Catalyzing women’s involvement in post-COVID-19 recovery through agricultural cooperatives in Kenya (WINRACK)

 

The Cooperative level follow-up workshop came in the backdrop of a household survey and a cooperative level gender analysis survey conducted across the 18 agricultural cooperatives in March 2023. Guided by the findings from these two surveys, a series of enabler training workshops were held at household and cooperative levels with cooperative members and cooperative leaders. respectively. For the household level enabler training workshops, discussions focused on gender issues at the household level, a model family, visioning and action planning. For cooperative level enabler training workshops, discussions were centered on gender issues at the cooperative, a model cooperative, as well as visioning and action planning for the cooperative.

The two-year research project “Catalyzing women’s involvement in post-COVID-19 recovery through agricultural cooperatives in Kenya (WINRACK)” is a collaboration between the Cooperative University of Kenya, the University of the Fraser Valley and the State Department of Co-operatives in Kenya. Our overall objective is to investigate factors that contribute to the impacts of COVID-19 on women’s work, participation, and health in agricultural cooperatives in Kiambu, Kajiado and Taita Taveta counties of Kenya. The findings of this report are based on workshops that utilized human-centered design to assess the use of agricultural cooperatives as leverages for gender-responsive healthcare financing. The purpose of this report is to introduce potential areas of stakeholder intervention in collaboration with co-op members.

The WINRACK team selected three agricultural cooperatives from each county - Kiambu, Kajiado and Taita Taveta - to engage in the project’s intervention phase while the remaining cooperatives were designated as control groups for analysis. The Household (HH) level gender transformative training, an integral part of the WINRACK Project intervention, was guided by the HH Enabler Intervention manual, which was developed and validated through a participatory stakeholder workshop. Drawing from the Family Life Model (FLM), advanced by Self Help Africa, these training sessions were designed to tackle the gender disparities identified in cooperative membership, leadership, and healthcare access, identified during the baseline survey. At its best the FLM aims to encourage the family to be an agent of change and transformation in the community and society by challenging traditional notions of gender roles and responsibilities. It strives to ensure that neither the man nor the woman, boy or girl exerts power over the other, but that they make decisions together and share resources and their benefits equally.

This Cooperative level follow-up workshop came in the backdrop of a household survey and a cooperative level gender analysis survey conducted across the 18 agricultural cooperatives in March 2023. Guided by the findings from these two surveys, a series of enabler training workshops were held at household and cooperative levels with cooperative members and cooperative leaders. respectively. The cooperative-level follow-up workshop was therefore meant to assess the progress made in terms of mainstreaming gender issues into the agricultural cooperatives’ programs and activities with a focus on the six thematic areas. This exercise was intended to ultimately contribute to the development of the gender policy for the Namanga Dairy Farmers’ Cooperative.

The follow-up support workshop builds upon a series of household-level and cooperative-level enabler training sessions conducted between June and December 2023. These trainings were informed by findings of surveys conducted in March 2023 among women affiliated with the cooperative, cooperative leaders, and community opinion leaders. The insights from these surveys informed the content of training manuals that were used in the gender transformative training sessions. The objectives of the gender transformative enabler training were to increase women and youth participation in agricultural cooperatives, enhance the overall well-being of women including their self-esteem, improve household dynamics, boost women's membership, participation, and leadership in the cooperative, and facilitate access to healthcare financing services. Additionally, the training aimed to empower agricultural cooperative leaders with essential knowledge and leadership skills to enhance operational efficiency.