Questions/Answers

The 'Inua Mama na Kuku Initiative is an initiative that was started in 2015 by the County Government of Uasin Gishu through the department of Agriculture fisheries and livestock. The initiatives main objective was to alleviate poverty, improve livelihoods and bridge the economic gap between the men and the women in the society. The initiative has transformed greatly the lives of hundreds of women in the county. The initiative gives 300 day old chicks to registered women groups and gives them start up feeds. Over 1200 women groups have so far benefited from the initiative in the 30 wards of Uasin Gishu County. The initiative have not only provided sources of income to women who were languishing in poverty, but have also transformed alcohol brewers to entrepreneurs hence reduced cases of alcoholism and drug abuse in the society. Before the women groups were issued with the chicks, they were taken through an intensive training on poultry rearing and production by qualified livestock production officers who trained them on feeding, diseases control, appropriate housing and marketing for the products. The initiative has however faced several challenges in its implementation ranging from lose of stock through infectious poultry diseases, due to its diversity in implementation and lack of enough vehicles the few Field Agricultural officers are straining in assessment and follow up programs. The success stories of the initiative is evident in every corner of the county and its flame still burns on. Most interestingly the initiative gave birth to another initiative named 'Kijana na Acre' Initiative since the youth did not want to be left behind in economic empowerment.

The overall objectives of the initiative include: - improved households per capita income. - Women empowerment - poverty alleviation - encourage entrepreneurial skills

The initiative fits in the Category of Reaching out to the poorest and most vulnerable through inclusive services and partnership since it majorly benefits women in UasinGishu who have always been undermined by the society through cultural believes that places the woman as an inferior being who is not expected to own property or become economically empowered. uasin Gishu County is predominantly inhabited by the Kalenjin community that believes that the place of a woman is to stay at home , give birth, bring up children and cook for the husband. this cultural dictates have made the women vulnerable and poor. the County Government came up with this initiative in order to free the women from the cultural cocoons by economically empowering them and making them productive members of the society hence reducing poverty.

the initiative improves delivery of public service by ensuring that all women in Uasin Gishu County benefit from the services provided by the County Government. by empowering the women economically, they are able to get access to improved medical services, education, employment, as they can afford to sponsor their children to school and also themselves. the women are also able to access loan facilities given through cooperatives. in an effort to reach out the women in the rural areas, roads are constructed for easy accessibility and also the need to connect electricity and water networks arises hence improve peoples standards

the Initiative Inua Mama na Kuku has been able to significantly address the issue of poverty eradication and marginalization especially of women hence exposing women to development and enteprenuership. the women can afford to travel to the urban areas to market their products and share ideas with other women on how they can further improve their living standards. in the process they benefit from the public services eg trainings, tenders, loans etc

the initiative Inua Mama Na Kuku has significantly positively impacted the Women of Uasin Gishu County. from 2015 1200 women Groups have benefited with each women group having a minimum of 30 women. This brings the total number of women who have benefited so far to be over 36,000 in just 3 years. the women have become economically independent and have stopped relying on their spouses for upkeep, some have been able to educate their children especially widows and single mothers. women brewers have been rehabilitated and trained on poultry keeping which have made them stop brewing and transformed their lives. the initiative has also helped improve nutritional values in households since families can now eat healthy by including eggs and chicken meat in their menus.

the Inua Mama Na Kuku Initiative is a unique initiative that has never been done by any other institution either public or private in Kenya. its an initiative that is only found in Uasin Gishu Countyin Kenya and most probably in the world. its uniqueness is evidently seen and felt by the beneficiaries and its success is attributed to its uniqueness and implementation. many counties visited the county to bench mark

The initiatiatve is original and has only been done in Uasin Gishu County in Kenya

The initiative was funded by the County Government of Uasin Gishu through funds that were set aside in the budgetary allocation to promote the initiative.The Agricultural officers, reseachers, and other stakeholders were involved in the initiative

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the initiative is adoptable to other contexts eg value addition of products, processing industry, breeding and brooding of chicks

the initiative is sustainable since once the women groups receive their first batch of chicks and they successfully manage to rear them to maturity then they can now have capital to purchase their next brood and increase their production and with time they become self sufficient to build their own capital. through frequent meetings and interractions, the women are able to improve their skills and even expand their expertise on poultry production.

the initiative can be sustainable to decades since its self regulating. once the women feel the financial freedom, they will ensure that they maintain the commitment to the initiative as they would want to continue enjoying the benefits of the economic freedom. the women will transfer the skills to their children and to the other generations that come after. since it is an initiative that is implemented in homesteads, the women are able to run the business but also take care of their homes without straining. the demand for white meat and eggs is increasing everyday due to increased population and desire for people to eat white meat which is believed to be healthy the market for the products will be available both for local consumption and export. ,

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the initiative was evaluated by the Project Evaluation committees of The County Government of Uasin Gishu who went round to visit the beneficiary women groups in every ward in an exercise that took one month. the Evaluation team visited the women groups and wrote their reports which they handed over to the implementing department and the department of finance. women were also given self evaluation forms to fill.

the outcome of the evaluation indicated that 80% percent of the initiatve was successful and it met its intended objective

the indicators that were used were: 1. No. of women groups 2. interviews on life before and after implementation of the initiative 3. Status of Homesteads 4. financial status 5. market surveys on products

the initiative engaged quite a number of stakeholders who played very important roles in the development and implementation of the initiative. the stakeholders include. researchers who were engaged to find out the viability of the initiative, the treasury to ensure that there were enough funds to finance the implementation of the initiative, chick brooding companies to ensure there was sufficient supply of chicks for distribution to the women, feeds processing companies to ensure that there were enough and appropriate feeds for the chicken, the agricultural officers also came in handy to ensure that the women practise good poultry keeping skills. there was also political good will from Members Of The County Assembly who played the oversight role of ensuring that the initiative is well implemented.

key lessons learned from the initiative is that there is still need to reach out to the less fortunate members of the society through empowering them economically through coming up with initiatives that have direct impacts on their lives. the initiative can further be improved by encouraging partnerships with other sectors to increase the number of women who will benefit from such initiatives and finding ways of connecting the women to both local and international markets for their products