique capabilities, assets, Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1700 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2855 (Online) Vol.11, No.20, 2020 information, tacit knowledge, tools and processes for managing project in an organization [Gopichandran & Krishna, 2013]. Therefore, leveraging on governance practices such as governance structures, project team diversity, and stakeholder engagement may be important capacities for sustaining the success of a project for a period of time. Furthermore, the theoretical lens provided by stakeholder theory helps in understanding of who and what stakeholders are to organisations [Haq, Liang, Gu, Du & Zhao, 2018].
Stakeholder theory explains that stakeholders comprise individuals or group of people and their existence determines the continued success and going concern of an organisation [Karanja, 2014]. In project management literature, the stakeholder theory is employed to support the idea that active involvement of stakeholders is essential in project development, and without stakeholder management in terms of participation and engagement, it would be difficult to determine the constraints, problems and confined desires of a certain community [Krejcie & Morgan, 1970]. A cursory examination of research studies in project management and sustainability showed that research efforts have been concentrated in the high and middleincome countries [Heising, 2012;Joslin & Müller, 2016;M'aburi, 2017;Silvius & Schipper, 2014]. Research studies on project governance relationship with project sustainability in the African context, most especially in Kenya, have remained limited and anecdotal [Franz, Leicht, Molenaar, & Messner, 2016]. Drawing from the theoretical lenses provided by RBV and stakeholder theory, and the dearth of empirical investigation of the relationship between project governance and sustainability of project in Kenyan context, this study, therefore, hypothesised as: H01: Stakeholder management has no significant effect on sustainability of youth empowerment project in Makueni County, Kenya H02: Governance structure has no significant effect on sustainability of youth empowerment project in Makueni County, Kenya H03: Project team diversity has no significant effect on sustainability of youth empowerment project in Makueni County, Kenya.

Methodology
The study adopted both descriptive and explanatory research designs. Descriptive research design enables the researcher to apprehend a population's possible behaviour, characteristics, values and test hypotheses (Cooper & Schindler 2011). Therefore, descriptive was used to explain the attributes of the survey data. The explanatory research design tests the hypotheses by measuring the relationships and establishing the causal relationship between variables (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill 2009). Hence, it tries to find out relationships between the operationalised constructs in the study. Multiple linear regression model was adopted to examine the relationship between stakeholder management, governance structure and project team diversity as indicators of project governance (independent variable) and project sustainability (dependent variable). Cluster and simple random sampling design were employed. Cluster was done by grouping the projects into five sectors and then a simple random sampling technique was applied to select a sample size of 196 from a total of 400 respondents from the youth projects using [Krejcie& Morgan, 1970]'s formula.. From every group sampled, respondents were selected from project managers, leaders, executive officials and members, through simple random sampling. Primary data were collected from the field by use of selfadministered structured questionnaires. Questionnaires had closed-ended questions that were Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1700 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2855 (Online) Vol.11, No.20, 2020 127 measured using a 5-point Likert Scale questions describing opinions and issues of the respondents. Collected data was coded, edited and then keyed into the Statistical Package for Social Scientist (SPSS) Software for analysis. The analysis of the data was done by use of descriptive to explain and summarise the characteristics of the survey data, and inferential statistics to test the hypothesised relationship among the constructs. The following empirical model guided the study.

Findings and Discussions 4.1 Response Rate
A total of 196 questionnaires sent to the respondents, out of which 132 questionnaires were adequately filled and returned with a response rate of 67.35%, which according to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2007) is satisfactory to conduct data analysis and interpretation of the findings.

Respondents Characteristics
Data extracted from the returned questionnaire were subject to descriptive and inferential analysis. Out of 132 respondents, the distribution of male respondents accounted for 64.4% and the distribution of female accounted for 34.6%. The age distribution showed that majority of the respondents as represented by 72% were aged between 20 and 29 years while a further 25.7% were aged between 30 and 39 years. On the other hand, only 2.3% of the participants were aged between 40 and 49 years. In terms of the distribution by level of education, majority of the respondents (54.5% had university degree, a further 21% had master's degree and 2.3% doctorate qualifications. Those who had diploma academic qualification represented 9.1% while 12.9% had secondary education. The distribution of the duration of project showed that majority of the respondents (81.8%) had participated in the project for a period of 1 to 5 years while 18.2% had spent 6 to 10 years working in youth empowerment project. The implication of the results is that majority of the respondents of this study had participated in the project long enough to gain sufficient experience in their job. The distribution of position held showed that majority of the respondents (71.2%) were project members followed by 17.4% who were project leaders. Project officials represented 11.4% of the sample. This implies representativeness of all units of the project in the sample.

