WOMEN BUSINESS HUB -KENYA

Women Business Hub Self-reliance Programme is engaging indigent women and youth to interrogate their social and economic abilities as individuals, a household or a community so that they could work towards meeting their essential needs (including protection, food, water, shelter, personal safety, health and education) in a sustainable manner and with dignity. 

Women small traders as Food Entrepreneurs play very important role in the food and nutrition security among the urban dwellers of Kisumu City. However, Social-economic and political deprivations, gender inequalities, and environmental precariousness undermine their economic viability and sustainability of their entrepreneurship. Women Small traders are stuck in survival entrepreneurship. Through Strategic Partnerships, Women Business Hub is developing a tailor made course on “Starting and Growing My Business” for women and youth working towards Self-Reliance  

  Majority of Women and Youth in Western Kenya are faced with socio-economic challenges similar to those being experienced by other communities in the rest of Kenya. Some of these challenges include increased household poverty and high unemployment rates. Unemployment has become an issue that also affects graduates who are equipped with the education and knowledge that was considered appropriate for formal labour markets in the past. This is made evident by the increasing statistics of the relatively well educated individuals practicing Survivalist Entrepreneurship in the absence of formal employment in Kenya as a whole. Women Business Hub has designed tailor made capacity building and mentorships on How to Start and Growing my Business for Self Reliance.

  Digital Technology is now providing women and youth small business owners with alternatives in their day-to-day management of their businesses.   small business owners are not tied at their Business premises in order to do their work and stay in the loop waiting for customers. However, through their mobile phones, they are reaching their customers and delivering goods and products at the door steps. ICT is also helping them build strong systems for record keeping, financial literacy and banking.    

Many young people in Western Kenya region are putting their life skills into use to help them fend for their families. However, economy is dwindling thus putting them in much desperate situation of selling their artifacts at a throw away price. According to the UN report on SDG 1 - No Poverty; Globally, the number of people living in extreme poverty declined from 36% in 1990 to 10% in 2015. But the pace of change is decelerating and the COVID-19 crisis risks reversing decades of progress in the fight against poverty. Poor Women and youth are most at risk during – and in the aftermath – of the pandemic, not only as a health crisis but as a devastating social and economic crisis over the months and years to come. Women Business Hub is constantly working with indigent Women and Youth to continuously apply creative thinking, use digital technology as a market strategy to help their ideas and businesses to stay alive.

  Because agriculture is the main occupation in the villages, indigent Women and Youth need to survive on this in a sustainable way by offering them adequate information to improve their production and market flow to reduce post-harvest losses.   Agriculture provides basic raw food which will be processed by food processing industries and converts it into packaged food and flood into markets. Without providing rural farmers with adequate information, technology and Finance, food in security will still remain a global challenge.