By Ufadhili Trust
Kenya’s flower sector is one of the country’s key foreign exchange earners besides fruits/ vegetables, tea, tourism, and diaspora remittances. The sector is estimated to employ over 500,000 people, with over 100,000 employed directly by flower farms, and indirectly impacts over 2 million livelihoods (Central Bank of Kenya, 2021). The country exports flowers to over 60 destinations globally, with Europe being the largest market. The Netherlands is one of the most important trade hubs for Kenyan flowers, with about 50 percent of all Kenyan flowers being sold through the Dutch auction markets.
Recently, there have been calls from various stakeholders for the sector to invest more in women workers, with over 70 percent of the workers employed directly by the sector being women. This can be done by initiating innovative and collaborative solutions to advance women’s economic resilience in the workplace. Women Win, through its Win-Win Strategies brand, is one of the stakeholders working with the flower sector in Kenya, aiming to promote gender equality by addressing the various issues that women workers face in the workplace.
According to Kimberly Schoenmaker, Programmes Coordinator, Win-Win Strategies (Women Win), investing in women is essential to the success and sustainability of many flower companies.
She notes, “Women workers form the backbone of many sectors, including the flower sector. Their labour and contributions are essential to the success of floriculture companies. It is therefore important that flower farms support women workers to ensure their well-being and create sustainable empowerment opportunities for them. When women workers are safe, supported, and empowered, this is not only beneficial for themselves and their communities, but is also likely to lead to greater job satisfaction, greater productivity, and overall beneficial outcomes for the flower farms.”
Even though the sector has made progress in addressing some of the challenges women face, more needs to be done. Some of these challenges include access to healthcare/sexual reproductive health rights, access to fair recruitment and promotion opportunities, career progression, labour rights, and participation in decision-making, among others.
To address these ongoing issues, the industry’s umbrella body, the Kenya Flower Council (KFC), has initiated several initiatives and entered into collaborations with stakeholders, particularly women’s rights organisations (WROs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), to mainstream gender issues. By partnering with WROs and NGOs, the sector will benefit immensely from the expertise of these organisations on women’s rights issues, from both local and international perspectives.
Ambassador Elkanah Odembo, Acting Executive Director of Ufadhili Trust, one of the organisations actively working to improve gender equality within the sector, notes that such collaborations make the industry more sustainable by embracing international best practices.
A collaboration approach
“Collaboration between flower farms and different stakeholders is critical for not only the well-being of the workers but also for the sustainability of the sector,” notes Odembo.
The United Nations Economic and Social Council in 1997 defined gender mainstreaming as:
“The process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in all areas and at all levels. It is a strategy for making women’s as well as men’s concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated…” The ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality.
Currently, the KFC, in collaboration with Women Win, is working with several WROs and NGOs on gender mainstreaming and women’s economic empowerment and resilience initiatives. These organisations include; Center for Rights Education and Awareness (CREAW), Community Initiative for Change and Development (CIFCAD), Haki Mashinani, Ufadhili Trust, Uzuri Wetu Foundation, Women’s Empowerment Link (WEL), Workers Rights Watch (WRW) and others.
Clement Tulezi, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KFC, notes that, over the years, women have continued to be disadvantaged due to some of the prevailing structural barriers. As such, the industry is working with stakeholders to address these issues.
Tulezi states, “The area of gender is critical because about 70 percent of the workforce is women. Therefore, we have to work very closely with civil society organisations as well as cultivate partnerships with many organisations. For us, we believe that gender mainstreaming is the way to go because women have had some disadvantages, which are either cultural, educational, and many more.”
At Florensis flower farm, located in Naivasha, Florence Obonyo, the Human Resource and Sustainability Officer, notes that the farm has also done significant work on gender mainstreaming by aligning its operations with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as Goal 5 on gender equality and Goal 17 on partnerships for the goals. The company’s open-door policy, equal opportunities for all, non-discrimination, and prompt resolution of workers’ issues have improved productivity and job satisfaction. This has been achieved by fully implementing labour laws and international best practices.
Salome Odero from the WRO Haki Mashinani advises flower farms to ensure they have gender-inclusive policies in place and create safe working environments for their women workers. She emphasizes that it is important for women workers to be paid at least the minimum wage to support their families. Additionally, there is a need to encourage women to take up leadership positions, which is crucial for their personal growth and the sustainability of the flower farms. Inclusion of women at every level of decision-making bridges the gap in inequalities and creates a platform for openness and confidence to highlight and share issues affecting them.
Salome notes, “It is important for management to ensure that they have policies in place that have a gender lens, to ensure that women workers are secure and feel that the working environment is all-encompassing. This ensures that women are given equal opportunities in terms of recruitment, promotion, self-care, and sexual reproductive care.”