Descriptive Analysis
The characteristics of the survey day were analysed using descriptive parameters such as sample mean and sample standard deviation. The results of the analysis are shown in Table 1.  Vol.11, No.20, 2020 129 respondents. The aggregate mean and standard deviation scores for governance structure stood at 4.24 and 0.64 respectively. These scores on the scale adopted for this study indicate agreement on the part of the respondents to the items measuring governance structure and also low variability of responses among them. In addition, the aggregate mean score of 4.34 indicates that the respondents agreed to the items measuring project team management and the standard deviation score of 0.63 indicates low variability of responses. The aggregate mean score for project sustainability stood at 4.26 and based on the scale adopted for this study, the respondents were in agreement to all the items measuring the construct of project sustainability. The standard deviation score stood at 0.62 and this further supported the agreement by the respondents with low variability of responses.
Therefore, the descriptive analysis of variable of this study indicated that the aggregate mean and standard deviation scores for each of the variable of interest show that the respondents were in agreement with the practices relating to the construct of project governance. The respondents agreed that stakeholder management, governance structure, and project team diversity could contribute to the sustainability of Youth Empowerment Projects in Makueni County Kenya. The results of descriptive analysis were in conformity with the findings of previous studies that emphasised on project governance as a measure of project sustainability [Nangoli et al., 2016;Oganga, Olala, & Odima, 2017].

Diagnostic Test
To meet the basic assumptions of linear regression analysis, it was necessary to carry out diagnostic tests before testing the research hypotheses so as to accurately estimate the regression model. Normality test was tested using the Shapiro-Wilk-Statistics where the residuals had p-values greater than 0.05. Therefore, according to Field (2013), this revealed that the data was normally distributed. Linearity test was also tested using ANOVA and yielded a p-value below 0.05, thus implying that there was linear relationship between all the independent variables and dependent variable. Durbin-Watson statistics test of autocorrelation was 1.921, indicating there was no autocorrelation in the data, meeting the threshold of 1.5< d < 2.5 by Field (2013). Levene statistics test of heteroscedasticity had p-value greater than 0.05 implying that was homoscedastic. Finally, there was no threat of multicollinearity since all the variables had VIF of less than 10 as recommended by Field (2013).

Test of Hypotheses
The study sought to investigate the effect of project governance on sustainability of youth empowerment projects in Makueni County, Kenya. In order to achieve this objective, three hypotheses were formulated: Stakeholder management has no significant effect on sustainability of youth empowerment project in Makueni County, Kenya (H01), Governance structure has no significant effect on sustainability of youth empowerment project in Makueni County, Kenya (H02), and project team diversity has no significant effect on sustainability of youth empowerment project in Makueni County, Kenya (H03) Multiple linear regression was performed to determine the statistical significance of the hypothesized relationships at 95% level of significance. The results of the analysis are shown in Table 2.
Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1700 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2855 (Online) Vol.11, No.20, 2020 130  Table 2, the results show the model summary with a Pearson correlation of 0.863, indicating that there is a positive correlation between project governance and youth empowerment projects sustainability. The coefficient of determination (R Square) is 0.745. This indicates that the three indicators of project governance examined in this study jointly account for 74.5% variation in project sustainability. The results imply that stakeholder management, governance structures and project team diversity as indicators of project governance predict project sustainability. The findings also imply that 25.5% of the variations in sustainability of youth empowerment projects was explained by other factors not considered in the model of the study. ANOVA model results were statistically significant as shown in Table  3.  Table 3, the results show F-statistic of 124.802 which is greater than the critical value of 2.6753 {F (3, 128) 0.05} and p-value =0.000. This is less than 0.05; it implies that the model was statistically significant. The study therefore failed to reject the null hypothesis that the model of the study had a goodness of fit. These results established that the overall model was statistically significant.
The results of the regression coefficients of the model fitted to test the effect of dynamic capabilities on firm performance were shown in Table 4. These results were used in testing hypotheses.  Vol.11, No.20, 2020 131 Table 4 implies that the optimal equation of the study can now be obtained as: PS = 0.931 + 0.173 Stakeholder Management + 0.659 Governance Structure + 0.298 PTD As presented in Table 4, stakeholder management had a coefficient of β=0.173, p-value =0.022. Since p-value was less than 0.05, the null hypothesis was rejected implying that holding other factors constant, stakeholder management clearly and immensely affected sustainability of youth empowerment projects in Makueni County. This therefore indicates that stakeholder management had a positive and significant effect on sustainability of Youth Empowerment project. The study findings tally with those of Mnaranara (2010) that collaborative stakeholder participation is critical for a project to be sustainable. According to Mnaranara (2010), participation by material giving led to community ownership, thus enhancing the project sustainability. Similarly, the results in this section concur with the findings of Namiyingo et al (2016) that stakeholder participation is a predictor and positively correlated with project sustainability. Oganga et al (2017) also found out that stakeholder involvement positively affected project sustainability.
The study also sought to test the null hypothesis that governance structure has no significant effect on sustainability of youth empowerment projects in Makueni County. From Table 4, governance structures had a coefficient of β= 0.659, p-value =0.000. Since p-value was less than 0.05, the null hypothesis was rejected. Thus, holding other factors constant, governance structure clearly and immensely affected sustainability of youth empowerment projects in Makueni County. This means that the null hypothesis was not accepted and therefore, governance structure positively and significantly influenced project sustainability. The study findings in this section are consistent with those of Munyoki and Ngeru (2014) showing that a significant association existed between governance structure through PMO involvement level in strategic planning and project sustainability. On the same note, Eriksson Conand, Lovatelli, Muthiga and Purcell (2015) found out that governance structures impacts positively the sustainability of sea fisheries. The results also agree with the findings of Ekung et al (2017) who found out that an improvement in project governance structure improved project performance.
The study further sought to test the hypothesis that project team diversity has no significant effect on sustainability of youth empowerment projects in Makueni County. According to the results presented in Table 2, PTD had a coefficient of β= 0.298, p-value =0.000. The null hypothesis was thus rejected, implying that holding other factors constant at zero, PTD positively and significantly affected sustainability of youth empowerment projects in Makueni County. The finding also implied that a unit increase in PTD indicators would result to 0.298 unit increase in sustainability of youth empowerment projects in Makueni County. The study findings agreed with those of Amar, Chang and Mcllking (2015) which established a positive and significant effect of project board diversity on the likelihood project success. Obare (2017) further noted that PTD significantly affected project performance. The results also concur with the findings of Wu et al (2019) that PTD positively and significantly affected project performance. The results are however inconsistent with the findings of Bardhan, Krishnan and Lin (2012) which indicated that project team dispersion adversely affected project performance.

