| USAID/Kenya’s
Agriculture and Micro-enterprise program supports efforts
to (a) increase rural household incomes by enhancing
agricultural productivity of selected commodities,
(b) increase trade and market efficiencies, (c) increase
access to financial and business development services,
and (d) strengthen the capacity of smallholder business
organizations. Rural households in Kenya are characterized
by inequality in the distribution of, access to, and
control over agricultural production resources, the
division of responsibilities, labor, and benefits,
and decision-making power across gender and other socio-cultural
lines. These inequalities are similarly reflected in
producer organizations and shape interaction and governance
within these organizations. To overcome gender and
socio-cultural constraints that impede the achievement
of lasting results, the Mission uses gender mainstreaming
in planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating
all of its projects.
From “Farming as a business” to “Farming as a family business”
Business Development Services (BDS)
Horticulture Development Centre (HDC)
Women’s Nutribusiness Project
From “Farming as a business” to “Farming as a family business”
A 2004 gender analysis, conducted by ACDI/VOCA as part of USAID/Kenya’s
Maize Development Program, led to the redesign of the
Mission’s “Farming
as a Business” project. The analysis found that the root cause for slow
or failed adoption of improved farming business practices
and technologies is centered within family relationships and communication
patterns. Analysts saw that information about improved practices and technologies
provided to the project’s predominantly male participants were rarely shared
with female members of the household, who are also involved in the family
farms. This resulted in male members of the household taking women’s time,
skills, labor, and overall contributions to the family business for granted
and underutilizing them. Renaming the project “Farming as a Family Business,” project
implementers are emphasizing the need to foster collective
efforts between men and women in planning and managing family farm enterprises
so as to maximize household profits.
Business Development Services (BDS)
The objective of the Kenya BDS project is to increase access to commercial business development services among rural micro- and small enterprises (MSEs) operating in high growth potential sub-sectors. The project integrates gender at all levels of implementation by setting aside 20 percent of selection points for incorporating female participants in the supply chain when scoring and ranking potential business sub-sectors. This ensures that the business tenders for the requested interventions explicitly encourage the participation of women’s MSEs in the sub-sector and holds each MSE to specific contract performance benchmarks for incorporating gender issues.
Horticulture Development Centre (HDC)
The USAID-supported Horticulture Development Centre is helping many smallholder horticulture farmers diversify to higher value products and adopt improved production practices. HDC beneficiaries, over 50 percent of whom are women, report that in less than two years their profit margins have increased considerably. For example, Felistus Hato from the Thika district explained that, “with HDC’s technical assistance, I am able to produce more efficiently and am now focusing on products with higher market demand.”
One of HDC’s first “lead farmer partners,” Felistus donated a portion of her farm for an HDC demonstration plot and then adopted many of the farming practices she saw demonstrated there. She has diversified her crops to include higher value products such as African Bird’s Eye chilies, hybrid tomatoes, red onions, passion fruit, and improved varieties of capsicum peppers. As a result, her gross sales have increased by 30 percent and her net profits by 38 percent. Felistus has hired 10 full-time and 13 part-time employees to work on her farm, moving from subsistence farming to operating on a commercial scale. With 27 of her neighbors, Felistus also has formed the “Mwitithia Women Self Help Group.” The group has been subcontracted by Mace Foods, a Kenyan exporting company, to supply it with African Bird’s Eye chilies. After collectively planting nearly 8,000 African Bird’s Eye chili seedlings, members of the group are helping each other follow Felilstus in diversifying their crops to include additional high value products.
Women’s Nutribusiness Project
Supported by a grant from USAID/Egypt, Pennsylvania State
University, Tuskeegee University, and the University
of Nairobi initiated the Women’s Nutribusiness
Community Development project. The project’s objective is to help increase
women’s
economic status while improving nutrition among infants
and the nutritionally vulnerable in target communities.
Using a participatory approach, the project established
two Nutribusiness Cooperatives in Bomet and Muranga districts
of Kenya and engaged over 1,500 women as shareholders.
The project developed a nutrimix formula for two products—Tupcho and Bascot—from
samples of weaning foods used by women in these districts.
These products are made from locally available raw materials,
are culturally acceptable, and have been approved by
the Kenya Bureau of Standards. The women process, market,
and sell the products in local markets.
With the increased buying and investment ability generated from the project, women have the power to improve economic growth in their regions. As one professor from Penn State noted, the Project shows women how to add value to their crops and sell them “in a way that can also improve the health and nutrition of children in the area.” Following the lead of the Bomet and Muranga district cooperatives, women living in the Makueni and Mbeere districts have established two similar cooperatives under the guidance of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI).
Kenya's Program Objectives
Democracy & Governance
Agriculture & Micro-Enterprise
Natural Resource Management
Education
Health
Selected Activities
The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA)
From “Farming as a business” to “Farming as a family business”
Business Development Services (BDS)
Horticulture Development Centre (HDC)
Women’s Nutribusiness Project
Coral Garden Boardwalk
Beads for Education
Ambassador’s Girls Scholarship Programs
Kenya Girl Guides as Peer Educators
Kenya’s Rapid Response Fund
Visit USAID/Kenya link to the
mission
Global Snapshots: Kenya
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