Author: Mary Zaliwe Zulu Supervisor: Dr. Kelvin Chibomba

(23 of 40) reported 3–5, and 17% (7 of 40) experienced more than five. One participant High failure rates in road construction projects are remarked, "When complaints are ignored, people often linked to inadequate stakeholder engagement. take matters into their own hands." Although project planning and management principles are well established, implementation gaps Correlation analysis revealed that regular persist, and many stakeholders still report being stakeholder meetings, conflict levels, participation, excluded from key decisions. In Zambia, limited and grievance resolution significantly influenced community involvement remains a recurring issue the effectiveness of stakeholder management. in both county- and national-level projects. This Meeting frequency was positively associated with study investigated stakeholder participation and reported conflicts (r = .837, p < .01), likely because conflict management during the Lusaka–Ndola frequent meetings created spaces where hidden Road project using a sample of 100 respondents. issues could surface early. As one participant Questionnaires were hand-delivered, and the explained, "When we meet often, issues come out resulting data were analysed using nominal, ordinal, immediately instead of staying buried." Meeting interval, and ratio scales. frequency was also strongly linked to active stakeholder engagement (r = .816, p < .01), The findings show that grievance-handling reinforcing the value of consistent communication. mechanisms play a critical role in reducing Conflict levels and participation were similarly stakeholder disputes. Among those covered by a correlated (r = .915, p < .01), illustrating that formal complaints system, 37% (22 of 60) reported engagement both responds to and helps manage no conflicts, an