Socio-economic empowerment of communities by grassroots organizations: the case of the harambee self help groups in Kenya

This paper contributes to the discourse on grassroots organizations by providing details of research on traditional Harambee Self Help Groups (SHG) in Kenya in the light of social enterprise and third sector discourses. Data for this study were provided by the provincial administration of Riruta Location in Nairobi, Kenya. The location archives were comprised of self-help group registration forms, constitutions, details of dispute processes, correspondence, proposals and minutes. The study found that increases in SHG resource mobilization activities, organizational meetings, governmental recognition (registration), membership and village outreach had a significant positive influence on the number of economic empowerment activities. Decreases in networking and increases in challenges faced by the SHGs had a negative influence on their activity. This study attempts to equate the Harambee SHGs with social enterprises, studies their entrepreneurial dynamic within the Kenyan third sector and examines their historical and current contribution to the country

The local Development dynamics of the third sector in Kenya: the Empowerment Dimension

This dissertation contributes to the local development discourse by presenting a third sector perspective from the Sub Saharan Africa. The study examines the third sector in Kenya using a seven point criteria constructed from various schools of thought. The criteria is made of aspects such as organization, autonomy, profit distribution, governance, degree of voluntarism, contribution to social inclusion and extent of entrepreneurial dynamism. It studies selected third sector organizations that include cooperatives, faith based organizations, non-governmental organizations, micro-finance institutions and self-help groups. The study uses these organizations to understand the contribution of the sector in solving social problems. The study uses different sets of designs, methodologies and data for each of the sections on the third sector actors. In some cases, data are drawn from Kenya Bureau of Statistics, government ministries, UN bodies, the Central Bank of Kenya, and both Kenyan and international public data domains. The section on self-help groups that has been used for empirical analysis uses two sets of data: one from the administrative offices of Riruta Location made of 523 observations and another collected by the researcher from a sample of 122 self-help groups. The former tests success self-rating determinants while the latter tests economic empowerment effects. The study also applies case studies in order to corroborate empirical and statistical findings. A number of findings emanate from the study. First, the traditional cultural way of life and the cooperative activities amongst different ethnic communities provided important initial conditions for the build-up of the third sector in Kenya. Second, the colonial administration played a role in the formation of the modern third sector through their policy on community development and other policies that encouraged cooperation between government and third sector actors in service delivery. Third, in post-independence Kenya, the Harambee concept gave the sector an indigenous image anchored in community dimension, mutual and self-help emphasis. Fourth, the growth of some aspects of this sector suffered as a result of excessive government control between independence to the 2000s. Fifth, World Bank induced changes that swept across Africa in the 1980’s to 2000’s had both positive and negative influence on the sector. Last but not least, the coming to power of a new government in 2002 brought about an increase in the number of civil society actors. The third sector in Kenya helps to fill welfare gaps as a result of minimal, absent or shrinking public service spending. Although the term “third sector” is not commonly used in Kenya, its multiple actors contribute in the promotion of social inclusion of marginalized persons and regions. It helps to empower individuals economically, enhancing civic participation, infrastructure building and social welfare provision. Before 1980s the government controlled the sector closely, in the 1990s however it became more autonomous. The sector is also characterized by an explicit pursuance of a social mission, limited profit distribution and a resource mix approach. Though the policies of most of the sectors actors are quite enabling, the policies governing some of the actors are not conducive. This study is unique in two distinct ways. First, unlike earlier studies which were particularly actor-specific, the study offers a systematic approach to the discourse on the third sector in Kenya with respect to local development. Previous studies looked at the civil societies, non-profit organizations and other individual third sector actors separately. The holistic and systematic approach of this study demonstrates the collective contribution of the third sector in enhancing social welfare and development of the local communities. Secondly, it has explored the challenges faced by the sector which must be redressed in order to sustain its vibrancy. The study did suffer from lack of quality data. However, triangulation was used to ensure that much is learnt from the available data and to overcome any ensuing analytical limitations

Effectiveness of Street Youth Integration in East Africa (English version)

Youth unemployment in Africa challenges governments and development partners alike. This problem is hard to tackle because of the lack of reliable data and related analysis on scale, distribution and complexity of employment, unemployment and livelihood situation as well as effective policies, programmes and approaches for young women and men. Vulnerable groups of youth such as those on the Streets are worst hit by this problem. This study examines the effectiveness of East African institutions in intervening to assist street youth get integrated into the society through acquisition of adequate employment skills or entrepreneurial skills. The study uses a set of data collected by Koinonia Advisory Research and Development Service (KARDS), a community development consultancy in Nairobi, Kenya. The data was collected in 2007 and in 2010. This data is based on the work-activities of street children projects in Nairobi for 122 street children institutions. It was found out that most institutions disengage the children once they become young adults, leaving them to find jobs and to fend for themselves. Unfortunately, by the time the former street youth are disengaged from institutional benefits they may not have adequate skills for competitiveness in the job markets. This fact underscores the fact that the rehabilitation programmes have less abilities toimpart adequate community and societal integration skills to the former street youth. There is therefore a need to develop other interventions such as work integration social enterprises (WISE) that would assist the young adults to become independent while helping them deal with barriers inhibiting their competitiveness, ability to get employed, become entrepreneurial and ultimately be able to reintegrate effectively back into the society.Street Youth, Integration, Reintegration, WISE