Influence of Youth Enterprise Development Fund on livelihoods of youth in Mandera East District, Kenya
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Date
2010Author
Abdirahman, Mohamed A
Type
ThesisLanguage
en_USMetadata
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This study was guided by the following objectives: to establish the extent to which capacity building though the Youth Enterprise Development Fund promotes youth livelihoods in Mandera East District, to determine the extent to which increased income levels influenced youth livelihoods in Mandera East, To determine the factors that contribute to the low utilization of the Youth Fund in Mandera East District and To establish the extent to which gender mainstreaming in the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) promotes youth livelihoods. The Youth Enterprise Development Fund came legally into operation on 8th December 2006 and was transformed into a state corporation on 11 th May 2007. The fund focuses on enterprise development as a key strategy that will increase economic opportunities for, and participation by Kenyan youth in nation building.
The mandate of the Fund is not only increasing access to capital by young entrepreneurs but also provides business development services, facilitates linkages in supply chains, create market opportunities locally and abroad for products and services of youth enterprises, and facilitates creation of commercial infrastructure to support growth of youth enterprises. The study used both Qualitative and Quantitative research paradigms. The population of this study was the youth of Mandera district. The researcher sampled 50 youths in Mandera through simple random sampling.
The researcher developed questionnaires that were used to obtain important information about the population.
Qualitative and Quantative data analysis techniques were used to analyze the data. From the findings the study revealed that a majority of the youth in Mandera East District were not aware of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund. The study also found that majority of youth in Mandera have not benefited from the Youth Enterprise Development Fund and the Youth Enterprise Development Fund has not improved livelihoods of youth in Mandera.
The study further found that the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) does not promote gender mainstreaming in development.The study recommends that awareness of the Youth Fund be increased, financial intermediaries be introduced in the region, amounts of loans be increased and systematic approaches to gender mainstreaming be adopted in the programme.
Publisher
University of Nairobi, Kenya