“ACCELERATING RURAL WOMEN’S ACCESS TO AGRICULTURAL MARKETS AND TRADE” Public Disclosure Authorized 95026 Project Progress Report October, November & December 2014 Public Disclosure Authorized Woman farmers explains use of biocides during the opening ceremony of the UN Women regional Sharefair in Nairobi Women farmers receive cement bags in Kitui Public Disclosure Authorized GK staff during the learning visit at one of CIDI’s sites in Kampala, Women farmers in Kitui receive iron sheets Uganda Public Disclosure Authorized Prepared by: GROOTS Kenya January 2015 [GROOTS Kenya December 2014 Report] “Accelerating Rural Women’s Access to Agricultural Markets and Trade” PROJECT BRIEF 1) The “Accelerating Rural Women’s Access to Agricultural Markets and Trade” project is a three year initiative, launched in July 2012 and funded from the Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) through the World Bank, Kenya Country office. The project is being implemented by GROOTS Kenya Association. 2) The Project Development Objective (PDO) is to contribute to women’s economic empowerment and improve livelihoods through enhanced agricultural production and access to markets. The underlying rationale is to equip women with relevant knowledge and skills as well as enhance their leadership and organizational capabilities to enable them become drivers of their own social and economic transformation. The target beneficiaries are 3,400 rural women in two vulnerable areas in Kenya, namely 2,700 in Nakuru County in the Rift Valley and 700 women in Kitui County, Eastern Kenya. 3) Nakuru County is located in the former Rift Valley Province and is an agriculturally- oriented area, with a large number of subsistence farmers, who are mainly comprised of Kalenjin, Kikuyu and Kisii ethnic communities. It is the fourth largest county in Kenya and divided into nine (9) sub-counties. The project is being implemented in three sub-counties, namely Molo, Kuresoi North and Kuresoi South (for ease of reference, the 3 areas shall be called Molo). Historical settlement patterns, in which non-indigenous ethnic communities settled and farmed in the area, made this region become a conflict hotspot. Over the years, periodic outbreaks of inter-ethnic violence have caused deaths. Displacement of large numbers of people has become a common occurrence in this region. The county is traditionally known to be one of the high yield agricultural regions in Kenya. Nonetheless, farmers in the region have claimed to now experience unpredictable rain patterns characterised by unusual long dry spells, torrential falls and hailstorms as well as severe attack of crop diseases. 4) Kitui County is in the former Eastern Province of Kenya. Kitui County is now divided into eight (8) administrative sub-counties but the project is implemented in three sub-counties, namely Kitui Central, Kitui Rural1 and Kitui West sub-counties (for ease of reference, the areas shall be called Kitui). The climate in Kitui is semi-arid. A large majority of the residents belong to the Kamba ethnic group and are native to the area. 5) The “Accelerating Rural Women’s Access to Agricultural Markets and Trade” project is being implemented by GROOTS Kenya using the value chain approach with a focus on three enterprises, namely horticulture, dairy and indigenous poultry. Specifically, in Molo the selected sectors are horticulture and dairy while in Kitui, they are horticulture and indigenous poultry farming. 6) The project has five major components, namely: 1 The former Lower Yatta sub-county has been renamed Kitui Rural [GROOTS Kenya December 2014 Report] “Accelerating Rural Women’s Access to Agricultural Markets and Trade” Page 1 a) To organize women farmers to work collectively in order to economically empower and improve their livelihood; b) To enhance women farmers’ lobbying and advocacy capacities for essential services and factors of production; c) To enhance women farmers’ business capacities and facilitate market linkages; d) To empower women to increase access to microfinance facilities to improve enterprise performance; e) Project management, monitoring and evaluation. 7) GROOTS Kenya (GK), which stands for Grassroots Organizations Operating Together in Sisterhood, is the implementing partner of this project. Founded in 1995, GROOTS Kenya is a network of community-based organizations and self-help groups that are women led. It was formed in response to the near absence of grassroots women in development processes and decision- making forums, which affect them and their communities. GROOTS Kenya’s theory of change is to shift the perception of the role played by grassroots women in rural and urban poor communities from vulnerable victimized recipients of goods and services to empowered and effective leaders mastering development mainly through movement building, leadership and advocacy. A. PROJECT STATUS 8) This progress report is for the period October 2014 to December 2014. Annex 1 contains the updated project results matrix. Annex 2 is a selection of photographs of activities carried out during this period while Annex 3 and 4 contain activity reports and attendance lists respectively (due to the size of documents, annexes 2 to 4 are sent on a CD-ROM). 