Background
Since 2012, GROOTS Kenya has been implementing the “Accelerating Rural Women’s Access to Agricultural Markets and Trade” Project with funding from the Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) through the World Bank. The project was conceived against the backdrop of entrenched gender inequalities in Kenya’s agricultural sector, where women, despite being the backbone of smallholder farming, face systemic barriers in accessing markets, finance, productive assets, extension services, infrastructure, and decision-making spaces. These barriers have historically limited women’s productivity, reduced their returns from agricultural labour, and constrained their ability to benefit meaningfully from agricultural markets and trade. It also built on GROOTS Kenya’s longstanding experience as a national women-led movement that has, since 1995, organized grassroots women to engage in collective action, leadership, advocacy, and community development. The project drew from GROOTS Kenya’s existing strengths in women’s group formation, participatory community processes, community-led advocacy, peer learning, mentorship, and practical livelihood support. In this sense, the initiative represented both a response to structural inequalities in agriculture and an organic progression of GROOTS Kenya’s broader mission to strengthen grassroots women as agents of social and economic transformation. The original project design was informed by participatory consultations and prior analytical work on women’s access to markets and trade, and it was anchored in approaches that GROOTS Kenya had already tested and refined through its movement practice.
From the onset, the project adopted a value chain approach, focusing on three enterprises: horticulture, dairy, and indigenous poultry. In Nakuru, the selected value chains were horticulture and dairy, while in Kitui, the project focused on horticulture and indigenous poultry, reflecting the differing agro-ecological and livelihood realities of the two counties. The project was further designed around five mutually reinforcing components: organizing women farmers to work collectively for economic empowerment; enhancing women’s lobbying and advocacy capacities for essential services and factors of production; strengthening women’s business capacities and market linkages; improving women’s access to financial services and enterprise support; and ensuring project management, monitoring, and evaluation. Since then, the project has organized 677 farmer groups across Kitui and Nakuru in the following constituencies: Molo, Kuresoi North, Kuresoi South, Naivasha, Subukia, Bahati, Nakuru town West, Rongai, Njoro in Nakuru County, and Kitui Rural, Kitui West, Kitui Central, Kitui South, Kitui East, Mwingi North, Mwingi Central, and Mwingi West in Kitui County.
The project also sought to strengthen women’s market participation through business development, coaching, and enterprise support. The project supported 401 women to emerge as lead entrepreneurs, while many others now run small-scale and group-based enterprises. Women farmers were linked to formal and informal markets through market champions, collective marketing structures, and relationships with buyers and processors. An evaluation conducted in 2017 found that the project had substantially improved women’s business participation and incomes, noting that the average monthly farm income of participating farmers rose by 488.6% from KES 8,396 at the baseline to KES 49,416, while many beneficiaries reported stronger decision-making power, higher productivity, and improved household wellbeing. The farmers were also able to secure and service market contracts with Happy Cow, Olenguruone Cooperative, Norda Industries, among others.
A further distinguishing element of the project was its financial inclusion component. The original design envisioned a pathway through which women would progressively strengthen their savings culture, financial literacy, access to affordable credit, and enterprise growth through structured financial mechanisms. This included grant and loan instruments under the wider Seed Grant Fund architecture, and later the operationalization of a co-guarantee based financing arrangement to support women’s access to credit through formal banking channels. As such, in 2015, GROOTS Kenya entered into a partnertship with a commercial bank to operationalize Group Revolving Funds (GRF) for amounts below KES 100,000 and Lead Entrepreneur Funds (LEF) for larger individual enterprise investments above KES 100,000, which formed the foundation of the financial inclusion model. This co-guarantee financing model has undergone several iterations to adapt to borrower feedback and changes in the external market. To date, the partnership with the commercial bank has advanced loans amounting to KES 106,118,600 to 1825 borrowers.
Parallel to the Guaranteed Fund, GROOTS Kenya, drawing from its historical experience in advancing affordable credit to rural women, established a SACCO in 2017 and continues to provide credit to the target group and beyond to date. This trajectory is important because it reflects a longer-term institutional intention to build sustainable, women-responsive financing pathways beyond the life of externally supported guarantee arrangements. The SACCO, therefore, forms part of the broader story of how GROOTS Kenya has sought to deepen women’s access to appropriate financial services over time, drawing lessons from the project while exploring more sustainable internal and community-rooted financing mechanisms.
Purpose and objectives of the Assignment
The purpose of this assignment is to undertake an impact assessment of the Access to Agricultural Markets and Trade Fund (Co- Guarantee Fund) held by the Commercial bank. The assessment will aim to analyse the barriers and enablers to accessing the co-guarantee fund. The assessment will further document lessons learned, unintended outcomes, and viable options for strengthening or redesigning financial inclusion approaches.
Specific Objectives:
Key Deliverables
The consultant will be responsible for delivering the following outputs:
Knowledge Products: Include a success story and case study compendium; and a PowerPoint presentation summarizing key findings, lessons, and recommendations for the board, funding partners, and management users.
Consultant Qualifications and Experience
Commencement of Consultancy
The consultancy is expected to commence on 25th May 2026.
Application Requirements and Process
Interested consultants/firms must submit:
Applications should be sent to talent@grootskenya.org with the subject line. Impact Assessment Consultancy by EOD 6th May 2026
Tagged as: Agriculture, Food Security and Livelihoods
Source ⇲
ReliefWeb - Jobs
Organization: Ektimisi Closing date: 30 Apr 2026 Position Title: Gender Expert ConsultantEngagement Type: On-Call, Assignment-BasedLocation: Remote and/or Field-Based (depending on...
Apply For This JobJob no: 592693 Contract type: Consultant Duty Station: Vientiane Level: Consultancy Location: Lao People’s Democratic Republic Categories: Health UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories...
Apply For This JobInternational Consultant providing technical support to improve the early childhood development component in preschool teacher training and development programs, Ashgabat,...
Apply For This JobCountry: Madagascar Organization: International Union for Conservation of Nature Closing date: 9 May 2026 Consultant for Developing an Awareness-Raising Toolkit...
Apply For This JobOrganization: Evidence Action Closing date: 1 May 2026 We highly recommend that you refer to the formal RFP here. About...
Apply For This JobCountry: Jordan Organization: ActionAid Closing date: 11 May 2026 Terms of Reference (TOR)Consultant for Design and Resource Mobilization Women Friendly...
Apply For This Job
In order to provide an optimal experience, we use technologies such as cookies to store and/or access information on your device. This allows us to analyze navigation, personalize content, and improve the functionality of the site. Refusal or withdrawal of consent may limit certain features or affect the performance of the site.