Role of women enterprise fund on improving food security of women in Karapul sub location, Siaya sub county, Kenya

Abstract

The microenterprise sector has emerged as a major strategy to address the issues of unemployment and poverty challenging most developing economies in the world. Women are the overwhelming majority of poor people and when women have an income, substantial evidence indicates that the income is more likely to boost food security at the household level. The Government of Kenya introduced the Women Enterprise Fund (WEF) in 2009 in order to promote women socio-economic empowerment. Karapul Sub-location has the highest number of women who have received the WEF in Siaya Township Ward yet it is not clear why reports from the department of Agriculture continue to indicate that the location leads in food insecurity. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of WEF on food security of women in Karapul Sub-location of Siaya Sub-County. Specifically, the study sought to find out the contribution of WEF on food access, examine the influence of WEF on food availability and to find out how WEF affects dietary diversity of women in Karapul Sub location. The study was guided by the Capability theory by Amartya Sen which emphasizes the importance of considering social and environmental variations in analysis of impact of programs. This study used cross sectional research design. The target population was 551 women from all women groups that received the WEF between the years 2011 to 2014.Simple random sampling was used to select 155 respondents which is 30% of the target population. The Chief Township location and the Constituency Women Enterprise Fund Officer were purposively selected as key informants. The study used triangulation of mixed methods that included questionnaires, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21 was used to run descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentages so as to present the quantitative data in form of tables, pie charts and bar graphsbased on the major research questions. Qualitative data was summarized, grouped and ranked accordingly noting the similarities and differences in the responses from the interviews and presented in narration.Findings of this study showed that an improvement in the food security of women was determined by the social variations and environmental diversity of the individual women. Women in formal employment at 67 per cent reported that theycould consume three meals in a daysame to those with established businesses at 38 per cent. Delay in release of loans affected women doing farming who depend on seasonssimilar to those who targeted certain peak periods to sell their products. Women who did group projects at 38.1 per cent reported to have increased food access due to higher returns from their businesses. Findings alsoindicate a big disparity in the varieties of food eaten to constitute a nutritious diet with more consumption of cereals and food from animal sources.Thisstudy recommends that emphasis should be laid on group projects to maximize profits and increase incomes. The WEF secretariat should ensure timely disbursement of funds and the GOK in its Food Security and Nutrition policy should increase farm inputs of women engaged in farming to ensure WEF improves their food security.