9) Increased men for women support in both Kitui and Molo as evidenced by the willingness of men to allow women to access and control production assets such as land. Women are increasingly involved in decision making at the household level as men now appreciate the increased yields and incomes resulting from their participation in project. In Kuresoi South for example, women are active participants in determining how much land will be used to grow animal fodder and the day to day management of the dairy animal. Additionally, upon issuance of BNF items, men have increasingly supported women through constructing improved poultry houses. 10) There is continued recognition of the different capacities of the women farmers by duty bearers and stakeholders. As such, women farmers are involved in processes within the Counties such as their participation in the World Food Day celebrations in Nakuru and Kitui Counties on the 16th October 2014. Their increased capacities has seen women leaders participate in international dialogues (UN Regional Sharefair 2014, between the 15th and 17th October at the UN Gigiri complex) to speak as the voice of rural women on issues affecting their agricultural production. 11) Women farmers, market champions and lead entrepreneurs have developed strategies to strengthen their collective marketing to ensure that profits are enjoyed by the producer as well as the marketer in appreciation of one another’s roles. They have also been actively engaged in obtaining markets for their agricultural produce following the training received in [GROOTS Kenya December 2014 Report] “Accelerating Rural Women’s Access to Agricultural Markets and Trade” Page 2 the previous quarter. During this reporting period, market champions supported by the project conducted a total of 10 market visits. Positive feedback from the visits indicates that women farmers will have contracts for supply of agricultural produce in the next quarter. 12) Lead entrepreneurs have undergone individual coaching to strengthen their enterprise development plans. Gaps identified will be strengthened with training in the next quarter. The lead entrepreneurs will provide guidance for other women farmers interested in establishing enterprises, even after the project period. 13) Women have continued with savings in their groups and provide small loans to their group members to improve their agricultural production. Moreover, eleven (11) groups in Nakuru and Kitui have qualified for UWEZO funds and have undergone training on its use. This will further increase their access to finance and growth of their farm production. 14) The project team has rolled out the disbursement of the Basic Need Fund (BNF) in both Nakuru and Kitui Counties. The process is almost complete in Kitui and 594 women have received all items as requested in the individual BNF application form. The items were distributed on various dates between the 27th October and 2nd December 2014. Some of the items distributed in the poultry value chain include: construction materials for poultry houses (Iron sheet, doors, nails, roofing nails, chicken wire, drinkers and feeders), chicks, pullets and cocks. In the horticulture value chains, some of the items distributed include: Jembes (hoes), water tanks, horse pipes, seeds, spraying cans, wheel barrows and agrochemicals. Most women farmers have utilized the BNF items to harvest water and construct improved poultry houses. The project will finalize on the procurement of the BNF items in Kitui in the next quarter. In Nakuru County, the distribution of BNF items started on the 10th December 2014, and is ongoing; the initial distribution was for farm inputs to support the dairy value chain; construction materials for cow sheds (cement, iron sheets, posts, nails, troughs, wheelbarrows and many more). The remaining items are largely for the horticulture value chain; seeds and agrochemicals. 15) The women farmers have embraced the use of the project based Management Information System to document their progress and track their successes. The participatory monitoring has provided a suitable challenge for the individuals and groups as they can easily track their successes. However, there is need for a refresher training to strengthen their documentation . B. KEY ACHIEVEMENTS AND HIGHLIGHTS 16) This