Nat Katin-Borland, EAC Board Member

In much of the developed world, a primary and secondary public education is an expected service provided by the government.  In Kenya, however, the educational landscape is much different.  Despite a 2003 law mandating universal free primary education for all Kenyan children, the reality is that insufficient funding forces schools to charge students for admission, making a quality education prohibitively expensive for many families. 

In rural Kenya, it is estimated that over half of the population lives on less than $1 per day - that is over 9 million people living in dire poverty.  Weak overall infrastructure for the country means that nearly all the individuals residing in rural areas are forced to rely on subsistence farming for their own food as well as monetary income.  Jobs are scarce, leaving people with little opportunity for employment. 

Women provide the backbone of the rural economy in much of sub-Saharan Africa.  In rural Kenya, about 80% of the economically active female labor force is employed in subsistence agriculture and women comprise about 47 per cent of the total agricultural labor force. Food production is the major activity of rural women and their responsibilities and labor inputs often exceed those of men

Despite their active role in local communities, women have traditionally been denied access to formal education and training, which the UN has identified as a key barrier to women's employment and advancement in Kenya.  In Kenya, female literacy rates hover around 54%, compared to 71% for men.  This disparity stems from many factors including parental preference for sending boys to school, adolescent pregnancy, early marriage and girl's and women's greater responsibility for day-to-day household tasks. 

Data Source: United Nations Development Program