Kenya

Two major approaches on how to address women's land security can be identified: reforming the formal legal sector, and embracing informal community practices. However,... Show More + through research conducted among Kenya's agricultural communities, the authors find that these systems formal, informal, or hybrid are underpinned (and undermined) by the same local power dynamics that control and ultimately prevent women from obtaining land, leaving all of these systems inadequate in ensuring women's access to land. Community leaders play a key role not only as local power brokers, decision makers, and protectors of local practices, but also as gatekeepers to the formal system. Thus, their decisions to support local power dynamics and limit access to the formal system essentially supporting traditions? in lieu of rights can effectively deny women access to their land rights. Based on these findings, the authors argue that the policy debate must shift away from pitting formal legislative approaches against support for 'customary' systems. With economic and political contexts influencing individuals, the debate must look at the social context within communities, whose members must be pressed to reject attempts to 'hijack' custom and legitimize abusive, self-serving behavior. This problem needs to be tackled using the same avenues that currently promote the marginalization of women, that is, the sociocultural value systems that determine which behavior, arguments, and actions are legitimate in a community. By working with existing positive values, the justice system used formal or informal becomes less important and a lasting, positive change on women's access to land rights might be achieved. Show Less -

This report evaluates best practices for Jatropha feedstock production, international experience with Jatropha as a biodiesel, and a business model concept outline for... Show More + Kenya. The report concludes that the market risk is considerable, unless producers receive price and delivery guarantees or the government introduces a biofuel policy requiring petroleum companies to sell only diesel blended with 5 to 10 percent biodiesel. For a sustainable Jatropha-based biodiesel project to be realized, a business and marketing plan has to be developed before the design of the carbon finance component can be developed. Carbon finance can only contribute to making a project viable; it cannot be used to generate the main cash flow. Show Less -

At independence in 1963, Kenya inherited a relatively open and export-oriented economy with a policy environment that was favorable to the agricultural sector. Unlike... Show More + many other developing countries, the ruling elite in Kenya had strong links to agriculture and implemented policies that supported both smallholder and large-scale producers. For most of the next 20 years the agricultural sector thrived, the economy in general grew, and the country enjoyed political stability. In contrast, the second 20 years of independence were marked by agricultural and economic stagnation and persistent struggles with corruption and other forms of poor governance. In recent years there have been signs of recovery and growth in both agriculture and the economy generally. This chapter first reviews major developments in the structure of the Kenyan economy and summarizes economic policies up to independence. It then presents measures of policy-induced price distortions over the 1963-2004 period. Distortions are measured through estimated rates of assistance based on comparisons of domestic commodity prices with undistorted world market prices. Finally, the paper links changes in rates of protection and disprotection to the evolution of various policies over the same period. Show Less -

The World Bank's Justice for the Poor (J4P) research program is a multi-country study that seeks to develop an empirically-based understanding of how the poor or excluded... Show More + navigate through local justice systems, in order to inform and evaluate innovative efforts at local-level justice reform. The program recognizes that rules systems that most affect the poor frequently fall outside of formal justice structures, and that efforts that focus solely on formal institutions, while valuable, can exclude large segments of the population. The J4P approach focuses on the demand side of justice reform, seeking to understand the perspective of the poor and marginalized. It considers the role local value systems play in determining how people perceive and interact with justice, the formal and informal institutions, the locally-developed and externally-influenced. It also analyzes the ways in which local power and authority structures are perceived and gain legitimacy. Building an understanding of local traditions and realities, as well as resources that affect decisions about whether and where to pursue justice, can enable more effective targeting and programming for poor and marginalized populations. Show Less -

Voices of women entrepreneurs in Kenya is based on interviews and focus group discussions carried out in Nairobi, Mombassa, and Wote in November 2005 and March 2006.... Show More + The Kenyan government recognizes that women have not been on an equal footing when it comes to their access to opportunities and assets. The study examines the reasons for these differences in performance of women entrepreneurs through a series of conversations with businesswomen. This report is designed to be used as an advocacy tool, together with the publication, Gender and Economic Growth Assessment in Kenya, which examines the legal, administrative, and regulatory barriers that are preventing women in Kenya from contributing fully to the economy, and which includes a matrix with specific recommendations for addressing the identified barriers. The report starts with an overview of the women's business community in Kenya. Mirroring Gender and Economic Growth Assessment in Kenya, this is followed by an analysis of women's access to property, land and finance. Chapters four, five, and six discuss women's access to justice, access to the formal sector, and the impact of international trade. The report concludes by looking at networking and advocacy as venues for taking the needed reforms forward. Show Less -

