Effect of beneficiary participation in program design and implementation on satisfaction and acceptability among internally displaced persons in Borno, Nigeria.

Insurgency and other security challenges have intensified across Nigeria with a resultant displacement of over a million people from over 100,000 households who depend on interventions from government and non-governmental organizations for survival since 2009. We conducted the study to determine the level of involvement of the displaced persons in planning, implementation and review of these interventions, and the effect of the participation on satisfaction with the interventions among camp dwellers in selected camps in Borno, Nigeria. A total of 278 internally displaced persons (IDPs) across 9 IDP camps were surveyed using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Data was collected using Android-based Open Data Kit (ODK), exported into Microsoft Excel, and analyzed with SPSS version 21. Out of the 278 respondents, 143 (51.4%) were male, 82 (29.5%) respondents were within the age bracket of 26-35 years and above (mean age 38.9±12.3), over 78% were married, and 29.9% were involved in trading before their displacement. Among the respondents, 256 (92.1%) had benefitted from at least one intervention during their stay in the IDP camps. Over 96% of the beneficiaries were female, compared to 87.4% of males, which was statistically significant (p<0.05). All the respondents within the age group 26-35 years and above 45 years old who had received information about the interventions were satisfied, and this finding was statistically significant (p<0.05). Overall, 91.5% of respondents who had benefitted from previous interventions would like to be involved in all the intervention stages (planning, implementation, and review). In comparison, 100% of IDPs who benefitted from previous interventions would like to be involved in the implementation, and 96.8% of them would like to be involved in planning the proposed interventions. To ensure maximum coverage, and that optimum benefit is derived from development projects, beneficiaries should be involved in all stages of the project cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]