ABSTRACT
Self-help groups help a great deal in empowering members involved so as to improve their livelihood. Self-help groups help in poverty alleviation, empowering participants socially, economically and politically. Lately, issues related to women self-help groups have gained grounds and Kenya has not been left behind on the issue since the government and other agencies have been on the frontline encouraging its citizens, more so women, to be part and parcel of self-help groups which are the vehicles that lead to development. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of self-help groups strategies on women empowerment projects focusing on caritas self-help group land buying project in the roman catholic archdiocese of Nairobi, in Nairobi county, Kenya. The objectives of the study were to determine influence of resources on women empowerment projects; to establish the extent to which capacity building influence women empowerment projects and to assess the extent to which social capital influence women empowerment projects. The study targeted a population of 100 registered members of caritas self-help group in the roman catholic archdiocese of Nairobi, in Nairobi county, Kenya, while the sample size was 50 respondents who were selected using simple random sampling. Questionnaire was employed to collect data from the respondents. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data collected and the findings presented in the tabular form. The findings revealed that resources influenced women empowerment projects with a positive strong correlation of (1=0.616), capacity building with a positive strong correlation of (r=0.606) while social capital with a positive strong correlation of (r=0.69). The study therefore concluded that all the three variables that is resources, capacity building and social capital strongly and positively influence women empowerment projects. The study therefore recommends that; NGOs and CBOs to empower the community primarily with education so they can be able to overcome challenges hindering women empowerment projects development. Equally, the women should take advantage of capacity building opportunities that are already available in the media, internet, trade fairs and public gatherings to enrich their abilities to run and manage their own projects hence empowerment and finally, policy makers should come up with more funding strategies for women projects to favour women empowerment projects access credit easily.
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
The current world‟s population, which refers to the total number of people living in the world as per to date, is estimated to be around 7.77 billion people according to United Nations Development Programme, UNDP. It is said the first billion was reached around the year 1800 and in a matter of 200 years, the world‟s population reached 7 billion and counting. As we speak, the world‟s population is increasing at a rate of 90 million annually. This escalating growth has been driven mainly by the increased number of people surviving to reproductive age, due to major changes in fertility rates, increasing urbanization and accelerating migration. From these numbers it was deduced that the world‟s sex ratio was 101 males to 100 females according to United Nations Population Division, with the median age of the population being 30 years going by 2018 estimates. The United Nation claims that 70% of this population has settled in 20 most populous countries in the world and we got two countries, China and India being the most populous with a population of over 1 billion people.
Having such a thin sex ratio between males to females, in different parts of the world women live in under privileged conditions with a perfect sample drawn from India which is a patriarchal society. Aderinto (2001) states that women worldwide face discriminations and subordination in the society with subordination of women being more noticeable in the developing countries in the continents of Asia and Africa. Howard (1985) states that rural women are mainly discriminated against in different ways such as employment opportunities, access to social and productive resources, education, health status, making of family decisions, and so on. Such inequalities bring affect to women in a great way and does not in any way bring about socio economic development. Nevertheless, rural women in third world countries have been found to play a critical role in agricultural development. As a result, there is need to do away with inequality in the society and have both genders empowered to fully and actively participate in the development agenda.
In doing so, various strategies have been employed worldwide to reduce inequality and have those discriminated against as well as the minority empowered, more so the women. Initially
before promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women, women were assumed to undertake household chores, rear and raise children and they were not supposed to bother themselves with any activity that happens outside their homes (Tsai, Chin-Chung & Gwo-Jen Hwang, 2013). Absence of empowerment, and more so lack of knowledge has excluded women in participating in the economic, social and political development hindering the women to fully realize their potential. As a result, the UN Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 and the World Population Conference in Cairo in 1994 introduced the term „empowerment‟ which aimed at establishing gender justice and gender equality. This was also emphasized in the Millennium Summit of the UN Nations in 2000 by the call to promote gender equality and empower women as a Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number three.
MDG 3 was to be achieved by improving women‟s sense of self-worth, their right to their own choices, their right access opportunities and resources, their right to have power to control their own lives, both within and outside home, their ability to impact the direction of social change, to create more than just social and economic order, nationally and internationally. To achieve this agenda, various governments adopted various schemes and policies that would work well for them. From testimonials given in the UN 64th General Assembly in 2009, the United Republic of Tanzania said that, to enable women‟s economic empowerment, the government actively promoted savings and credit societies in both rural and urban areas. Women would benefit from the Tanzania Social Action Fund, provided training and credit that complemented other microfinancing and entrepreneurship programmes (UN 64th General Assembly, 2009).
The government of India on the other hand introduced Self-Help Groups (SHGs) to collectively solve societal issues and empower women. A Self-Help Group (SHG) is a registered or non- registered association of 15-20 members belonging to the same socioeconomic background, usually women, who work collectively to solve their problems on the principles of self-help, harmony and mutual coordination. The Indian government has fully embraced this strategy and it leads to the arise of the question: How significant has SHG been in the empowerment of women? (Mathur & Agarwal, 2017).
