Assessing what works in Growing Women’s Businesses through Incubation

Abstract

The UoN-WEE Hub Women's Business Incubation (WBI) project is a three-year evaluation of how women-focused incubation models contribute to the growth of businesses and enterprises in Kenya. The overall objective of the Women's Business Incubation project is to assess the extent to which women-focused incubation models contribute to the growth of businesses/enterprises in Kenya. Through the WBI project. UoN-WEE Hub and her partners including CrawnTrust and TechnoServe. and other potential partners, aim to incubate the selected 320 individual women-owned enterprises and 17 women's collectives/group businesses for at least 2% replication in 16 counties by 2025. UoN-WEE Hub will be conducting monitoring and evaluation every six months. The project aims to achieve growth and expansion of women-owned businesses, as well as increased revenue. through access to credit, linkage to information and technology, capacity building, market access, and mentorship. Most importantly, informed policy and policy change are also expected to be part of the high-level outcome. The incubation project will enable access to credit, linkage to information and technology, capacity building. access to markets and mentorship to women businesses. UoN-WEE Hub has applied two strategies to implement the WBI Project. The first strategy is the establishment of the incubation model, and the coordination of the incubation model's key actors/partners. The second strategy is the baseline survey of individual and collective/group businesses which has already been carried out. as well as the monitoring and evaluation of entrepreneurs' progress during the incubation period. In preparation for the WBI Project. UoN-WEE Hub conducted a baseline survey of 615 individual women entrepreneurs and 17 Collective/Group businesses in 16 counties in collaboration with her partners (TechnoServe and CrawnTrust) to determine the status of their businesses. As a result, the Hub developed reports based on a qualitative and quantitative survey of these individual and collective businesses.