Kenya : the role of women in economic development

The approach to women in development in Kenya is substantially different to approaches in other countries as it merges women's issues into its mainstream development program rather than treat them as a specialty. This report assesses rural Kenyan women--their level of education, standard of living, and contributions to agriculture, health and water issues. The typical rural Kenyan women is a farmer, literate, often with an absent husband, but a significantly higher standard of living and more independence than a generation ago. However, most rural families still rely on surface water sources, which often involve traveling long distances daily for water which may be polluted or unsafe. Besides the obvious waterborne disease threat, women also suffer skeletal injuries from transporting heavy water loads. The improvement of water supplies in many areas has lessened the daily time requirement, and resulted in women using their extra time and water for income-generating projects, such as irrigated truck crops. The KWALE project, an illustration of the Kenyan mainstream approach, is presented in detail. This was a community based water project, involving women as managers as well as responsible parties for operation and maintenance, with great success.