“Our aim is to support the development of self-help and mutual aid groups; we offer information, advice…” This is a common opening statement in the brochures of self-help support centers whether in Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Denmark or Britain, all countries being in the
European continent. In these European countries, people join SHG for a couple of reasons, mainly being to give and take support, advice, information as well as to share their burden with others with similar experiences. This has been the core reason and ideology behind the birth of many SHGs, where members team up and try catering for their welfare and wellbeing. In Europe, SHGs emerged out of dissatisfaction with de-personalized health care system. It was a result of rapidly increased needs than the state‟s abilities and resources to meet and address these needs that fueled up the development of SHGs in Europe. SHGs were embraced in majority of European countries, and with the recognition of their need for support, resources, a meeting venue and training, self-help support centers were made and became a solution to the SHGs. A perfect example would be the government of Denmark that whose attempt in addressing the challenges faced by SHGs set up a National Self-Help Support Network, Laikos, that encouraged the work of the local SHGs initiatives and this ended up creating awareness for the need to embrace and support SHGs. Germany followed suit, especially in West Germany, where the idea of SHGs and mutual help spread like wildfire in the 1970s. To denote success of the SHGs, some evolved over the decades and became Rotating Savings and Credit Associations, ROSCA (Matzat, 1987).
In Asia, different SHG were started and continue to be started for the benefit of individuals, groups and the community at large. In China Beijing in the recent years, there have been development of SHGs for the disabled focusing on social factors such as legitimacy and relational density. In South Asia, there are an estimated 85,000 Non-Governmental Organizations, NGOs and SHGs whose main aim is empowering the poor and the marginalized. This NGOs and SHGs focus their efforts in microcredit, income generation activities, education, health and women‟s development. As a result, this leads to transformation seen in economic empowerment, social empowerment and increased political awareness and participation among those involved. An example can be seen in Bangladesh where Prof Muhammad Yunus in 1976 initiated a SHG project in the village of Jobra. He organized the locals into groups of five and offered them loans without collateral and by using peer group pressure, he managed to ensure that the funds were put into proper use and repaid. Members forming the group became empowered and would now get better housing, education, clean environment and better nutrition in their overall social development (Muhammad, 1997).
In Nepal, small scale farmers joined hands in 1975 forming groups of about five to fifteen people and through the help of the Agricultural Development Bank of Nepal, ADBN, they were able to tap and fully utilize local resources and upgrade their skills through community participation. India being an Asian country was not left behind and having about 25% of its populace being the rural poor and a third of its working labor force being women, social constraints have barred them from accessing and utilizing resources at their disposal that can help improve their living conditions and standards. In India, SHGs helped women and members of these groups access to low-cost financial services and helped them employ self-management strategy to develop their members. SHGs in India served as community platforms for women to become active in affairs happening around them from the village level and ultimately the national level (Sinha, 2006).
People living in abject poverty can not only be mere receipts of aid, but also be participants in change and the agents of change. This is the model in which SHGs that promote economic, social and political empowerment placing emphasis on personal development, social capital and networking, collective action on problem solving and self-reliance are built. This is the case for many SHGs in Africa whose focus was and still is on health, finance, agriculture and empowerment. In Africa, government agencies as well as donors embraced SHGs the appropriate vehicles to deliver development projects as stated by Gugerty, Kay, Biscaye, and Anderson (2019). Informal groups, or rather SHGs commonly known as merry-go-rounds are very popular in Africa. They are formed by people who face a common challenge come together to try address it. SHGs form an avenue for informal banking, social welfare, sharing of ideas, knowledge and passing of traditions (Masita-Mwangi, Ronoh-Boreh & Aruwa, 2011).
In 2002 in Ethiopia, a religious group known as Tearfund started working with SHG to reduce poverty by carrying out training, encouraging diversified agricultural activities, and advocating for education to improve literacy level. Through this, Tearfund now supports over 27,000 SHGs in Sub-Sahara Africa and it is impacting and demonstrating transformational change in the lives of those involved (Alemu, Kempen & Ruben, 2018). In Swaziland, agriculture is the country‟s economic backbone and its growth has been hampered by chronic disease more so HIV and AIDS. In this country, SHGs approach towards development was introduced in the year 2004 and its impact is evident given that food production has increased as a result of SHGs indulging in agricultural activities achieving food security for the entire nation and producing surplus for
the European market. The SHG approach has tapped the dormant potential of Swaziland as members have started various small enterprises to improve family income. Women gather special grass to make brooms and this has proved to be a lucrative business for them sell the brooms and make good profit (Naysmith, Waal & Whiteside, 2009).
SHGs commonly referred to as small associations or as they are locally referred to as „chamas‟, have as well been embraced by the Kenyan government to reduce gender inequality and promote socio inclusion and participation in the development agenda by empowering women and the marginalized. Brody, De Hoop, Vojtkova, Warnock, Dunbar, Murthy and Dworkin (2015) generally states, a systematic review all over the world focusing on the impacts of economic SHGs with a broad range of collective finance, enterprise and livelihood components on women‟s political, economic, social and psychological empowerment clearly indicates a positive effect. On average, women participants of SHGs are more economically empowered showing they have better access to, ownership of and control over resources as compared to non- participants. Female participants also show higher mobility, hence more socially empowered than non-participants. In addition, SHG members are more able to participate in decision-making about the family size of the household, but only if the SHGs included a training component. Female SHG members are also more able to participate in decision-making focused on access to resources, rights and entitlements within communities, hence were more politically empowered.
