No description available.

No description available.

Research on gender-based violence in the developing world is finally beginning to get serious attention. But that research is, unfortunately, still overlooking violence to women in the burgeoning slums and informal settlements around the globe. The current study is one of the first to address the issue of gender-based violence in slum communities by presenting both qualitative and quantitative data from Kibera, Kenya—the largest slum in sub-Saharan Africa. Qualitative data were derived from the diaries of twenty women between the ages of 18-30 living in Kibera. Diary data were collected from 2007-2010. Quantitative data were derived from a survey administered to 200 Kiberan women in December, 2009. Results of the study‟s qualitative component show that women in Kibera use three main coping strategies to deal with gender-based violence. Although none of the strategies guarantees a cessation of violence, the endurance and faith strategy appears to be the most frequently chosen strategy and the one most effective in keeping women safe. The study also reveals a parallel between coping strategy and narrative style among the diarists, raising provocative questions about the relationship between journal writing and women‟s agency. Survey results show a higher rate of gender-based violence among women in Kibera (84.5%) than was measured among the general population (39%) in the KDHS (2008). The study also reveals that, although both diarists and survey participants appear to endure gender-based violence more often than they rebel against it, their attitudes toward gender-based violence are anything but accepting. Instead, both diarists and survey participants report that they do not believe gender-based violence is justified and that they are angry and upset over the amount of violence they experience.

Research was undertaken in the region that the research refers to as Western Kenya. This region brings together three cultural groups. In spite of the diversity of the community groups, past research identified development within the region that brought about the culture being shred between the communities. The research undertaken set out to deal with two sets of issues. Firstly, the traditions that were manifest in the rural settlements in terms of kinship relations and patterns of behavior relating to important activities and rituals. There were also the cultural requirements that were jointly performed by kinsmen in the setting of the homestead and the related open outside areas. The second issue is the matter of the continuance of these traditions in the urban settlements One of the basic assumptions underlying this research is the idea that any urban element of a regional town should be based on and influenced by the requirements of the surrounding culture. There are many reasons to support this idea. In most cases the majority of the residents of the regional town would be from the surrounding rural districts. In order that these people have a feeling of belonging in the urban setting, the respective urban elements should be responsive to their social and cultural needs. Further, as an urban area grows and spreads, so it wraps round it and incorporates the surrounding rural areas. It is often the case that the urban elements that are on the edge or periphery of the expanding area are mostly those that are not formally planned. Often the building and planning regulations have not been enforced. Thus there is uncontrolled growth. Past research in some towns has shown that the occupiers of the urban edge and other areas of uncontrolled growth still structure their life according to their cultural beliefs and also their individual and community obligations. The community would continue to hold on to those issues of culture that have been judged as necessary for identity and / or would provide security. The research was structured to collect data from selected rural settlements as well as corresponding urban ones. The urban settlements selected were in the towns of Kisumu and Kisii. These two towns could be easily identified with a particular cultural group. In Kisumu two neighborhoods were selected within the inner sector. In Kisii town, a settlement within the urban periphery, where urban and rural conditions met, was selected. All selected neighborhoods had been part of the urban landscape for over three decades. It was therefore assumed that the pattern of behaviors as well as adaptations made to the respective settings would have stabilized and it would be possible to evaluate the influence of traditional culture. Research was also undertaken in the hinterland of these towns. Case studies were taken of a number of rural settlements. It was assumed that in the rural settlements the integrity of cultural behavior and the corresponding fit between community activities and their respective settings would provide a point of departure for comparison with the urban settlements. This research has found that in both the urban and rural settings, the appropriate use of space is critical to certain important issues, to which far greater meaning is attached than normal daily exchanges. An example is the spatial relationship between the different levels of kinship, the context in which some of the themes for certain rites of passage should be held, and the general setting available for community activities. The research has found that in the region of study particular meaning was attached to the spatial context where some of the cultural activities were enacted. Some celebrations for the rites of passage, forms of kinship relationships and events that involved the community required a specific setting. The research found that some of the cultural events judged as being of social significance were scheduled to take place within the outside open setting. Spatial requirements and the required behaviour between some of the kinship members should be one of the primary reasons influencing the selection of an activity venue. In the town, three forms of development were noticed. The first one is that within any of these towns, the expansion of the edge is an ongoing process. Those people residing in the traditional homesteads are absorbed in the urban territory with a consequent change of context. The second development is that with all the towns, the large size of unplanned neighbourhoods makes them important urban areas having a great social impact. The third is that with the increase of rental dwellers, there is a change from a simple traditional type of settlement to a more complex one, with a related impact on the enactment of traditional rituals and the corresponding usage of the related settings. From the analysis of the data that was collected, this research has developed a recommendation in the form of policy guidelines. This should form part of the policy guidelines that may influence the structuring of some of the elements of a regional town. The types of urban elements provided should attempt to meet local cultural and social needs, and should be capable of providing settings that are congruent with those needs, and should be responsive to the customary usage of the open outside areas where some of the important regional cultures are performed. In this way the neighbourhoods would provide the preconditions for individual and group identity and social security for its dwellers by supporting them in their social and cultural activities and in the continuity of their traditional culture.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Food-for-Work (FFW) was conceived as both a short-run assistance program for meeting basic food needs of low income households, and as a long-run developmental tool for building infrastructure and for providing income to ease capital constraints on farm production. However, it was feared that FFW might divert labor from own-farm production and reduce the level of locally produced food crops. The purpose of this dissertation was to empirically examine these hypotheses in the Ewalel and Marigat locations of Baringo District, Rift Valley Province, Kenya. A househoId-firm model that integrated both production and consumption concerns of FFW was developed. The model was block recursive. First, production decisions were made by maximizing net returns (net income) subject to production constraints. This output (income) was then substituted into the budget constraint, and household utility was maximized subject to this budget constraint and to a total time constraint. The data used in the study was drawn from a representative sample of 300 households were randomly selected in Marigat-Ewalel locations. Of these, 100 were found to be participants in the FFW Project supported by the UN/FAO World Food Program. Food items provided to the program in the study area are maize, beans, and vegetable oil. A two-year linear programming model was developed for the production segment of the model. ln this model, three crops under two technologies and two types of livestock were used. The household consumption component of the model was specified econometrically using systems of demand equations, the Almost ldeal Demand System. Seven commodities including FFW items, five foods, non-food and leisure, were used in the system. The analysis was conducted for both participant and non-participant households to compare levels of production activities, employment, income, and consumption patterns with and without the FFW program. The production component of the analysis revealed that the following results were associated with FFW in the study area: (a) augments own-farm output by contributing to the minimum nutrient 1 requirement, (b) eases the capital-constraint by the second year of participation, (c) increases the marketable surplus from both own-crop and livestock production, (d) increases hired labor in farm production, (e) causes a shift from maize to millet production, and (f) increases savings. As a result, the net income for the representative farm households with FFW is 52% higher than those without FFW; and participation in the FFW program declines by 11% from year 1 to year 2. Thus, disincentive effects on own-farm employment and output were not found in this study. In fact, according to the model used, the FFW Program could be expanded by either increasing the monthly participation hours or the number of participants without resulting in any production disincentive. The results of the entire household-firm model, which reveals the changes in consumption resulting from participation in FFW and changes in income, were derived in elasticity form. Most of the benefits to the representative participant households, as compared to non-participants, take the form of increased consumption of food items. Thus, the primary effects of FFW are to insure participants increased consumption and saving without creating disincentives to either own-farming or to local agricultural production. / Ph. D.

