Global trade Nigeria
http://www.cgtd.com/global/africa/nigeria.htm
http://allafrica.com/nigeria/
http://odili.net/nigeria.html
http://www.nigeria.com/
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Country_Specific/Nigeria.html
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/ngtoc.html
http://www.omodunbi.com/
KenyaWeb: Trade
http://www.kenyaweb.com/economy/trade/index.html
New US Policy Stimulates Trade With African States
http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/develop/2001/0821agoa.htm
International Trade Centre (Select “Kenya”)
http://www.intracen.org/menus/countries.htm
pesticides
http://www.american.edu/TED/KENPEST.HTM
Who's To Blame For Negative Impacts
http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/econ/africa.htm
Environment
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-09-02.html
Friends of the Earth Europe: What Is Trade?
http://www.foeeurope.org/trade/TRADEfinal1.pdf
general issue
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative: Kenya
http://www.ustr.gov/html/2001_kenya.pdf
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/sitc1/2001/c7790.html#01
Africa-U.S. Trade News
http://www.marekinc.com/TradeUSA060201.html
The impact of globalization on women in Kenya
http://www.econewsafrica.org/globalmar01.html
More losers than winners from WTO’s “free trade”
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/losers.htm
Bailouts or bankers, burdens for women
http://www.50years.org/factsheets/bailouts.html
Experiences of women, food security and structural adjustment programmes in rural
Kenya
http://www.aprodev.net/pub2a.htm#chap5
A study prepared for the Department for International Development (DFID) UK
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:oHFjC0SG8vk:www.ids.ac.uk/bridge/re42.pdf+i
mpact+of+global+trade+on+families+in+Kenya&hl=en
Kenya’s GNP Gets a Boost from Tea Exports as Living Standards Fall for Women And
Their Families
http://www.wedo.org/news/Mar01/global.htm
A Safer World for Women and Children I: Reflections on Economic Justice from the
Decade Festival
http://www.churchwomen.org/newcwu/cwu/DecadeArchives/Reptwo.html
Households and historical change on plantations in Kenya
http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu10we/uu10we0n.htm
Kenya suffers from all the problems associated with rapid urbanization
http://www.childhopeuk.org/africa.htm
Some of the general causes of poverty amongst rural women in Kenya are:
http://www.users.bigpond.com/ucrc/PROGRAMS/GENDER/GENDER.HTM
Experiences of women, food security and structural adjustment
programmes in rural Kenya
Hellen Jepkerich Too-Yego, Christian Community Services of the Anglican
Church of Kenya
Women provide 75 to 80 percent of the labour force in Kenyan agriculture but receive only 40 to 60 per
cent of the benefits. While women produce some three-quarters of the food, there are no specific strategies
to help them. With the advent of Kenya’s structural adjustment programmes, they are now having to work
harder to sustain food security.
Before the colonial era, Kenyans had well-designed systems of food security; food was stored for when
times were hard. Under colonialism, settlers introduced exotic crops which they grew and sold for cash.
Government policy favoured this commercialisation of agriculture.
Following independence, land tenure systems were introduced that encouraged local people to participate
in the commercial production of crops such as coffee, sugar, tea and pyrethrum that were geared to the
export market. Wheat, hybrid maize and Irish potatoes were introduced and also improved dairy cows. As
farmers became dependent on monocropping, so traditional farming systems began to disintegrate. This led
to the neglect of food storage and to a rise in food insecurity.
The Kenyan government’s agricultural policies encouraged improved varieties of grain and livestock with
the aim of increasing production for both the domestic and export markets. With the use of subsidised farm
inputs, credit and controlled marketing, the government created an attractive business atmosphere for
agriculture. It hoped that farmers would be able to meet the demand for food at the local level and earn
money from exporting. But food and other economic crises in the 1970s, coupled with rapid population
growth, put food security under pressure. In 1981 the IMF and the World Bank proposed a structural
adjustment programme (SAP). This has had a direct impact on agriculture and trade.
Structural adjustment
Kenya’s SAP recommended a reduction in the government’s budget deficit and import taxes, and in the
number of civil servants. It required the privatisation of government parastatals and the liberalisation of
agricultural trade. The aim was to help re-build the economy and increase the productivity of agriculture
and trade. But this has not happened. The recommendations have had a negative effect on food security,
trade and agriculture in rural Kenya.
