Unlocking private sector potential for women’s economic empowerment in Nyanza Region

The Nyanza International Investment Conference, held from 6th to 8th February 2025 in Kisumu, provided a platform for advancing women’s economic empowerment through private sector engagement.

Women’s economic empowerment is at the intersection of rising poverty and economic inequality, rapid changes in technology and demographics impacting the world of work and accelerating climate change. These dynamics pose risks to achieving gender equality and sustainable development. Women face significant barriers such as limited access to productive resources, finance, education, and training. This results in their overrepresentation in precarious, low-wage jobs, especially in the informal economy, where working conditions are often unsafe and access to social protection is limited.

Under the UAE-UN Women Strategic Partnership Framework 2024-2027, focusing on accelerating women’s economic empowerment in Africa and Latin America, UN Women is promoting gender-responsive procurement (GRP), to harness the potential of public and private sector procurement to create equitable opportunities for women entrepreneurs and workers.

UN Women is leveraging GRP in Kenya,  to increase opportunities for women through public and private procurement mechanisms, including building on the existing Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) initiative. Currently, uptake of the 30% affirmative action allocation under AGPO is at 17%. UN Women is collaborating with government procurement officers and private sector stakeholders to raise awareness and strengthen the systems necessary for increasing women’s participation.

As part of this effort, UN Women leveraged the Nyanza International Investment and Development Conference to engage the six County Governments and the present investors to support gender-responsive procurement and investment. The stakeholders had the opportunity to discuss and identify actionable strategies to promote women’s economic empowerment and strengthen systems that foster gender-responsive procurement from women-owned/led and gender-responsive businesses.

UN Women engaged in several high-level meetings with key stakeholders, including bilateral discussions with the Homabay County Governor (pictured above) on integrating gender-responsive policies into county investment frameworks, with the Private Sector Players in Homabay and Migori Counties on exploring partnerships to enhance women’s economic empowerment and with development partners and international organizations on funding opportunities and technical support for women entrepreneurs.

The UN Women Booth served as a focal point for engagement with stakeholders, including government officials, business leaders, women entrepreneurs, and development partners. Activities at the booth featured the display of knowledge materials, reports, and success stories highlighting UN Women’s work on women’s economic empowerment and gender-responsive procurement and investment.

One-on-one discussions were held with potential partners, investors, government representatives, private sector actors, and academia to explore collaborative initiatives promoting women’s participation in economic growth. The booth also facilitated networking among women entrepreneurs to foster potential procurement linkages and hosted interactive sessions, offering tailored advice to women business owners on available procurement opportunities.

The conference placed significant emphasis on investment opportunities, public-private partnerships, and economic growth across various sectors, reinforcing UN Women’s mission to advance women’s economic empowerment through gender-responsive procurement and gender-lens investment.