USAID/Kenya agribusiness strategy : gender analysis and recommendations for action

Key issues covered include: gender implications of SO 2.0; the agriculture and NRM sectors in Kenya; farmers and farm characteristics, including production trends and delivery systems; and microenterprises (MSEs) and women"s associations. Action recommendations are presented in five areas. (1) At the policy level, the Mission should work to: prioritize smallholder agriculture, in which women predominate; liberalize the private sector, redress women"s disadvantaged situation in the MSE sector; secure land use rights and equal pay for women; and collect gender-disaggregated data as a consciousness-raising strategy. (2) In regard to training and skills development, efforts should focus on business skills training, especially for enterprises that are owned and operated by women, and training in agricultural inputs for suppliers and users. (3) USAID should collaborate with NGOs and private entities, such as banks, to identify formal opportunities to link farmers, especially women farmers, with a source of commercial credit and a buyer for their produce that does not require them to work through cooperative societies or other public institutions. (4) To combat marketing and input constraints to the development of commercial enterprises by women farmers and entrepreneurs in Kenya, the Mission should consider: involving NGOs in carrying out market research as a non-financial service; promoting contract farming not only for provision of credit but also for marketing and direct supply of inputs; identifying new kinds of medium and small enterprises that are linked to agriculture; and promoting social marketing in order to create demand for products that are new, poorly understood, and/or expensive. (5) Efforts should be made to involve more women"s groups in income-generating activities, especially to function as cooperatives or to facilitate bulk purchasing, and to form contract farming entities.