No description available.

Financial reforms were a major component of structural adjustment programs deemed necessary for developing countries in the mid 1980s. These were not only meant to improve the sector, but would ultimately enhance economic growth and help in poverty alleviation. At the top of these reforms was financial liberalisation. Kenya, like many other sub-Saharan African countries, undertook financial liberalisation in 1991, one of the measures was decontrolling interest rates. With market driven interest rates in place it was assumed that there would be increased efficiency in bank lending, as well as growth in credit availability as deposits increased. A key indicator of this improved intermediation process would be a narrowing interest rates spread, that is, the margin between the deposit and lending rate. Paradoxically, however, the expected benefits of these reforms did not accrue to Kenya's banking sector. This study focuses on financial reforms and the spread of interest rates in Kenya's banking sector. Using a trend analysis, spanning the period before and after liberalisation, interest rates spread are shown to have escalated dramatically upwards after liberalisation. An analysis of three macroeconomic variables, namely, the exchange rate, inflation rate and economic growth offer little, or inconclusive evidence, that they were the main causes of the wide interest rate spread. In fact, the spread is closely linked to institutional/structural factors such as non-competitiveness in the banking sector, imprudent lending practices and poor and/or inadequate banking supervision. Policies for improving the institutional infrastructure and thus moderating the spreads are highlighted.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 202-221). / The training of craftsmen in Kenya is the responsibility of their traditional employer the contractor. However, over the last 20 years, the contractors’ motivation to train has been eroded by increased casualisation. Concurrently, there was growth of the informal procurement system propagated by private sector clients, who have no incentive to train because they are ad hoc consumers of construction services. Together these phenomena led to the collapse of the formal craft training and growth of informal skilling. Currently however, there is a lack of knowledge and understanding of the nature of informal craft training. The intent of this research was to redress this by identifying the types of skills informally employed craftsmen are acquiring, how these skills are acquired and how training delivery can be enhanced. The hypotheses of the research were that the skills and skilling methods in the informal sector do not differ significantly from those in the formal sector and that the nature of training in the informal construction sector is clearly understood.

This thesis is focused on informal sector establishments in Kenya and how they contributes to employment creation, income generation and economic development. The research examines how the informal sector has developed between the years 1986-1989. The study indicates that the informal sector can absorb those people who are unemployed and cannot find jobs in the formal sector. The first chapter describes the definition and interpretation of the informal sector. The discussion of the related .literature, development of the informal sector, politics of the urban informal sector and controversies are described in chapter II. Chapter III describes the regional and sectoral analysis in employment generation. Chapter IV focuses on projections and promotion policies. Concluding remarks and the importance of the informal sector are represented in chapter V.

Food Security can be defined in terms of establishing national or regional minimum nutritional standards, or in terms of securing national or regional self-sufficiency production levels. In this research, food security is viewed from a nutritional-economic standpoint. The prevalence of severe malnutrition and food production instability, especially in Sub-Saharan African Countries, creates the impetus to identify the several economic aspects which characterize the overall food sector and its security floor. Hence, LDC governments, drawing on the WFP (World Food Program) and other international agencies, are interested in formulating a desirable national food strategy which, to a certain degree, secures a balanced national food production sector and consumption pattern. Food aid, in turn, is an essential mechanism designed to serve developmental purposes, such as income redistribution or provision of food as a real resource. Food-for-Work (FFW), as a specific form of food aid programs, represents a short-run food supply shock in the market environment of the recipient country's economy, since it is used as a "bridge" for meeting the basic nutritional requirements of the poorest households in the short-run. In the long-run, FFW can be used for developing infrastructure, creating jobs and advancing working skills, providing additional income to participants, and further improving the overall nutritional status of the poor. Recognizing these features of food aid, this research focused on the empirical estimation of the specific nutritional contribution of a FFW project, implemented at the community level in the Ewalel and Marigat locations of the Baringo District, Rift Valley Province, Kenya. The primary objectives were to measure empirically the magnitude of the FFW contribution on the nutritional status of the participant households, and to determine the relationship between consumption patterns and domestic (local) food prices. In this research, FFW participants' consumption behavior was hypothesized to be differentiated from the non-participants in terms of their income elasticities of demand for nutrients. Also, it was hypothesized that the FFW nutritional contribution to participants was greater than the equivalent net income gains through the value of the FFW provided food items (monetary market value of provided food items). Both hypotheses are supported by the analysis. To determine the course of this research, a two step analytical procedure was followed. First, following Lancaster's conceptual setting on the "Goods' Characteristics Theory." / Master of Science