Conclusion and Policy Recommendations 5.1 Conclusions
The study investigated the role which project governance played in the sustainability of Youth Empowerment projects in Kenya. In order to establish the role, three hypotheses were formulated to address the composite construct of project governance. The composite construct of project governance was regressed on sustainability and the results indicated that project governance significantly predicted sustainability of projects in Makueni County, Kenya. From the results of the analysis the study found and concluded that Youth Empowerment projects in Makueni County have effective project governance in terms of stakeholder involvement and participation, properly established governance structures and mechanisms to improve quality. The study also concluded that the project team in charge of youth empowerment projects in Makueni County is diverse in such aspects as training background, gender, technology, manner of task execution, job experience and opinions regarding the project. These aspects of diversity are essential in enhancing sustainability of the projects. The study thus concluded that the project team diversity positively and significantly affected sustainability of youth empowerment projects.

Policy Implications
In light of the results and conclusions discussed in the preceding sections, the study makes critical policy recommendations. Considered, this would go a long way in enhancing sustainability of youth empowerment projects. The study recommends stakeholders in youth empowerment projects such as county government, NGOs to put in place effective project governance structures in terms of stakeholder management mechanisms, properly established governance structures and strategies to improve project quality as these aspects significantly improve sustainability of the established projects.
The study also recommends project management to consider involving all stakeholders throughout all the phases of project initiation and implementation. Some of the ways this can be achieved include making the activities of the project known to the stakeholders, involving communities and the youth in project initiation and implementation, including stakeholders in the process of decision making, creating an environment where all stakeholders see the project as their own and ultimately beneficial to them, putting stakeholders in strategic position in the project and regularly communicating and consulting with stakeholders whenever necessary.
The study further recommends that for the purpose of enhancing project sustainability, there is need to put in place effective governance structures. To achieve this, project management team need to have a steering committee to check and approve the project charter for accuracy, monitor project progress against the project management plan, reviewing for approval any changes to project resource plan, schedules, scope, goals and cost estimates, reviewing for approval the project development strategy and resolving conflicts among stakeholder groups.
Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1700 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2855 (Online) Vol.11, No.20, 2020 133 Other mechanisms that can be employed to enhance effectiveness of governance structures include consistently orienting project portfolio toward the organization's future, allocating project resources to reflect strategic objectives, transparency of project portfolio, proper allocation of human and adapting project portfolio to changing goals.
Another recommendation made by this study is that project management should strive to accommodate diversity within the project team. Diversity occurs in different forms. These include the training background, gender, technology, manner of task execution, job experience and opinions regarding the project which should all be accommodated without discrimination

Limitation and Future Research
The study used primary data in collecting data. There is need to incorporate other methodologies of data collection and analysis in conducting studies on the same topic to use both primary and secondary data and also allow case comparisons. The study is cross-sectional study and therefore the findings of association are far from causation. Future research studies could carry out longitudinal studies so as to find the causal effect of project governance on sustainability of projects in different contexts. The study also showed that stakeholder management, governance structures and project team diversity as indicators of project governance account for 74.5% of variations in project sustainability. This indicates 25.5% of the variations in sustainability of youth empowerment projects is explained by other factors not considered in the model of the study. Future studies should explore the other factors not considered in this study.