Challenges Faced by the Women Enterprise Fund in Kenya A Survey of Hamisi Constituency, Vihiga County- Kenya

Access to microcredit has been identified as a principal element for micro entrepreneurs to succeed in their drive to build productive capacity, to create jobs and contribute to poverty alleviation in developing countries. However access to finance for the rural poor especially women has not been easy. This is because women in Kenya experience social and economic discrimination because of the patriarchal nature of the Kenyan society. The Kenyan government acknowledges that women have not been at par with their male counterparts and therefore special provisions have been made for gender mainstreaming. To stimulate economic activity and growth, and to ultimately reduce unemployment, the Kenyan government has placed emphasis in the development and expansion of microenterprise, more specifically the women run enterprises. This has been made possible with the introduction of the women enterprise fund. This study therefore sought to establish the challenges faced by women who access the women enterprise fund. The survey research conducted in Hamisi constituency used interview schedules to collect data from 145 respondents. The data was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively and presented through frequency tables and percentages. The study found out that WEF faced numerous challenges both at the lender and borrower level. This affected the effectiveness of the fund. This study concluded that the challenges faced need to be addressed to enhance the effectiveness of the programme. It recommends the WEF should increase loan sizes, improve staffing, work out ways of providing individual loans though group lending and sensitize men to get involved. Keywords: Constituency women enterprise scheme (C-WES), Microcredit, Microenterprise, Revolving loan fund.

Combined household and GIS analysis of farmer strategies: an application to feeding practices on smallholder Kenyan dairy farms

Traditional studies of agricultural technology adoption have long been constrained by a limited ability to include spatially-differentiated data. Typically, crude proxies or location dummy variables are used to approximate spatial effects. GIS tools, however, now allow spatially explicit data to be included in household econometric models of technology adoption. This paper describes a study that combined GIS and survey variables to examine the cattle feeding strategies on farms in highland Kenya. Data from a large geo-referenced household survey were combined with GIS-derived variables to comprehensively evaluate the spatial, agro-ecological, market and farm resource factors that determine variability of feeding strategies on smallholder dairy farms. Roads, urban populations, milk collection and processing facilities were digitised, and integrated with spatial coverages of agro-ecology. These were then combined, using econometric methods, to quantify the main spatial and local determinants of the probability of adoption of: a) stall feeding or zero-grazing, and b) planted fodder in the form of Napier grass. The results show the influence not only of agro-ecology, but also of market infrastructure and support services on the adoption of improved feeding strategies. A comparison of predicted uptake using GIS and household variables shows that after first calibrating GIS-derived variables through a household survey, broad but reliable predictions of technology uptake in other areas may be possible

La sustentabilidad agricola: un análisis jerárquico

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