TY  - SER
AU  - Ongong’a, Jared Opiyo
TI  - Gender and Economic Empowerment
PY  - 2013///
KW  - Poverty
KW  - Women Enterprise Fund
KW  - Small And Microenterprise
KW  - Women Entrepreneurship
KW  - Microentrepreneurship
KW  - Women
KW  - Women And Microentrepreneurship
KW  - Entrepreneurship
KW  - Tenth Biennial Conference On Entrepreneu
KW  - Biennial Conference Papers
N2  - The importance  of the micro and small-scale enterprise (MSE) sector is particularly apparent in terms of its ability to provide employment for those of working age. In Kenya, the MSE sector is the biggest employer outside agriculture. According to computations from Economic surveys, for example, the MSEs' share of total non-agricultural employment in 1999 was 68.2 per cent up from 48.9 percent in 1993 (Ronge et al., 2002). In 2008, 79.8% of all jobs were in the informal sector with 92.7% of all new jobs created being in the informal sector (Waithaka, 2009). This  phenomenal growth in the MSE sector has increased policy focus on the development of this sector as an engine of economic growth, employment creation and poverty reduction. The Human Poverty Index for Kenya is disturbing. In 1997 it stood at 26.1 percent, by 2001 it had risen to 34.5 percent (Mudavadi, 2002) and on average 80% of Kenyans are predominantly poor with at least 50% living on less than a dollar a day. In recent a poverty assessment report for Kisumu District, it was established that more than half (53%) of the  population was poor. The welfare monitoring surveys for 1994 and 1997 also indicated that poverty
ER  -