Women Owned Flower Farms in Kenya
Women-owned flower farms (WOFF) have huge potential to drastically improve the position of women through promoting more women entrepreneurs and role models while also creating better working conditions for women workers. However, very little information is available on WOFFs in Kenya’s flower sector. In developing an approach to boost their position in the floriculture sector, it is key to have a better understanding of who they are, what challenges they face, and where opportunities lie for furthering the position of women-owned/led businesses in the flower sector.
That is why over the course of 2021, Workers’ Rights Watch and FIDA-Kenya conducted a research looking into the realities of women entrepreneurs in the floriculture sector in Kenya. The research shows a variety of challenges for these women entrepreneurs in the sector, ranging from a lack of land ownership and access to market to dealing with a highly male dominated industry and the socio-cultural expectations, like for example balancing paid work with unpaid care work. The research resulted in a clear set of recommendations for different stakeholders in the industry like buyers, certification bodies, the government and CSOs.
