Impact of Agricultural Development Project on Participating Women Farmers in Naari, Kenya

Abstract

An agricultural development project with university and community partners from Kenya and Canada was implemented in Naari, Kenya. Development agencies such as non-governmental organizations design and implement projects that can enhance people’s capacity and living conditions. Many studies have focused mainly on the direct and economic effects of development projects. There is a need to understand the diverse impacts of development projects, especially from those benefiting from such interventions. This paper evaluated the impact of an agricultural development project on participating women farmers' emotional and civic engagement status. Study objectives were to investigate the level of influence of the agricultural interventions on the emotional and civic engagement status of women participants and to examine the demographic factors influencing the emotional and civic engagement status of women participants. The study occurred in the Naari region of Kenya between 2015 and 2017 and included 40 randomly selected women participants and 3 purposively selected women leaders. Data were collected using focus group discussions (FGD; n=1 per group), one-on-one surveys (n=43), and in-depth interviews (n=5 per group) in the local native Kimeru language and analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative techniques. Findings revealed that women within the project experienced emotional empowerment and disempowerment, but that women’s overall civic engagement increased over the project course. Also, age, income, education levels and belonging to community groups were found to predict various aspects of women’s emotional and civic engagement status. In conclusion, our findings show that development projects can influence women’s emotional and civic status; leaders need to assess and modify the delivery of their projects to enhance the positive effects and minimize harms. Our study may be helpful to managers implementing women-focused projects in two ways; (1) assessing outcomes beyond monetary gains; and (2) understanding challenges and opportunities to women’s empowerment in rural Kenyan communities.