...studies have linked child prostitution to an increased risk of both internalized and externalized mental health disorders as well as, physical disorders or ailments triggered by underage sex. However, despite that knowledge, few laws in Kenya have been influenced or altered in outlawing Child prostitution and...
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...of poverty The World Bank states: “Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being ill and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having the ability to go to school and not being able to read. Poverty is being in unemployment. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom.” (World Bank, as cited in Lang 2007, p.31). More than three billion people live on less than $2.50 a day which is approximately half the world’s population. In 2005, the developing world had about 72 million children of primary school age not enrolled in school; of this 72 million, 57 percent of them were girls. Each year, 2.2 million children die because they lack immunisation (Globalissues.org, 2013). This essay will discuss the fundamental determinants of poverty with the two main contenders being geography and institution. It would also discuss the proximate determinants of poverty in Kenya. What causes poverty is an important question when trying to explain poverty, but it is not one which can easily be answered. These causes can be grouped into ‘proximate’, ‘intermediate’ and ‘fundamental’ causes of poverty. The proximate cause is the ‘nearest cause’ in the chain of causation, ABCDE. The fundamental cause is what sets the chain of causation in motion. The fundamental cause of E is A, and B, C and D are intermediate causes (Rycroft 2009, p.232). In order to design a policy to reduce poverty, identifying...
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...INEQUALITY IN KENYA INTRODUCTION After independence, the few educated Kenyans easily acquired wealth, without competition, and major changes since then has spawned few rich people because this group perfected ways of ensuring that wealth does not leak out, including marrying among themselves. Distribution of benefits of economic growth has been one of Kenya’s biggest challenges in its quest for long term prosperity and stability putting the suitability of the trickle-down economics that Presidents use after coming to power under intense scrutiny. Recent events in Kenya have cast a disturbing light on the depth and complexity of social distress in the country. The conflict arising from the disputed presidential elections has roots in inequality, poverty, poor governance and a host of other issues. However the major underlying issue is clearly the perception of deliberate unfairness and inequality in the distribution of national resources. However it can also be argued that beyond the real biases in resource allocation is the widespread failure of the State due to deliberate policies of retreat compounded by unchecked corruption. Poverty has progressively deepened as the state has reduced its provisioning of social services. This retreat of the state has been coincident with the slow and persistent decline that characterized the country’s economic performance from the 1980’s until the turn of the century. Thus narrowing economic perspectives due to declining economic growth...
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...CARE Kenya Providing New Opportunities Through Empowering Individuals and Communities CARE International is a non-political, non-religious global network of humanitarian organizations with a goal to reduce poverty. It was founded in 1946 with a mission to help individuals and families living in the poorest communities in the world get out of poverty. According to Tom Ewart (2005), CARE also helps to promote innovative solutions and lasting change by strengthening capacity for self-help, providing economic opportunities, and delivering relief in emergencies to more than 45 million people every year. Some of the countries that CARE operates projects in are Indonesia, Jamaica, and Zimbabwe. According to Ewart’s 2005 case study, in 2003 CARE’s budget was $1.08 million. Most money came from federal governments, multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, the United Nations, and the International Fund for Agriculture and Developments (IFAD). One of the countries in Africa that CARE has managed to develop their project in is Kenya. CARE Kenya is one of CARE International’s branches in Africa managing developments and humanitarian organizations. The largest goal of CARE Kenya is to reduce poverty at a household level and to provide relief in emergencies. In 2004, CARE Kenya employed about 300 people and had a budget of nearly $1.04 million (Ewart, 2005). Currently, CARE Kenya carries out significant initiatives in Health and HIV/AIDS, water and environmental sanitation...