Food insecurity has remained pervasive for most Kenyan livelihoods despite the implementation of substantive interventions by the government and its development partners, since it gained independence in 1963. The inability to isolate distinct determinants of food insecurity for each livelihood group has led to interventions and solutions that have entrenched food insecurity rather than mitigate it. The key impediment to a livelihood-level analysis of food insecurity is the use of data and information collected at district-level administrative units, coupled with the absence of a robust analytical methodology. This study set out to identify determinants of food insecurity for three distinct livelihood groups in Kenya, namely the pastoral, agro-pastoral and marginal agricultural groups. The study also sought to empirically evaluate incremental impacts of identified determinants of food insecurity for each group. The outcomes were intended to inform the selection of particular indicators in order to target, monitor and identify important inter-relationships between variables for each livelihood group. Few studies have applied heterogeneous ordered logit regressions to livelihood-level data to evaluate food security determinants among livelihood groups and a comprehensive livelihood analysis of the determinants of food insecurity has not yet been undertaken in Kenya. Yet, Kenyan livelihoods are highly diverse, and livelihood characteristics transcend administrative boundaries. This study used a heterogeneous ordered logit to model determinants of food security in Kenya. The variables were: conflict, HIV/AIDS, rainfall, flooding, proximity to markets, migration patterns, food consumption sources, income contribution sources and own farm production. Results of significance tests and residual variability from the ordered logistic regression led to the identification of important determinants of food insecurity in each of the three livelihoods. The degree to which each of the variables was influential in accentuating food insecurity in each livelihood, was also evaluated. Determinants of food insecurity and their inter-relationships informed the selection of indicators for monitoring. Proximity to markets seemed to have a marked impact on food security in the pastoral, agropastoral and marginal agricultural livelihood groups. Conflict was influential in determining food insecurity, particularly for the pastoral and agro-pastoral livelihood groups. HIV/AIDS prevalence in the community was critical in determining food security status for the marginal agricultural and agro-pastoral livelihood groups. Rainfall was an important determinant of food insecurity in all the groups. Flooding had no significant impact on food insecurity. The results showed that an increase in the number of food sources improved food security in the pastoral, agro-pastoral and marginal agricultural livelihood groups. A diversity of income sources improved food security in the pastoral and agro-pastoral livelihood groups. The pastoral migration pattern seemed to have a substantial impact on food security especially in the pastoral and agro-pastoral livelihood groups. Own farm production was also influential in determining food security in both groups. The study outcome provides a basis for identification of important monitoring indicators including agro-climatic, trade and market processes, migration dynamics, income and food sources and the stability, settlement patterns, key livelihood and coping strategies in the three livelihood groups. The strong inter-relationships between variables suggest that multiple variables need to be monitored concurrently to address livelihood food insecurity in Kenya. The findings suggest that livelihood approaches are central to identifying determinants of food insecurity in Kenya. The outcomes of the study provide a basis for informing interventions intended to reverse food insecurity in Kenya for each distinct livelihood group. Further research could include an analysis of the impacts of seasonality, an in-depth analysis of the markets and their marked influence in affecting food security, and applications of similar methodologies to evaluate of the food insecurity of livelihood groups that were not covered in this study. Outcomes of this work are expected to provide a basis for formulating livelihood-specific interventions in Kenya. The results will provide a platform for further interrogation of important determinants of livelihood food insecurity by governments, researchers, and development partners. Aspects of the methodologies applied in this study can be replicated in adjacent countries with food security and livelihood characteristics similar to Kenya, such as Ethiopia and Somalia. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.