Dodo Aleke, Kiara Japhet & Baaru Mary, 2014, Enterprise Development for Rural Families Programme in Kenya, Final Report, Final evaluation, SIDA, Stockholm, Project: SIDA Hand in Hand Eastern Africa’s Enterprise Development for Rural Families (EDRF), Kenya

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Last updated: 15 December 2022 09:51

2.1 ENABLING ENVIRONMENT

2.1.11 Coordination and sustainability planning

Recommendation: 21. Support the establishment of linkages of IE operators to markets to sustain programme activities and organisations even after the end of development project/programme.

Reference: Dodo Aleke, Kiara Japhet & Baaru Mary, 2014, Enterprise Development for Rural Families Programme in Kenya, Final Report, Final evaluation, SIDA, Stockholm, Project: SIDA Hand in Hand Eastern Africa’s Enterprise Development for Rural Families (EDRF), Kenya

Evidence sample: the evaluation discusses two aspects of sustainability of the relevant project: sustainability of the programme activities of Hand in Hand East Africa (HiHEA) as an organization.

Programme activities: All programme activities were anchored in training. This was linked with activities on savings and venturing into enterprises as a group. It was assessed that sustainability is assured where groups have attained the culture of savings and have gone through the cycle of building trust and benefiting from their savings. However, without market linkages, sustainability of the enterprises and groups stands on loose sand as experienced where CIGs that were not linked to market collapsed within a period of 2-3 years after the project exited from assisting them. If enterprises do not thrive for lack of market linkages or due to lack of information to increase production and quality, automatically sustainability of not only the enterprise but also of the jobs cannot be assured.

Most of the groups met reported that project assistance in accessing markets for their products was strongly needed, as training in marketing alone was not enough.

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2.3 DIRECT ACTIONS IN COMMUNITIES

2.3.1 Social Behaviour Change Communications (SBCC)

Recommendation: 7. Note that simple and practical approaches during project implementation can also have an impact on attitude and behaviour change. E.g, a project in Kenya established a savings culture among groups dependent on the IE using a simple piggy bank concept.

Evidence sample: The evaluation notes that the project in Kenya has successfully promoted saving culture among the targeted groups with documented results. The piggy bank concept has enabled those who never saved in their lives or those who had no idea of saving to appreciate the power of saving. Individual testimonies from group members on how the savings enabled them to realize their rights during the period “Hand in Hand” NGO has worked with them and not before.

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2.3 DIRECT ACTIONS IN COMMUNITIES

2.3.2 Entrepreneurship: Capacity strengthening on economic activities

Recommendation: 9. Include special attention to women’s capacity strengthening including through village savings and loan groups.

Evidence sample: One of the key elements of the “Hand in Hand” model is the training modules that all groups and group members undergo before they can became self-sustaining. The evaluation team assessed the training modules. It is recommended that the module be improved to include record keeping, risk management, consumer protection and value chain process.

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2.3 DIRECT ACTIONS IN COMMUNITIES

2.3.2 Entrepreneurship: Capacity strengthening on economic activities

Recommendation: 19. Ensure that project design includes provision of support for the acquisition of new technical skills to establish new enterprises start-ups or to expand existing enterprises while also providing market support and access to financial services are important tools to improve the incomes of people dependent on the IE.

Evidence sample: SIDA’s evaluation team surveyed project’s beneficiaries who were supported to start new enterprise and to expand their existing ones. Most of the groups met reported that project assistance in accessing markets for their products was strongly needed, as training in marketing alone was not enough. It was found that acquiring skills led to 90% business expansion, followed by institutional support (85%). Market support and access to financial services were other incentives for starting or expanding a business at 65% respectively. Differently, increased income has had the least potential (50%) on the business expansion.

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2.3 DIRECT ACTIONS IN COMMUNITIES

2.3.5 Micro finance

Recommendation: 11. Improve micro-finance access through multiple approaches:

Support openness for entry of new commercial players and investors into the micro finance sector
Advocate for more enabling government policy and regulations
Facilitate access to technological innovations related to Micro Finance for people dependent on the IE. This would include electronic banking such as SMS-based banking, electronic point of sale devices in retail outlets and ATM’s.

