An Assessment of the Business Environment for Waste-to-energy Enterprises and How it Affects Women Entrepreneurs in Kenya

Abstract

Assessing the gender dimension of an investment climate is important when considering strategies to improve the business environment and promote private sector development in the resource, recovery and reuse (RRR) sector. The term investment climate is used synonymously with ‘business environment’ and can be broadly thought of as an environment where businesses operate and where governance and institutions support entrepreneurship and well-functioning markets in order to help generate growth and development (Hallward-Driemeier et al. 2006). In developing countries, women are more likely to work in informal sectors where they are subject to inefficiencies and limitations (Simavi et al. 2010). Women often find it more difficult than men to formalize their businesses due to low levels of education and business skills as well as sociocultural factors which may restrict the female domain to low-level economic activity and the domestic environment (Simavi et al. 2010). Waste-to-energy (WTE) entrepreneurs are faced with the challenges of accessing space, water, financial support and poor perceptions of their product by potential customers (Njenga et al. 2013). Furthermore, women face unique limitations in accessing resources in the informal competitive environment that inhibit their potential to develop their enterprises. Some constraints may affect men and women’s businesses differently and surveys need to be designed to capture these differences. In this study we assess the investment climate for WTE enterprises from a gender perspective