| dc.description.abstract | Devolved funding has been in existence in Kenya for quite some time now. Since independence, the Kenya government has employed several development strategies in fighting poverty. In 1983 the DFRD strategy was put in place. The LAFT was established in 1999 with an objective of improving service delivery among other reasons. The research sought to find out whether the management of the WEF is effective to ensure that the fund achieves its objectives and that the funds do not go to waste like the other devolved funds.
Five specific objectives guiding the research were: To determine how community involvement influences access and management of the devolved Women Enterprise Fund, to establish the extent to which funds have successfully been disbursed to women in Kenya through the Women Enterprise Fund, to examine whether capacity building is done for women entrepreneurs before they receive the loan, to establish whether there is transparency and accountability in operation of the Women Enterprise .Fund in Kenya, to examine how institutional. structures influences access and management of the Women Enterprise Fund.
A descriptive survey research design was used to collect primary data. The questionnaire was piloted so that anomalies were rectified. The research targeted 30 respondents. Both probability and non probability sampling were used to collect data. For probability sampling, cluster sampling was done, after which simple random was done. Snow balling was used for the non probability sampling. Descriptive analysis of the data collected was mainly put in a narrative form but greatly making use of the values where applicable. The results of the study agreed with other similar studies done previously.
The research established that there were several issues that influenced the access and management of the devolved women enterprise fund. These included poor community involvement, time taken to disburse funds was longer than necessary, capacity building for women was not adequately done, among others.The study recommends that funds be disbursed on a timely basis to enable the women carry out their businesses. More so capacity should be done to help the women manage the funds well so that they can be able to refund to the kitty. The devolved Women fund has a good institutional structure, the only challenge being that it is not implementing some of its responsibilities.
The study also recommends that the community participation be engaged in both mobilization and follow up of funds usage. The researcher recommends further research to establish whether the current institutional structure of the devolved fund is capable of achieving the vision 2030 with specific emphasis on the third millennium goal on promoting gender equality and empowering women. | en_US |
