Effects of Women Group Projects Activities on Households’ Livelihood in Kenya: a Case of Maseno Division, Kisumu County
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Date
2014Author
Onyango, Maureen A
Type
ThesisLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Studies show that most women in most parts of the world are dissatisfied with their
situation in the family, social, economic and political circles in comparison to
men. This prompted women to form groups so as to cater for their interests. They
therefore engage in women group projects which have an impact on their
participation in household responsibilities such as healthcare, proper shelter, food
security and education of the children. The purpose of this study was therefore to
determine the effects of women group projects on the livelihoods of their
households in Kenya with particular focus on Maseno division. The study
attempted to achieve the following objectives: to establish the extent to which
women group projects influence food security among households in Maseno
division; to assess the level at which women group projects influence education
of households in Maseno division; and to determine the extent to which women
group projects influence health care of households in Maseno division. The
study adapted a descriptive survey design. The target population was 164 women
groups with a total membership of 624 women, 15 staff from the department of
social services and 33 Non-governmental Organization workers giving a sum of
672 people in Maseno division. The study used a third rule to select 113
respondents who comprised 156 women group members, two department of
social services staff and five NGO workers for data collection. Instruments for
data collection included: questionnaire and interview schedule. Both instruments
were piloted for their validity and reliability. Data collected was processed both
qualitatively and quantitatively. Quantitative data was sorted, coded and
processed by use of SPSS version 12 to generate frequencies and percentages.
The percentages were used to determine Chi – square value in order to establish
whether there was a significant effect of women on household livelihood.
Qualitative data was transcribed, categorized into themes and interpreted and then
reported. The study established that women group projects influence food security
among households to a greater extent since households are either enabled to
improve their agricultural production or empowered to purchase food from the
market directly from the project proceeds. Also women seem to subsidize
education of the households thereby sustaining a higher enrolment of children in
schools in the division. Women group projects also seem to support healthcare
among households since members only contribute whenever a member is
overwhelmed with healthcare bills: hence the study recommends that more
women should be encouraged to join women groups which would eventually
enable them initiate income generating projects to boost food production. Further
the government should allocate more revolving funds to women group projects so
that they can expand their projects for higher income generation to enable them
effectively support their children to higher level of education. The study further
recommends that women should initiate clear policies on healthcare instead of
operating at welfare level. It was hoped that the findings of the study would be
used by women groups in the division to explore their untapped potential in
economic development. The findings may also be used by development partners
to incorporate women group projects as part of their development agenda.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Subject
women group projectsRights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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