Factors influencing development of women self help groups in Kesses constituency, Uasin-gishu county, Kenya

Abstract

Women empowerment has become a subject of concern across the globe for the last few decades and the World Bank recommends that women empowerment should be a key area of social development programs. Women constitute around fifty percent of the total human resources in our economy. Several studies indicate that self-help group programmes often in the form of credit or micro credit schemes and savings have succeeded in changing the lives of women by economically empowering them which is the main objective of women Self Help Groups. Thus the development of the women Self Help Groups is important if this objective is to be achieved. This is evident from the increasing number of Women Self Help Groups in Kenya; it is in this view that the study examined the factors that influence the development of women Self Help groups in Kesses constituency, Uasin Gishu County in Kenya. The study also aimed at establishing specifically the influence of funding, education, training and group bylaws on development of women Self help groups. The study design used was descriptive in nature and aimed at explaining the relationships between variables. The target population was1380 self help group women from 92 WSHGs in Kesses constituency, Uasin Gishu County. Probability sampling methods was used to get 75 WSHGs and 310 Self Help Group women as the representative samples for the study. The instrument for data collection was self-designed questionnaires which were administered to the respondents by the researcher and the research assistants. Data analysis was done using quantitative techniques, frequency tables were used to summarize the quantitative data, analyzed using themes reflecting the research objectives. The findings revealed that group bylaws, funding and training contribute to a great extent to development of WSHGs as compared to education. The study recommends that WSHGs have documented rules and regulations which are agreed and followed by all members, WSHGs should ensure that they conduct training to their members before they borrow loans to ensure they are able to run successful businesses and before members borrow loans from other institutions they need to fully establish how they will repay the loans.