Evidence sample: The evaluation stresses that access of poor people to financial services has become the focus of increasing political, business and development attention in Kenya over the last five years. Despite its modest direct impact reached so far, micro-finance continues to receive considerable attention from donors and more significantly and increasingly from the government. The micro-finance sector in the country is changing and new commercial players are entering the lower-income segment of the market, backed by new investments, increasing competition and bringing economies of scale, lower costs of funds and introducing new practices and products. Change has also been brought about by a more enabling government policy and regulations of the financial sector. Technological innovation has also been a major driver too, permitting the spread of electronic banking, such as SMS-based banking, electronic point of sale devices in retail outlets and ATM’s across the country.

In parallel to mainstream banks entering the low-income market segment, three of the more successful NGO Microfinance providers (KWFT, Faulu Kenya and SMEP) have transformed into regulated Deposit Taking Microfinance Institutions. Driven by the quest to mobilize deposits and grow in scale and professionalisation, to enable them to offer a fuller range of financial products. Investors have also discovered opportunities to earn a return in micro-finance. Six Deposit Taking Microfinance Institutions were established by such investors.

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2.3 DIRECT ACTIONS IN COMMUNITIES

2.3.5 Micro finance

Recommendation: 3. Strengthen knowledge and capabilities of community members on various savings methods and encourage them to save as a pre-condition for further support.

Evidence sample: The evaluation found that, to facilitate access to finance, the project introduced and promoted approaches such as merry-go-round, piggy banks, individual savings and enterprise incubation funds in the training modules. All groups are trained on saving methods and encouraged to start savings as a pre-condition for further support. Although some of the groups that were started before they were referred to the project were involved in saving, the survey conducted to evaluate the impact shows that 91% of the members of the groups had started saving. The survey also shows that in 2010 when the programme started, 75% of the savers were in small category, 17% in medium and 8% in large. By 2013 the majority of savers were in medium category (54%), while those in large category increased to 10% and those in small decreasing to 35 %.

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2.3 DIRECT ACTIONS IN COMMUNITIES

2.3.5 Micro finance

Recommendation: 17. Foster the use of enterprise incubation funds since it can efficiently target and support economic activities that need financial support.

According to the evaluation, the project’s Enterprise Incubation Fund was an important tool for supporting emerging groups and group members to start and expand their enterprises. As set out by the Hand in Hand’s website, the enterprise incubation fund provided poor people with loans and not grant, acting as a catalyst for enhancing group and individual saving that improve on financial access in the rural areas. The project ensured that the fund was only benefiting the poor who had no chance of accessing financial services from the formal or informal service players. Targeting is important because if it is wrongly targeted, then there are likelihoods that there will be market distortion in the sector and moreover, the intended target group will miss out. The evaluation recommends that, in order to promote further expansion of the enterprises being undertaken by the groups, the incubation fund supports small and medium enterprises with strong backward linkages to beneficiary economic activities.

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2.4 APPROACHES TO ENHANCE LIVELIHOODS, EQUITY AND INCLUSION

2.4.5. Strengthening IE with attention to gender issues

Recommendation: 8) Include in economic empowerment projects focus on rights issues including their democratic rights in elections at the ward, county and national level. Ensure that projects participants understand the role and responsibilities of government duty bearers and community members.

Evidence sample: the evaluation states that one of the main outcomes of the programme in Kenya was the economic empowerment of women. Those interviewed narrated how they were liberated from depending on hand-outs from their husbands to equal contributors to household income. The majority (80%) of group members supported by the project were women. They benefitted from the training on group dynamics which exposes them to aspects of accountability and transparency. It was from this training module that members learned about the rights issues and how they domesticate them in their daily lives including exercising their democratic rights in elections at the ward, county and national level. They also understood the role and responsibilities of duty bearers and claim holders.

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2.4 APPROACHES TO ENHANCE LIVELIHOODS, EQUITY AND INCLUSION

2.4.7. Strengthening IE with attention to people affected by HIV

Recommendation: 5) Ensure that people living with or affected by HIV are also included in training groups wherever relevant and support them with the same types of assistance.

Evidence sample: the evaluation positively assesses the project’s engagement of those affected and by HIV\AIDS also links them with other service providers for assistance. The module for training that used, especially with regard to group dynamics is used as a mitigation measure to ensure group members affected by the HIV are assisted to fully participate in group activities including establishing and expanding businesses

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Created: 04 June 2018

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Dodo Aleke, Kiara Japhet & Baaru Mary, 2014, Enterprise Development for Rural Families Programme in Kenya, Final Report, Final evaluation, SIDA, Stockholm, Project: SIDA Hand in Hand Eastern Africa’s Enterprise Development for Rural Families (EDRF), Kenya

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