Women In Micro- And Small-scale Enterprise Development by Louise Dignard

Author:Louise Dignard [Dignard, Louise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General, Sociology
ISBN: 9781000011272
Google: 7ftNEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2021-11-18T04:27:07+00:00

Efforts were made by CDTF to implement these recommendations. Training programs were held on project management and accounting. Special sessions were held for the training of female mill operators, and technical manuals were translated into Kiswahili. When possible, male operators were replaced by women.

Second Program Evaluation and Reorientation

In February 1987, a visit was made to one region in order to assess the impact of the efforts made by the CDTF. Groups in seven villages were studied. The problem areas identified in 1984 were reviewed, but in the course of the visit, other such areas that had not been previously considered were identified; the review of all of these constitute the second program evaluation, an evaluation that is briefly summarized in the following pages.

Absence of Dynamism. The absence of dynamism was quite general, but especially visible in the maize farm projects: here no new farm had been established, and the women's groups in most villages had continued operating the existing enterprises, although all had reverted to using hand hoes instead of tractors. All farms were also unprofitable ventures, with just one exception in a village where the women were generally more successful in their undertakings and where there existed a more obvious genuine support on the part of the village government

Insufficient Number of Trained Female Operators. The case of the maize mill and huller projects are particularly interesting to consider in this respect. These mills and hullers had been installed in five villages. In one of them, the operator was a salaried male worker; however, two women were acting as assistants but only on an unpaid voluntary basis. In another village, a woman had been trained and employed as an operator, but when she became pregnant, she was replaced by a man in order to prevent a similar situation from occurring in the future. In a third village, the female operator, a young woman in her early twenties, was having obvious problems coping with the responsibility of her position; she was prone to hysterics and was generally considered by men and women alike as unfit for the job.

These cases show that not only does each project need a trained female operator, but also that in order to achieve this, it is necessary to train more than one woman per village for this position. This is because women, especially if they are younger, have other responsibilities and need to take leave when they are pregnant and have young children. It seems that, ideally, at least three women per village should be trained to ensure that one will always be available and that they are able to support each other in the new roles they assume.

Weak Financial Control. Financial control was still very poor in all villages, in spite of the new training program designed to provide women with management and accounting skills. There was an obvious need to follow up training programs with on-the-spot assistance to help women put into practice what they had learned in the courses. In some cases, the

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