A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS OF RURAL WOMEN, MEN, AND MIXED SELF-HELP GROUPS: A CASE OF KAKAMEGA DISTRICT
Abstract: The focus of the study is to establish the implications of the integrated efforts in self-help movement while considering the long standing women’s associations and their support for households.
A sample of 145 individuals was selected through stratified systematic random sampling. Data were collected using interview schedules, questionnaires, oral interview guides, and focus group discussions. The study employed descriptive analysis because of the qualitative nature of the data. T-tests were, however, carried out on a few variables which could be quantified.
The study findings have revealed that mixed-sex groups provided an opportunity to venture into a variety of activities with an economic orientation. Groups varied significantly due to factors related to resource access, culture and education. Women-only groups were at a disadvantage because of their relation to the means of production. Management was a problem for all of the groups, calling for an intensive training in leadership and management skills.
1.1 Background
The self-help group movement has been regarded as an important tool in institutional building that many students of Rural Development regard as a major factor for realizing the various objectives of development efforts in rural areas. Africa has recorded extensive female solidarity organizations (Staudt 1986 in Robertson and Berger 1988). This may explain the amount of work done on women-only groups.
Women-only groups have existed in Kenya since pre-independence (Wagnaraja 1990 in Chitere and Mutiso 1991). The foundation of this can be traced to the formation of Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organization, the now giant Umbrella Organization for women in Kenya. By 1958, it was aimed at improving conditions for women and girls. Many of these groups came into existence in response to the urgent problems of women that included poverty, inadequate supply of basic necessities such as water, health services and food (Wagnaraja 1990 in Chitere and Mutiso 1992). This collective response to a needy situation, which is traced within the traditional division of labour framework, has been the driving force behind their dominant role in the rural economy.
At independence, the government of Kenya embarked on the Harambee Self-help Movement as an all-encompassing grassroots effort to meet the people’s needs. Its characteristics included local identification of needs, local-level mobilization and local-level implementation of projects which appeared to solve the local needs (Mbithi 1974). It is, however, observed that during the earlier days, the groups were informal in nature and functioned as mutual aid groups. Today, some of these groups have a more defined organizational structure and carry out activities that meet the group’s felt needs and also those of the community at large.
The group movement received more impetus after the UN Conference on Women held in Mexico in 1975 and the UN Decade for Women, 1975-1985. Emphasis was laid on the formation of national machinery such as Women Bureaus and National Councils which gave significance to women’s issues and activities. It was argued that women were a marginalized group and should be supported through such group activities (Dolphyne 1991; Sigot et al. 1995). An interesting observation however is that these movements seem to do very well in some parts of the country but not in others with almost an equal economic potential. For instance, the self-help activities in Central Province have favourably led to the evolution of the present day independent cooperatives, where members carry out projects and business ventures (Stamp 1975).The activities they carry out include buying farms, businesses, water tanks, cows, etc. Stamp (1975) points out that what has made them grow is their entrepreneurial spirit. On the other hand, Western Province has very little to offer except welfare activities. The concept of Women in Development, for instance, advocates that women’s interests will be fully defended in the complex process of project design and implementation only when women are the sole beneficiaries. This highly regarded development strategy of treating women in isolation has been seen to exhibit some loopholes. It is pointed out, for instance, that rural women are rarely a constituency of greatest importance in the eyes of the national decision-makers; hence, women-only projects are unlikely to gain more than a small perhaps only symbolic, share of development resources (Reynolds and Wallis 1976). A gender dimension has been advocated instead where the issues of women can be understood and articulated in a wider framework which incorporates and involves men as participants. It therefore becomes necessary to understand and analyze self-help group activities from this context with the hope of realizing greater benefits for women.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
In a bid to meet basic human needs, people and communities in Kenya have participated in problem solving through self-help group activities since the pre-colonial period. The government, through the Harambee Self-help Movement, has tried to promote these grassroots efforts. The UN Decade, for example, was also another force targeting women’s activities. Much has been written on women-only groups and the achievements that have been realized. However, focus has not been given to the integrated approach of the self-help effort. Further, the self-help movement seems to thrive well in some areas and not in others. This study therefore seeks to examine the implications of the integrated effort in the self-help movement.