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...Mobile phone has been a daily necessity towards every human in almost every age group. Mobile phones nowadays are capable of so many things compared to the first ever mobile phone that was created in 1970s that looked like a brick with an antenna. As the title suggest, mobile phone ownership has exploded globally. This could be confirmed as the use of mobile phones are expanding to not only MEDC like the U.S., but also the LEDCs like Kenya. Even though the use of phone has exploded, but the usage of mobile phones in the two countries mentioned are different, which also made The US a periphery and Kenya as a core in terms of the mobile phone usage. The use of mobile phones in America is very wide as 90% of them owns a mobile phone and 64% of these people owns a smartphone. All these smartphone users are “smartphone dependent” because the smartphone can do almost everything from calculating to providing information through the internet. Most of the Americans used their mobile phone to send or receive text messages or accessing the internet. There are also a contrast between the high income population and the lower income population which creates a big disparity in percentage of mobile phone ownership. This could be proven because the there are more people with higher education that are using mobile phones compared to people who only studied up to high school. Besides that, people who have higher income would have the highest probability of owning a personal mobile phone compared...
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...Some Experiences From Kenya Wafula NABUTOLA, Kenya Key words: Affordable, Mortgage, Sweat Equity, Home, House, Space, Settlements. SUMMARY Shelter is a physiological human need. It is like food. So much so that even those who cannot afford it still need it. By its nature housing represents a major investment requiring a substantial capital outlay. In the majority of housing projects, the developer whether as a corporate or individual has to borrow, beg or steal! Kenya’s GDP is reasonably large but is not growing at the rate that would be classified as booming. In fact the population growth at 2.9% is higher than the GDP growth at 1.1%. These are 2002 figures and therefore are quite current. The purchasing power parity is USD 346.00 per annum. The income per capita per day is USD 0.95! At that rate affordability of anything let alone housing is a big challenge. I am interested in this study because I know that more than one third of Kenyans (12 million – 9 million in rural and 3 million in urban areas) in both the urban and rural areas do not have access to decent and affordable housing. This study seeks to uncover the root causes and effects of abject poverty and suggest ways and means of mitigating those circumstances. TS12 – Housing – Costs and Finance Wafula Nabutola TS12.2 Affordable Housing – Some Experiences from Kenya FIG Working Week 2004 Athens, Greece, May 22-27, 2004 1/17 Affordable Housing – Some Experiences From Kenya Wafula NABUTOLA, Kenya 1. THE CONSTRAINTS...
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...American International Journal of Contemporary Research Vol. 4 No. 1; January 2014 Kenya’s Social Development Proposals and Challenges: Review of Kenya Vision 2030 First Medium-Term Plan, 2008-2012 Ezekiel Mbitha Mwenzwa Department of Social Sciences Karatina University P. O. Box 1951, Karatina, Kenya. Joseph Akuma Misati Department of Sociology Maasai Mara University P. O. Box 861 20500, Narok, Kenya. Abstract Kenya faces several development challenges including poverty, disease, unemployment, negative civic engagement among others. The development bottlenecks worsened following the introduction of the IMF/World Bank-propelled Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) of the late 1970s and early 1980s. While the SAPs had envisaged benefits, they largely became part of the problem rather than the solution to development in Kenya. Accompanying these were negative civic engagements, particularly, ethnic conflict and political maladministration especially after the re-introduction of multiparty politics in the early 1990s. These drawbacks notwithstanding, development planning went on culminating in the Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation (ERSWEC) 2003-2007 in 2002 and its successor, the Kenya Vision 2030 in 2007. While the former was implemented, the latter is on course with the First Five Year Medium-Term Plan running from 2008 to 2012 recently concluded. The blueprint is driven by three pillars, namely; The economic, social and...
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...CHAPTER 1 1.0 INTRODUCTION The concept of micro finance is not new in the world, sub-Sahara Africa and in Kenya. Savings and credit groups have operated for centuries all over the world. They include the Chit Funds of India, Tandas in Mexico, and Arisan in Indonesia. In Africa such groups consist the “Susu” of Ghana, BOSCA of Botswana, ADESSI of Burkina Faso, ACCORD of Uganda, Zusa of Zambia among others. In Kenya on the other hand Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) include Faulu Kenya, Kenya Women Finance Trust (KWFT), KUSCCO (Kenya Union of Savings and Credit Cooperatives), Economical Locus Fund (ECLOF), Small and Medium Enterprise Programme (SMEP), Kenya Small Traders and Entrepreneurs Society (KSTES), the Kenya Post Savings Bank (KPSOB) and Vintage Management (Jitegemee Trust). Microfinance is the provision of financial services to low income households and micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs). The sector provides an enormous support to the economic activities of the poor thus contributing to poverty alleviation. Micro finance is usually understood to entail the provision of financial services to micro entrepreneurs and small businesses, which lack access to banking and related services due to the high transaction costs associated with serving these clients’ categories. The two main mechanisms for the delivery of financial services to such clients are relationship based banking for individual entrepreneurs and small businesses; and group based models, where...
