Outcome RD_D_2.1

Productivity of women in the agricultural value-chain increased

In 2021, there was increased productivity of women in various agricultural value chains. This was a result of Kenya’s commitment to revitalizing the agriculture sector as it was hit by compounding effects of consecutive below-average rainfall seasons on crop and livestock production, coupled with the protracted effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy. The agricultural sector is the backbone of the economy, contributing approximately 33percent of Kenya’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The agriculture sector employs more than 40percent of the total population and 70percent of the rural population. According to the World Bank, women make up 80percent of Kenya's farmers. In 2020, the Agriculture sector recorded mixed performance. Sector growth decelerated to 5.4percent compared to 3.0percent in 2019. In 2021, the agricultural sector grew by 2.6percent. The overall value of marketed agricultural production increased by 9.3 per cent from KSh 466.3 billion in 2019/2020 to KSh 509.7 billion in 2020/2021 (Economic Survey, 2021). UN Women contributed to the growth through enabling policies and supporting rural women farmers to adopt gender-responsive CSA. Through the Women Economic Empowerment (WEE)-CSA programme, UN Women engaged three county governments in ASAL areas, namely Kitui, Laikipia and West Pokot to strengthen their climate-smart and gender-responsive practices within existing policies, CIDPs and frameworks. The WEE-CSA programme built a strong partnership with the three county governments working with 10 Officers (National government), 110 Officers at the County level and 60 members of the County Assembly to provide linkages to the national government’s guidelines and policies, influence policy, provide extension services and ensure relevant policies are adopted at the county level. 1,428 rural women in the 3 counties are participating actively in agricultural value chains in 2021 for higher incomes. Strengthening and improving the performance of the agricultural sector and enabling the engagement of the poorest and most vulnerable was a prerequisite and a necessary condition by UN Women for achieving recovery and growth in Kenya in 2021 after recent years of drought and slow development.

Productivity of women in the agricultural value-chain increased

Three ASAL counties of Kitui, Laikipia , and West Pokot has made some progress in increasing the productivity of women in select agricultural value chains in 2022. 2,391 beneficiaries (Female: 2,002, Male: 389) adopted 15 CSA technologies and 15 CSA practices on 1,598 hectares of farmland. Additionally, 969 women established agribusinesses in select agricultural value chains in crop and livestock production and apiculture. As such, 419 women from 23 farmer groups aggregated and sold their produce making USD 17,640. Beneficiaries reported improved income, nutrition, and food security at the household level. This was partly attributed to the adoption of appropriate gender-transformative CSA technologies vertical and sunken kitchen gardens and improved locally made multi-use brooders for indigenous chicken production. A 30% increase in agricultural productivity is projected by the end of the project in 2023, due to the adoption of CSA technologies and practices by the beneficiaries. UN Women, in partnership with Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Village enterprise, GROOTS Kenya, Hand-in-Hand Eastern Africa, and Anglican Development Services Eastern (ADSE) contributed to strengthening the existing aggregation and supply chain mechanisms, particularly through linking beneficiary groups to input suppliers (seeds, chicks, pesticides, finance, and machinery), aggregators and buyers of their agricultural products. UN Women also focused on building the capacity of women in gender-responsive agriculture value chains (crops and livestock) as well as in financial literacy to help achieve increased access to markets and information. Additionally, UN Women strengthened the capacity of the target women to produce within the changing climate by training them on leadership, advocacy, and gender dynamics. As a result, the women successfully advocated and influenced the inclusion of gender-responsive CSA into county-integrated development plans (CIDPs III). For instance, Laikipia County increased budget allocation for gender and social protection by 4%. The other two counties have also integrated women, youth and PWD focused interventions in their CIDPs. Lessons Learned: There is a need to take a holistic and value-chain approach to increase the productivity of women and youth in agriculture. In addition to strengthening the capacity of women and youth as agricultural producers, efforts should also be made to increase their participation in other agricultural value-chain nodes e.g., value-addition and agro-processing, etc. More efforts should be put into interventions that promote women’s access to credit and markets and linkage made to existing government affirmative procurement and fund programmes e.g., Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO), National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF) etc.