Women's Economic Empowerment Kenya

This is the first project in CBI's 2021-2025 strategy focusing on gender rather than a specific sector. This project focuses on gender in Kenya. CBI has developed this project to contribute to:

• Creating decent jobs for women;
• Promote female entrepreneurship; and 
• Strengthen the role of women in management positions.

CBI organised brainstorming sessions (Future Search) with WEE stakeholders. These helped to identify challenges faced by women export entrepreneurs in Kenya. We identified 4 key focus areas to guide the project activities:

1. Access to finance;
2. Access to market;
3. Inclusivity (grassroots); and
4. Unified Ecosystem/ "One Voice"
    

Project goals and activities

In Kenya, women entrepreneurs face many issues. These include, but are not limited to:

• Lack of skills and knowledge;
• Difficult access to networks, information, finance and services;
• Policy, rules and regulations: Most women-owned businesses are not registered; and 
• Working conditions

We aim to empower women entrepreneurs and female employees in Kenya. For example, by improving the availability of gender-specific support services. The improvements can lead to:

• Business growth;
• Increased export to regional and EU markets; and 
• More decent employment opportunities for female employees.

This project aims to improve the following for women entrepreneurs:

• Access to finance and related services;
• Access to markets and related services; and
• Gender-responsive service delivery for grassroots women entrepreneurs.

The project also aims to:

• Deliver a functional WEE Ecosystem with a unified voice to promote the export of women's enterprises; and
• Improve sustainability practices for women-led enterprises.
   

Project participants and products

Currently, 1 company participates in the pilot project.

You can contact CBI to find out more or contact these exporters.

Partners

We will work with partners on this project. We are currently selecting partners. 

Activitities 

The project focuses on the following:

Access 2 Finance

• Supporting financing institutes in developing new services for women entrepreneurs or in improving existing ones;
• Supporting women entrepreneurs in preparing to apply for loans.

Access 2 Markets

• Evaluating existing business development services to identify gender gaps and the needs of women;
• Developing a tailored gender-responsive training programme for 3 Trade Support Institutions (TSIs);
•  Developing a work plan for improving services following the developed training programme.

Grassroots

• Supporting women farmers with training programmes on:macadamia farming
  - entrepreneurship
  - self-confidence
  - household decision-making, and 
  - financial literacy;
• Supporting an exporting company that is investing in the macadamia value chain to improve their market competitiveness.

One Voice

• Assessing options for improved partnerships;
• Building a platform to structure partnerships;
• Engaging stakeholders to ensure connections to a broader ecosystem.

Results

The grassroots pilot resulted in significant knowledge growth. And using improved practices throughout all stages of macadamia production. The improvements cover:

• Crop management;
• Pest and disease control;
• Harvesting techniques; and 
• Storage methods

The most distinct result was the switch from traditional harvesting methods. Women farmers mostly appreciated this result.

These changes resulted in a significant improvement in the quality and quantity of the macadamia harvest and a substantial decrease in post-harvest losses. Also, the pilot project boosted women participants' self-confidence and support from key decision-makers, which improved household decision-making and productivity.

Lessons learnt 

• Implementing a phased and tailored training programme proved highly effective in meeting the different literacy levels among women farmers.
• Practical training, including demonstrations and field days, proved a cornerstone for improving learning and farmers' adoption of best practices.
• Integrating gender aspects into training programmes profoundly affected household decision-making dynamics and promoted equity and social inclusion in communities.
• Forming groups among women farmers showed the benefits of collaboration and access to finance. They highlighted the importance of ongoing support for sustainability. 
• Collaboration with local processors, such as Onja Uone, significantly increased the project's impact and community involvement.
• Involving opinion leaders made an important contribution to changing the mindsets within the community toward gender equality and women's empowerment.