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...away with excessive and blatant abuses of democratic leadership governance and transparency. Moreover, the technological revolution presupposes the free movement of goods, information, and people across national boundaries. It has an effect on employment patterns worldwide by the contribution to a great deal of outsourcing which is one of the best organizational and industry structure shifts these changes the way business operates. Further, Globalization is changing organizational structures where expenses can move up or down as the business climate dictates. In terms of positive economic opportunities globalization is the establishment of new economic opportunities for corporations, small businesses, through the access to global markets. Kenya has benefited from globalization by increasing the share of exports especially to the more industrialized African countries, for example; South Africa and Zimbabwe represent small markets for Kenyan goods. Moreover, South Africa plays a great role in Kenya’s economic sustainability due to the opening of trade policy in 1994, which had resulted in the increase of Kenya’s imports from Africa by 80%. In addition, one of the fundamental reasons for the...
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...The tourism industry has developed into one of the most powerful industries in the world. The impacts of tourism development growth can produce both benefits and costs to the host nation. In order to eliminate the negativities caused by tourism, and provide a more sustainable future for the ever-expanding industry, Government’s need to be actively involved throughout. However, the extent of their involvement is disputed. The Government’s of such nations must try to develop initiatives that will not only carry on boosting their economy through the maturity of tourism, but sufficiently limit the damage to the environment, all whilst protecting their own nation’s cultures, and in doing so; creating a more sustainable future. The WTO (1993) defines sustainable tourism as ‘meeting the needs of the present tourists and host regions whilst protecting and enhancing opportunity for the future.’ It also illustrates that sustainable development strategies must stress the need for due regard to be given to the ‘long-term appropriate use of natural and human resources’. Essentially, in order to achieve sustainability in tourism, the long term effects and impacts need to be assessed over the mass market. By developing sustainable forms of tourism in some areas, other areas that may be affected as a result of this are simply ignored. As Klemm (1992) suggests, ‘the real challenge for the future it to provide sustainable tourism for the mass market’. As the mass market is not given enough consideration...
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...biomass energy Introduction Kenya faces a number of economic, social and environmental challenges. During a period of 40 years, the country fell from one of the most promising developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa, both in terms of growth and social development, to a stagnated economy struggling to find a new roadmap of sustained growth. Between 1972 and 2003, for example, despite real GDP growing at an annual average rate of about 3.3 per cent, per capita real GDP only grew at about 0.2 per cent per annum, reflecting growing population The high growth rate in 2004 is partly attributable to the adoption of a new data system, the SNA 1993, which added hitherto poorly captured economic sectors such as SMEs and the horticultural sector. Available data also revealed that real per capita income in 2003 (about US$426) was well below the figure the country achieved in the late 1970s. In 2003, the economy continued with its gradual economic recovery by posting a real economic growth rate of 1.8 per cent, up from 1.2 per cent in 2002. The recovery strengthened further in 2004 when the economy grew 4.3 per cent4 and in 2005, 5 per cent. Despite these gains, however, the country’s poverty status remains largely unchanged. It is estimated that it would take 350 years for real capita income to double from its level in 2003. Cost of energy The high cost of energy is one of the biggest bottlenecks to economic activity in the country (KIPPRA, 2005). Kenya continues to lose out on foreign...
