Kenya: Partnering with a Coconut Processor to Improve Business by Benefiting Women
This post originally appeared the USAID Private Sector Engagement Hub Exposure site. Read the original piece here.
In Kenya’s rural communities, women are often expected to prioritize their responsibilities at home over obtaining paid employment. Standard working hours can pose a challenge for women with childcare responsibilities, and new or expectant mothers often risk losing their positions by asking for extended time off. Many jobs are available in the formal economy, but misinformation about job requirements can lead women to believe they are incapable of meeting the physical demands.
About an hour’s drive outside of Kenya’s popular Mombasa beach town lies Ukunda, a modest road stop on the coast. Kentaste Products Limited, Kenya’s leading manufacturer of coconut-based products specializing in coconut milk, cream, and oil, is located on the outskirts of Ukunda. The company sells its products in 400 stores across Kenya and 500 additional stores across East Africa. Kentaste’s Ukunda factory processes 30,000 coconuts a day, sourcing from farmers along Kenya’s coastline, from the Tanzanian border up to the town of Malindi in the north. Almost 200 people — more than a quarter of whom are women — work permanently for Kentaste.
Poised for growth, the company was intent on pursuing that growth in an inclusive way. However, doing things differently is not always easy. While there are a number of advantages to supporting women in the workforce, the day-to-day management of a small and growing business in an emerging economy can be overwhelming.
USAID and partners AlphaMundi Foundation and Value for Women worked with Kentaste to provide expertise needed to realize its gender inclusion and growth goals. The partners also linked gender inclusion to investments in small and medium-sized businesses. Through this integrated approach, companies like Kentaste can access capital needed to grow, while improving their performance and supporting women employees, customers, and suppliers.
Targeted support at the right time can help small businesses incorporate the changes that will help them in the long term. “In a developing economy, managing revenue, hitting investor targets, bringing in new technology, and teaching staff how to manage and operate a business at a high level takes up most of your time and effort,” explained Kyle Denning, CEO of Kentaste.
Investing in Gender Equity to Help Local Businesses Grow
Kentaste implemented three new policies that ensure the safety of women, including anti-harassment and non-discrimination policies, and a light duties policy to ensure pregnant and new mothers had flexible, suitable, and safe job responsibilities that enabled them to continue working. The company also updated procurement policies to reach women suppliers and revised its payment mechanisms to ensure that men and women would be paid equitably. The company also adjusted its products, services, and training — including finance and loan options — to make them more accessible for women.
After one month, the company increased the number of women farmers recruited by 270 percent.
Beyond a Niche Strategy: Applying Gender-Smart Technical Assistance Broadly
“Businesses tend to be aware of why it’s important to include gender in their work, but it’s the how that trips them up,” stated Stephanie Finigan, Director of Programs at Value for Women. “And that’s where our work focuses.”
Value for Women provided Kentaste with a menu of options for improving its business practices and assisted the company in designing a work plan that includes market studies, gender commitment statements, and drafting sexual harassment policies. Kentaste’s team was open to these recommendations and hopes that these steps will add up to improved gender equality at the processing plant, more equal opportunities for employment, and increased staff retention.
Making the Business Case for Gender-Lens Investing
USAID and partners are building the evidence to show companies that mainstreaming gender considerations across their business model can lead to better business performance.
“We believe that gender-smart policies are just good business policies,” according to Lisa Willems, Managing Director at AlphaMundi.
ABOUT INVEST
Worldwide, widespread gaps in financial inclusion and economic empowerment negatively affect the lives of women and hinder economic growth. Recognizing an urgent need to close these gaps, USAID INVEST (INVEST) alongside the USAID Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Hub (GenDev) has built a $23 million portfolio of activities to advance women’s economic empowerment by mobilizing private sector investment through catalytic capital, mainstreaming gender-smart policies and practices among investors and employers, increasing access to capital for women and women-led businesses and building supportive environments. Learn more about USAID’s collaboration with AlphaMundi and Value for Women.
ABOUT USAID’S GENDER EQUALITY AND WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT HUB
USAID’s Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Hub (GenDev) aims to increase women’s entrepreneurship and economic empowerment by helping companies access customized gender-smart technical assistance and implement best practices for incorporating gender inclusion across their business model. USAID has a long-standing commitment to prevent and respond to gender-based violence, promote women’s economic empowerment, promote gender equity in climate change mitigation, empower adolescent girls, engage men and boys and address gender norms, and support underserved and marginalized populations. For societies to thrive, all people must have equal rights, exercise their own voice, and live free from intimidation, harassment, discrimination, and violence.