1. 3 Study Objectives
This study is geared towards establishing the relevance of an integrated approach to the performance of the self-help group activities in rural areas by comparing the different groups; i.e., women-only, men-only and mixed-sex groups, to get the underlying factors on the achievements of each group. Such analysis, it is hoped, will provide policy framework that will benefit women.
Specifically, the study sets out to examine:
i) The influence of coexistence between men and women in the self-help group movement in Kakamega District;
ii) The impact of the socio-cultural milieu on the self-help group movement in Kakamega District; and
iii) The extent to which the self-help group movement has been a useful development tool to this particular society.
1. 4 Hypotheses
The study proposes the following hypotheses:
i) The male/female coexistence has a positive influence on the development and performance of self-help group movement in Kakamega District.
ii) The socio-cultural milieu of this community has negatively affected the self-help movement as a development strategy.
iii) Self-help group movement is an important development tool for this society.
1. 5 Significance of the Study
The study seeks to establish an ample working environment for women, currently considered to be playing a dominant role in the rural economy. Their full potential therefore can be realized if all barriers to their participation, as seen from a wider perspective, are ironed out.
Because institutionalisation is regarded as a major factor in realizing the objectives of rural development, it is imperative to understand the best alternative of constructing these institutions by taking into consideration all interested groups. The rationale behind institutionalisation derives from the focus on sustainability of initiatives in rural development (Alila 1992). This sustainability can be met if all knowledge on constructing such viable institutions is established, which is still limited.
1. 6 Scope and Limitations
Regarding scope and limitations, the study:
i) Focuses on the gender relationships in society, which are important in determining the strategies to be adopted for development;
ii) Focuses on self-help groups as a development strategy and how they have shaped people’s lives;
iii) Focuses on the activities of women as defined in the wider social set-up and their inter-relationships with men;
iv) Examines how these inter-relationships influence the types and perceptions of the projects selected by the groups and future prospects; and
v) Limits itself to people in groups which have been in existence for the last three years since this period is good enough to indicate whether the group has gained ground and has focused on its objectives/goals.
1.7 Theoretical Framework
This study utilizes group dynamics perspective. Group dynamics refers to “the study of individuals interacting in small groups. Dynamics implies forces which are complex and interdependent in a common field setting” (Luft 1970, 1).
Dynamics is the study of dated quantities and the way changes in these dates affect the relations between factors and products. From the social science point of view, group dynamics refers to “an emergent, unfolding, multi-level complex of happenings that grow out of what the group participants (including the leader) are likely and what they are up to – individually and in combination – where they are with each other to begin with and in their outside lives, how many are present, the setting of the group experience, how much time they have together and how it is arranged, and other aspects of composition, purpose and context” (Cooper 1975, 82).
Dynamics is therefore a multifaceted term. For example, in the same field of group formation, we can evidently note the changes that have taken place since the initiation of the Maendeleo Ya Wanawake Organization (MYWO) in Kenya in the 1950s after the Second World War. All along, MYWO has purported to be a representative of all women in Kenya regardless of colour, race, economic status, religion, etc. The truth is that MYWO has misrepresented its activities and linkages to grassroots women in order to secure foreign funds. Women at this higher level (doctors, lawyers, environmentalists, politicians, etc.) are elite and seem to have achieved their goals, while the poor, illiterate women at the bottom are unaware of what is happening at the top. The rising number of informal women’s associations is a counter-reaction or protest movement against the power and patronage of women leaders in the formal organizations over the poor illiterate rural women (Mutiso 1975; Wipper 1975/76; Mbithi and Rasmusson 1977; Ngethe 1978; Mitullah 1994; Mutoro 1997).