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...Orphans in Africa: Poverty and School Enrollment 483 ORPHANS IN AFRICA: PARENTAL DEATH, POVERTY, AND SCHOOL ENROLLMENT* ANNE CASE, CHRISTINA PAXSON, AND JOSEPH ABLEIDINGER We examine the impact of orphanhood on children’s school enrollment in 10 sub-Saharan African countries. Although poorer children in Africa are less likely to attend school, the lower enrollment of orphans is not accounted for solely by their poverty. We find that orphans are less likely to be enrolled than are nonorphans with whom they live. Consistent with Hamilton’s rule, the theory that the closeness of biological ties governs altruistic behavior, outcomes for orphans depend on the relatedness of orphans to their household heads. The lower enrollment of orphans is largely explained by the greater tendency of orphans to live with distant relatives or unrelated caregivers. I n a follow-up to the 2001 noted that nearlyGeneral Assembly Specialare suffering HIV/ United Nations Session on AIDS, UNAIDS researchers 40% of the countries that from a generalized AIDS epidemic lack a national policy to support children “orphaned or made vulnerable by AIDS” (Joint United Nations Programme 2003:12). This is an important issue in sub-Saharan Africa, where the death of prime-aged adults from HIV/AIDS has led to pronounced concentrations of orphans. Recent Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) have indicated that in Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, nearly 15% of all children under age 15 have lost...
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...Nowadays, people are depending on charity to help them in times of need. In some cases charities are good, but other cases, charities are bad. When people sit down to wait for charities to be given to them, they appear to be lazy. Jacqueline Novogratz, the author of the Blue Sweater, in chapter 6 explains the reasons why the people were depending on donors. There were two charity projects in Kenya which encouraged the beneficiaries’ dependency on donors; these are poultry project and water To begin with, the poultry project helped the women’s groups in Kenya rely on donors. This was a Poultry project specifically designed for eggs production and chickens. For instance, the women needed this project to enable them generate income for their families and communities. The women began to sell the eggs and chickens to the...
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...EMPOWERMENT IN KENYA: A SURVEY OF MERU COUNTY A Research Project Submitted to the School of Human Resource Development in Partial Fulfillment for the Award of the Degree of Executive Master Of Business Administration of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology JULY 2013 CHAPTER ONE Introduction 1.1 Background information Several studies show that access to microfinance contributes to poverty reduction, particularly for women participants, and to overall poverty reduction at the village level. It also contributes to women empowerment, including higher levels of mobility, political participation and decision making. According to the State of the Microcredit Summit Campaign 2001 Report, 14.2 million of the world’s poorest women now have access to financial services through specialized microfinance institutions (MFIs), banks, NGOs, and other nonbank financial institutions. These women account nearly 74 percent of the 19.3 million of the world’s poorest people now being served by microfinance institutions. Most of these women have access to credit to invest in businesses that they own and operate themselves. Microfinance programs have been deemed to have the potential to transform power relations and empower the poor—both men and women. As a consequence, microfinance has become a central component of many donor agencies’ and national governments’ gender, poverty alleviation, and...
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...Disaster Risk Management Hydrometeorological hazards such as floods, droughts and tropical cyclones afflict many regions of the world, but their impact in terms of lives lost and livelihoods disrupted tends to fall most heavily on the poor in developing countries. Climate change threatens to heighten these impacts in many areas, both by changing the frequency and/or intensity of extreme events and by bringing changes in mean conditions that may alter the underlying vulnerability of populations to hazards. The result in the decades to come may be an increase in the global burden of weather-related disasters: events that can threaten the sustainability of development processes and undermine progress toward poverty reduction. Holistic management of disaster risk requires action to reduce impacts of extreme events before, during and after they occur, including technical preventive measures and aspects of socio-economic development designed to reduce human vulnerability to hazards. Approaches toward the management of climate change impacts also have to consider the reduction of human vulnerability under changing levels of risk. A key challenge and opportunity therefore lies in building a bridge between current disaster risk management efforts aimed at reducing vulnerabilities to extreme events and efforts to promote climate change adaptation. There is a need to understand better the extent to which current disaster management practices reflect future adaptation needs and assess...
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