Factors Enhancing the Sustainability of Informal Businesses for Burundian Women Refugees in Nairobi County, Kenya.
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Date
2019-05
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Tangaza University College
Abstract
This study sought to find out ways to enhance the sustainability of informal businesses for Burundian Women refugees (BWRs) in Nairobi County, Kenya. The study was guided by three specific objectives: first, to explore how human capital enhances the sustainability of informal businesses. Second, to explain the influence of social capital on the sustainability of informal business. Third, it is to identify the extent to which financial capital influences the sustainability of informal businesses for BWRs in Nairobi County, Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive research design with both quantitative and qualitative approaches in data collection. The target population for this study was BWRs living in Nairobi County, Kenya. The sample size for the study composed of 292 BWRs. The research used purposive sampling. Data collected was qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed to generate information of what respondents answered based on open and closed-ended questions, one on one and telephone interviews and a Focus Group Discussion (FGD).The study found out that the barriers to sustainability of informal businesses for BWRs were inadequate education, inadequate vocational training, lack of training skills, language barrier, lack of legal documentations such as mandate and alien card, work permit /business permit, residence permit, high level of competition with locals, police harassment, gender based violence (GBV), insecurity, poor networking, and inaccessibility to credit facilities. Accordingly, 99% BWRs were involved in informal businesses, all BWRs were not attending school (100%) and 63.5% were not involved in any vocational training. Therefore, the study has proposed a transformative action plan to sustain informal businesses for BWRs including mobilization to create awareness on BWRs’ challenges and how to handle them as a community, providing adequate education, vocational training, training skills to strengthen human capital through educating BWRs, lobbying and advocacy to bring awareness of those issues in the community and networking to connect BWRs with other women in the host community as well as visibility campaign/ research to create awareness where knowledge will be shared internationally and locally.
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Keywords
Sustainability, Informal Businesses, Burundian Women, Nairobi County, Human Capital Theory, Social Capital Theory