Kigoda Pwani (Ambassador Grant)

Kenya

Dates: 2021 - 2022

Enhancing women’s role in employment

Team Kigoda Pwani build upon their previous research to understand what barriers women in particular face in seeking employment.

Following the success of their first research project in 2020, in which Kigoda Pwani aimed to identify why young people from Mvita sub-county are not engaging in the civic space, the team wanted to dig deeper into the issue and focus on reducing unemployment and underemployment amongst young women in Mombasa county as a whole.

The team conducted survey-led research to better understand the impact of gender gaps in the workforce and the issues women in face in technical and vocational training that create obstacles for their employment.

Through their research, they found that many young people in Mombasa were unaware of the opportunities available to them and didn’t know where to look. They surveyed over a hundred young people from Mvita subcounty and organised meetings with County government to understand where young people were seeking information, why they weren’t finding it and what was keeping them from applying when they did. They concluded that, in addition to better communication from local government, young people wanted more skills-based training, entrepreneurship grants and loans, and mentorship programmes.

Young people reached online

60,500

Youtube views

23,000

Meaningful mentorship for successful career development

Kigoda Pwani used this research as a basis to train 20 young women in identifying relevant and accessible training and mentorship opportunities, and developed an online awareness-raising campaign, which included educational posters, videos and webinars targeted at 250 young women from across the sub-County, highlighting various paths to socio-economic empowerment.

The campaign reached over 60,000 people on both Facebook and YouTube. Their project’s beneficiaries related to the content as it touched on the real issues they were facing in their lives.

The youth team partnered with a rugby academy and media company to expand its impact and reach among women looking to receive career development and mentorship training. Through this partnership, Kigoda Pwani is able to continue facilitating training sessions and connect with more young people in Kenya beyond its initial campaign.