AWSC Report - Organizational Capacity Assessment (2025)

Abstract

This report presents a comprehensive organizational capacity assessment of the African Women Studies Centre (AWSC), University of Nairobi (UoN), conducted in February 2025. The assessment was part of AWSC's initiative to enhance its organizational capacity, effectiveness, and coherence, specifically in promoting the participation of women in economics in leadership and management in Kenyan academic institutions.

The assessment, conducted by an organizational development expert, was participatory in nature and involved reviewing of organizational documents such as the AWSC Strategic Plan (2024-2029), Governance structure, AWSC’s regulations and guidelines, among others. The aim was to ensure the assessment was data-driven. One on one interviews were also conducted with AWSC team members who included AWSC leadership, program staff, researchers, and secretariat, in order to capture diverse perspectives of the organization. A three-day retreat was finally conducted, bringing together the AWSC board members, researchers, secretariat and other UoN stakeholders for a time of collective reflections and capacity mapping.

An open-source organizational capacity assessment tool was used during this retreat allowing participants to reflect and rate capabilities across the five areas: leadership, organizational arrangements, partnerships, funder relationships, and the cross cutting elements of values and culture.

Group discussions and plenary sessions were held during these sessions. Findings of this assessment reveal that AWSC demonstrates a strong executive leadership with the Centre benefiting from a highly effective director and a diverse board membership drawn from a broad spectrum of skills. The board’s engagement in influential networks and its alignment with AWSC’s goals position the Centre as a leader in gender advocacy and feminist scholarship. AWSC equally demonstrates a strong strategic coherence. The Centre has a well-defined strategic plan (2024–2029) that guides programmatic and operational work, ensuring alignment with its mission and vision. Programs are well designed through rigorous needs assessments and integrate measurable goals, though greater cross-program collaboration is recommended. In terms of Organizational Arrangements, the Centre has a healthy, vibrant culture of advocacy, with a clearly defined strategy for policy engagement. AWSC is well endowed with a team of highly qualified team members, who are well-versed in research, program management. AWSC maintains robust partnerships with key stakeholders, including marginalized communities, and is highly regarded in gender and academic movements.