The outcome has been:
freer trade in farm produce, but without adequate information for farmers. Lower prices for agricultural
produce have often resulted;
the liberalisation of food imports has caused food dumping in local markets, in the form of wheat from
the US, the EU and India, sugar from the EU and Brazil, maize from South Africa and rice from
Pakistan. This has hit prices of locally produced foods;
an increase in the prices of farm inputs, putting them beyond the reach of most small farmers;
the removal of credit schemes, causing a reduction in land being cultivated with crops and a decline in
food output;
reduction in government veterinary services, causing decreased livestock, meat and milk production;
reduction in government subsidies to schools. Universal primary education has been phased out.
There has been a 35 per cent drop in children enrolling in primary schools, and also a higher drop-out
rate in secondary schools.
As a result of these SAP effects, poverty has increased in the rural areas. This is characterised by persistent
food deficits, poor infrastructure, poor medical services, decreased incomes, increased alcoholism,
hooliganism and loss of any reasonable protection for farmers. A recent report on development and poverty
revealed that 47 per cent of Kenyans are absolutely poor in the rural areas (compared with 29 per cent in
urban areas), and that the poor have higher fertility rates, with an average of 6.5 family members, against
4.6 for the non-poor. It found that 8.9 per cent of the poor cannot afford medical services, that they do not
buy durable goods, and that only 14 per cent of the children of poor families attend secondary school,
compared with 27 per cent of the children of non-poor families.
Furthermore, 34 per cent of Kenyan children under 5 now suffer from stunted growth due to malnutrition.
This is an increase from 28 per cent in 1981, when the SAP started.
Role of women in food security
Kenyan women are in charge of food gathering, preparation, preservation and storage, all the year round.
Traditionally, women have grown a wide range of food crops, including small grains, pulses, root crops and
wild green vegetables, often on a shifting cultivation basis. Their systems have depended on seed selection
and preservation.
The cash economy and new agricultural technologies have now reduced women’s traditional role. The new
technologies brought about the need to incorporate fertilisers, chemicals and mechanisation into food
production. Eating habits have changed, as maize has replaced millet and sorghum, and exotic beans have
replaced local pulses. Nutritious, traditional foods have been lost as a result, again causing food insecurity
and increased competition for land between export and food crops.
"Modern" agriculture focuses on large-scale farms that produce for the market. These farms receive a good
deal of financial support. Yet 70 per cent of Kenya’s agriculture is undertaken by small-scale farmers who
receive little support. Women farmers are overwhelmingly in the small-scale farmer sector. With few
resources and little access to decision making, they frequently work twice as long as men.
Looking after the kitchen garden is a key task for women and vital for food security. Buying seeds – mostly
local varieties – and manures has to be done on a limited budget. The biggest challenge is fencing their
garden to protect it from damage by animals. With most women unable to afford permanent fences, food
output and security often suffer.
Effects of the SAP on rural women
The SAP has had some positive effects. It has enabled rural women to engage in micro and small
enterprises in village markets. As a result of freer marketing, women can now sell and buy farm produce
like milk, maize, beans and vegetables, and some have increased their incomes.
But the positive effects have been outweighed by the negative. Women are generally worse off today than
in 1981.
As a result of the SAP, many cannot afford adequate chemicals and fertilisers, and farm output has
declined. With kitchen gardens unable to compensate, many families are eating fewer meals each day.
People can now afford to eat only once a day or twice if they are lucky. And they no longer expect
nutritious food, but any food they can get. Lower food output and rising prices make it harder for women to
buy food for their family in the market place. Other basics such as safe water, decent housing and access to
health facilities are a distant dream for many.
The government needs to implement agricultural and rural development policies that give greater priority to
the development of rural economies, and to both women and men farmers.
Christian Community Services (CCS) was formed by the Anglican Church of Kenya in the dioceses of
Kitale and Eldoret in 1985 as the development department of the church. CCS has six programmes –
integrated rural development, family planning, small scale business, community–based rehabilitation,
development awareness and a Christian Intermediate Technology Centre. The programmes were built on
the Chinese proverb – "give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him
and his family for a long while".
Today, however, the programmes face a new challenge – the upstream of the river is getting polluted by
more powerful people and fish downstream are dying, leaving the poor without fish. Programme strategies
now have to go beyond fishing.
Hellen Jepkerich Too-Yego works for Christian Community Services of the Anglican
Church of Kenya.