The identification of agricultural microfinance as a significant remaining challenge to financial sectors that serve the majority of the poor spurred CGAP to undertake... Show More + an analysis of current practices. The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) in 2002 began desk research, consultant site visits, and stakeholder consultations to identify promising agricultural lending operations. Case studies were selected and are outlined here as representative examples that merit dissemination. These case studies present promising approaches to the sustainable provision of financial services to poor rural households reliant on agriculture. The five institutions or projects highlighted in the studies are: Bai Tushum Financial Foundation (Bai Tushum), Kyrgyzstan; Caja Los Andes, Bolivia ; Confinanza, Peru ; Cooperative League of the USA (CLUSA), Mozambique; and Equity Bank, Limited (Equity), Kenya. Each case study begins with basic information about the institution's history and goes on to present a set of key challenges and responses related to agricultural or rural finance operations. A brief institutional assessment of the financial provider is then followed by information on donor and investor support, plus a section on lessons learned. Show Less -

The first objective of this study was to provide an accurate understanding of the organization of logistics from the farmer to the main centers in two districts, Kisumu... Show More + and Nyandarua; that is the sequence of the supply chain and participants. This sequence has implications on the revenues and income levels of the farmer and the prices of the final product, given the status of infrastructure. The second objective was to reconstitute a value chain that allocates costs to various steps in the logistical sequence as specified in the Terms of Reference (TOR). The difficulty in this exercise is that most participants have no formal accounting with a detailed breakdown of operational costs. There costs have to be estimated indirectly, based on figures that participants can provide on earnings and payments. Also, some of the participants in the value chain were quite reluctant to talk to the author for a number of reasons, one being fear, that is fear that their livelihood would be jeopardized, that was mainly the middlemen and small traders in the market places. The policy implication for a country such as Kenya whose agricultural sector is dominated by small holders is that they should invest in rural road infrastructure improvements. However, the government is in deep fiscal crisis and might not afford the high cost of major rural infrastructure investments. Show Less -

The objective of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Gender and Diversity (G&D) Program is to institutionalize the leadership, skills,... Show More + policies and norms that will ensure the CG centers' capacities to work with and capture the full benefits of staff diversity. The G&D Program is designed to be a CGIAR Center-driven initiative, with the central program office providing cutting-edge training, management consulting and technical assistance, information and other services to strengthen 'working with diversity' in complex international, multicultural settings. This working paper includes the following heading: notes on the workshop, 'CGIAR centers working with diversity for impact and excellence'; diversity workshop follow-up plans; list of workshop participants; workshop panelists bio-notes; workshop agenda; definitions of diversity; what is a problematic moment? Organizational change and diversity intervention matrix; from monocultural to multicultural organizations: a development path; the micro-lens: a multicultural organization development assessment tool; and strategic action planning forms. Show Less -

Gender issues, particularly with respect to women's status and rights, have for a considerable period, been in the forefront of donors' dialogue on social issues with... Show More + Africa. While Africa countries have fully acknowledged the seriousness of the issues and the urgent need for action, the dialogue has been largely donor-driven and issues and priorities been donor-set. Recognizing the need for a new approach in this important area for Africa's progress, the Bank, in collaboration with the Economic Commission for Africa, initiated a Gender and Law Program, in October 1997, at a Conference held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Program shifts responsibility for identification and implementation of themes, issues, and priorities to in-country stakeholders rather than with donors. During the Conference, each country delegation voiced its priorities for change. The issues included land-related challenges, family law, violence against women, employment and labor, and decentralized governance frameworks. Land and the division of household property are prime areas where gender-based disparities marginalize and disenfranchise women of Eastern Africa. In an effort to improve women's social and economic life, two main themes emerged: the impact of customary laws and practices and the need for effective implementation. The delegates emphasized the need to initiate action for change at grassroots, institutional, and policy making levels. Show Less -

Agricultural extension programs based on the Training and Visit (T&V) system are operating in some thirty-one Sub-Saharan African countries. Evidence from Kenya and... Show More + Burkina Faso shows that T&V management enhance the effectiveness of extension and that such programs support agricultural growth and produce high returns on investments. The data indicate that areas served by extension have higher yields and that within these areas the highest yields are achieved by farmers who participate directly in extension activities. As a result, extension helps to close the gap between die yields attainable with existing technologies and those actually realized by farmers. Closing this gap improves agricultural productivity in the short run, but long-term increases in output in Sub-Saharan Africa will depend on the development of improved technologies that are relevant to local conditions. Show Less -