In this same direction, the study has pointed to the dynamics in groups basically from women centeredness to gender. The study has utilized the same strategy the government applied to initiate women into development process. Initially, women were seen as social actors in development; therefore, any project towards women was social and not economical. This can even be traced from the naming of the strategies; for example, welfare/basic needs approach. However, this did not bring any change. Women’s problems remained intact. Two approaches emerged during the United Nations 1975 International Year for Women Conference in Mexico. During this conference, the period 1975-1985 was declared as the UN Decade for women. The two approaches adopted by many developing and especially African countries were: Women in Development (WID) and Gender and Development (GAD).
Women in Development (WID) and Gender and Development (GAD) are gender-oriented approaches that emerged in reaction to the hitherto existing inequalities embedded in the social structure. They owe their development to the feminist movements which emphasized women’s emancipation. In these approaches, women are recognized as important partners in development. In the WID approach, for example, emphasis was on projects whose design and implementation was solely to benefit women. The WID approach was practical in that it offered skills, training, welfare services and credit to women. However, its weaknesses led to the development of GAD whose emphasis was the integration of men and women in the whole process of development. GAD provided greater access to resources and created space for women to socialize their experiences and prepare the ground for change. GAD emphasizes the intermarriage of male and female activities in a community. It points to the fact that women are not just limited to house chores but also commonly work in conjunction with or for men. Altering women’s time use patterns, land requirements or capital needs is likely to affect men’s vital concerns. Thus, such an integrated approach in development planning holds the promise of coordinating the changing needs and capabilities of all community members while recognizing the political weakness of women as a pressure group.
Alternatively, Mbithi (1974) attributes the Kenyan self-help movements to discontentment with the existing social structures. Thus, collective behaviour is seen as resulting from the collective definition of a situation. Here, individuals in the social sphere develop meaning to situations and come together to address it through developed community strategies. According to this orientation, therefore, the social group is seen as a unit which is organizing diversity of meaning in a united, integrated and coherent framework which approximates as operational culture (Mbithi and Rasmusson 1977, 29). Accordingly, the disillusionment by the central development policy will lead to groups forming their own parallel development within their ability.
The study uses group dynamics to refer to the changes that have taken place since the origin of the groups. The study therefore explains the origin and development of the groups (women) and their aims and objectives; the emergence of mixed-sex self-help groups, their aims and objectives; and the advantages and opportunities they enjoy over women-only groups and how the community views such development.
1.8 Conceptual Framework
The inequalities between men and women and the rich and poor in the society are determined by the locus of power, structural systems, institutions and modes of production. This kind of relationship has led to inability by some groups to access and have control over resources, power and knowledge. They therefore find themselves in a vicious cycle of unmet needs. The consciousness by people of the existence of inequalities in resource allocation has led to collectives trying to gain self-reliance through maximizing available resources. These collectives define their situation and form groups in relation to the available resources and the pressing need. The groups formed may be men-only, women-only or integrated. The activities ventured into range from political and social to economic. The magnitude of involvement varies with groups, resources and the need. It is assumed that men-only projects are characterized by adequate access to resources due to their connection with the ruling polity. Their projects are heavily economic and investment-oriented. However, such groups are formed by people who share a common characteristic, especially workmates (same professional field). Their projects therefore do not arise out of deprivation, limiting the energy and time devoted.
Women form the most vulnerable group with real need. The patriarchal arrangement limits their access to resources and power. This prompts Non- Governmental Organizations, lobby groups and even the government itself to support women-only projects. Their activities, however, are treated with suspicion by men since they do not see any direct benefit and because of men’s nature of undermining women and any of their endeavours. Women-only projects however do not record 100% success since they have multiple roles. Thus, the projects suffer from poor management and little time devoted by women.
In integrated projects, men feel part of the project. Due to their position in the patriarchal system, they can easily access resources. It is the assumption of the study that integrated groups are likely to do better because the weaknesses of one gender are cancelled by the strengths of the other. It is also believed that integration may help change the social systems and structures which have perpetuated inequalities; hence, improve the sex-gender social relations.
This section examines the works that have been done in this field. The works have been divided into subsections: the origin and purpose of groups; group characteristics and activities; group composition and development; advantages of groups; impact of group activities; group and policy limitations; and social interactions.
Figure 1. Conceptual model explaining performance of self-help groups
