WOMEN ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM
FSD GRADUATION
Financial Sector Deepening
August 2016 - June 2021
Overview
Financial Sector Deepening Kenya (FSD), in partnership with CARE Kenya (CARE), went into the implementation of a pilot graduation project in Laisamis Sub-County, Marsabit County commencing in 2016.
The overall objective of this BRAC-modelled pilot project is to test the efficacy and sustainability of market-based approaches in building livelihoods of vulnerable and excluded populations.
In particular, the project hypothesis is that delivering adaptable, market-responsive programs at scale would enable very poor households to engage in new income-generating activities, increasing their cash incomes, and thereby improving livelihood resilience.
The graduation project is targeting existing recipients of the Kenyan government’s Hunger Safety Net Programme (HSNP). Five, sequenced components of support constitute the project package: a consumption stipend, savings facilitation, skills transfer, mentoring and coaching, and asset transfer. This pack of interventions is delivered by Community Based Facilitators to Savings groups which meet once in a month. The targeting of HSNP beneficiaries is an important project strategy since it offers a leverage platform for the cash transfers as a consumption stipend.
The program participants formed savings groups which became avenues for engagement with both financial and nonfinancial markets. Community-based facilitators are providing a channel for transfer of skills and knowledge. FSD further went into partnership with Equity Bank, which is providing the capital and financing to program participants for undertaking income generating activities. Some program participants are accessing financing via their own savings groups. These methods of financing have replaced the traditional delivery of a productive asset that is typically at the core of the classic BRAC model.
The project has a strong learning agenda driven by both quantitative and qualitative studies. Ended to completion, two studies have been conducted; a quantitative research which used the Individual Household Economy Analysis (IHEA) methodology to measure the extent to which project activities impacted on both household incomes and resilience.
This was done in 2020, while an end line evaluation and associated qualitative research was conducted in late 2019 and concluded that the pilot project had produced positive outcomes on income and resilience, pointing to an opportunity for scale.
1,200
program participants
Project activities are being implemented in six sub-locations of Laisamis Sub-county: Laisamis, Gudas, Loglogo, Korr, Merille and Irrir.
COVID-19
The outbreak of COVID-19 presented an opportunity for the pilot project to test the theory of change, necessitating FSD to extend the learning agenda.
The extension was done in two phases:
Phase 1: included the modelling of external shocks (the 2020 locust plague and COVID-19) and their implication on household resilience.
Phase 2: included the impact assessment geared towards quantifying impact of the interventions by comparing beneficiary and non-beneficiary households, hence enabling an estimation of attribution and sustainability of achievements.
For beneficiaries who completed the pilot model, results from end-line and impact study demonstrated that, they had experienced a significant positive difference in income growth
Contact:
Photo's
Teresa Lekuraki is an Assistant CBF, a project participant and involved in petty trade. She owns a shop which supplements the Government consumption stipends. She belongs to Nyuatta Savings Group
Rosemary Upane of Narotu Asha Savings group is one of the project participants and a Community Based Failitator
Nkotolai Learnik is a project participant of Livestock Trade
Teresa Lekuraki is an Assistant CBF, a project participant and involved in petty trade. She owns a shop which supplements the Government consumption stipends. She belongs to Nyuatta Savings Group
