A Gender Analysis of Small Scale Garment Producers' Response to Market Liberalisation in Kenya
Date
2012-04-27Author
Kinyanjui, Mary Njeri
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
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Creation of an open economy is the main objective enshrined in Structural
Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) prescribed to sub-Saharan countries by the
World Bank and the IME Market liberalization involves removal of controls,
restrictions, and tariffs that protect the domestic market. Begun in 1986, the
Kenyan liberalization process reached its peak in 1993-1994. All prices, including
those of petroleum and maize, were deregulated. Price and non-price
controls as well as tariff and non-tariff barriers were withdrawn in order to
allow the market to determine allocation of resources ( Glendy and Ryan 2000).
The policy shift did not favour industries that had evolved under the previous
import substitution regime. Garment producing firms were particularly hard hit
by an influx of cheap garments imported from Asia and second-hand clothes
imported from Europe and North America. Unable to compete with cheap
and relatively better quality products that were now available in the market,
Kenya's medium and large-size garment firms either closed down or changed
their product lines (McCormick et al. 2002). The response of small enterprises
to market liberalization has not been analyzed despite a marked division
of labor that usually exists between men and women in the trade-related
activities that typify the informal sector (CBS, ICEG and KREP, 1999).
Hence, this paper examines small-scale garment producers' response to policy
shifts under structural adjustment and whether female and male entrepreneurs
responded differently to market liberalization.
URI
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rafg20http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/16789
Citation
Mary Njeri Kinyanjui PhD (2003): A Gender Analysis of Small Scale Garment Producers' Response to Market Liberalisation in Kenya, African Geographical Review, 22:1, 49-59Publisher
Routledge Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi
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