The Impact of the Constituency Development Fund in Empowering Women in Mbita Constituency, Homa Bay County, Kenya

Abstract

The study was undertaken to investigate the impact of the constituency development fund in empowering women in Mbita Constituency, Homa Bay County. It sought to address the following specific objectives: to establish the level of the participation of women in the projects initiated by the constituency development fund in Mbita Constituency, to determine the changes in the status of women as a result of the constituency development fund and to ascertain the barriers that women face in accessing the constituency development funds in Mbita Constituency. The study was guided by the women’s empowerment framework. The study adopted a research design that was cross-sectional and descriptive in nature both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection were used. Quantitative data were collected through the survey questionnaire while qualitative information was collected through focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Conversely, simple random sampling was used to select the respondents. Data analysis was done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Descriptive statistics were used and the information acquired was presented in the form of tables, charts, percentages and frequencies. The study concludes that women in Mbita Constituency were in favour of the constituency development fund since it has a positive impact in empowering them. From the study the following recommendations were made: there is a need to increase women’s participation in identification and prioritization of projects in order to actually address the real issues affecting them and to create ownership of the projects among the women. Civic education is needed to empower women to understand the management of the constituency development fund and their roles in making the committees more accountable. There is also a need to enhance transparency and accountability in the management of the entire constituency development fund and the government should enhance efficiency in releasing bursary funds. The study recommends that studies about other devolved funds should be carried out so as to fully understand how such funds contribute to the empowerment of women.