Gender equity isn’t a project

Betty and Dorothy of KUHABWO

Over the last five blogs, I have reflected on what I saw and learned during my return to Kenya in August 2026.

I started with numbers — and why they don't tell the whole story. I looked at what happens after training ends, and the impact that can continue long after a project has officially finished. I saw how a project can become a seed, growing into something much bigger when people take an idea and make it their own. I met Jane, who had once been a participant of the previous KUHABWO training and had become a trainer and change-maker herself. And I reflected on the importance of putting gender at the heart of financial (or any) education, rather than treating it as an additional topic to be added at the end.

Looking across all five stories, there is a bigger lesson I wanted to share. Gender equity isn't a project. It is a way of working. A way of working that Women Working Worldwide has championed for almost 40 years.

Start with people's realities

Gender doesn't exist in isolation. It is shaped by culture, social expectations, economic structures, family responsibilities and, ultimately, power.

If we want to understand what women need, we have to listen to women themselves. A woman working informally in the hair and beauty sector may have very different opportunities and constraints from a woman working on a flower farm or in a tea estate. Her access to money, childcare, technology, transport, training, decision-making and worker representation will all shape what is possible.

This sounds obvious. But too often programmes are designed around what organisations think women need, rather than asking women what would actually make a difference. Good gender work starts where people are.

Numbers matter — but influence matters more

Throughout this series I have questioned the obsession with numbers. Of course, numbers matter. We need to know how many women participated, how many trainers were developed and how many workplaces or communities were reached. But participation isn't the same as influence.

Having women in the room doesn't necessarily mean women have a voice. Being represented on a committee doesn't necessarily mean women can influence decisions. And training women doesn't necessarily tell us what changed in their lives. The more important questions are:

Who has a voice? Who has power? Who makes decisions? And whose experience is being heard?

I wanted Jane's story to highlight this. On paper she was one participant in a financial literacy programme. Two years later, she was creating opportunities and delivering training for other women. The number was one. The story was much bigger.

Economic empowerment is about more than money

Financial literacy can teach people how to budget, save, borrow and make informed financial decisions. But women's economic empowerment goes further. It is about whether women have control over resources. Whether they can make decisions about their own lives. Whether they have secure work and decent wages. Whether they can negotiate. Whether they have access to opportunities and support.

And whether they can use that economic power without facing violence, harassment or other forms of control. This is why gender cannot simply be added as a module to a financial literacy programme. It needs to influence how the programme itself is designed and delivered.

Who can attend? Who controls the household income? Who has access to a phone or bank account? Who has responsibility for unpaid care? Who can travel? Who feels confident speaking? Who can negotiate? And what happens when a woman starts to become more financially independent?

These questions don't make financial education less relevant. They make it more relevant.

Women need voice — and men need to be part of the change

Gender equity is not something women can achieve on their own. Women need opportunities to organise, to negotiate and to influence decisions. Strong women's organisations and unions can be critical in creating that collective voice. But men also need to be part of changing the systems and norms that create inequality.

This was one of the lessons from the gender discussions during our training in Kenya. Some of the issues were challenging. There were questions and disagreements. And that was important. Gender training shouldn't simply tell people what to think. It should create space to question, listen, challenge assumptions and learn.

Some of the most useful conversations happen when we move beyond “women need to change” and start asking: What needs to change around women? And what role do all of us have in making that change?

Don't design for women. Design with women.

Building trust and relationships with partners and participants of our programs is a key requirement for success. At the memorial service for KUHABWO General Secretary, Cecily Mwangi.

This has been a thread running through all of WWW's work. The people experiencing inequality are not simply beneficiaries of a program.

·         They have knowledge.

·         They understand the barriers.

·         They know what is realistic.

·         And they often have ideas about solutions that outsiders would never see.

Jane didn't wait for someone to create an opportunity for her. She built relationships, found partners and created opportunities for other women. Lintons took an idea from an earlier programme and developed it further. KEFEC brought years of financial education experience but also had to think differently about how gender shapes financial capability.

WWW works to build trust and works with people and organisations to support their own change. All these are examples of co-creation and ownership. The most sustainable change often happens when people take an idea and make it their own.

Look beyond the project

One of the strongest lessons from my trip was how artificial the boundary of a project can be. Finding funders who recognise this can be challenging – although we have been fortunate enough to be funded by some very entrepreneurial and forward thinking funders. Even so funding has a start date. Funding has an end date. But change doesn't necessarily follow the same timetable. A training programme may finish, but relationships continue. A woman may use new knowledge months later. A trainer may teach someone else. An organisation may develop a new programme. A partnership may open a completely unexpected door.

That is why we need to measure not only what happened during a project, but what happens afterwards and we need funders to recognise and fund this aspect of our work and evaluation.

·         What changed?

·         What was built?

·         Who took it forward?

·         Who benefited next?

·         And what needs to happen now?

And finally — measure what matters

We need better measures of gender equity. Not just numbers trained. Not just numbers attending. Not just policies written.

We should also be asking whether women have greater voice, agency, economic security, safety and influence.

·         Are women earning more?

·         Are they making more decisions?

·         Are they organising?

·         Are they represented — and listened to?

·         Do they trust grievance systems?

·         Are workplaces changing?

·         Are men changing too?

·         Are women experiencing less violence and harassment?

And, perhaps most importantly, are women themselves saying that things have changed?

Good gender work isn't about proving that everything went according to plan. It is about listening, learning and adapting when it doesn't.

So, what have I brought home from Kenya?

Not a blueprint. There isn't one. But there are some principles that I think matter wherever we are working:

·         Start with people's realities.

·         Listen to women — and give their voices influence.

·         Challenge the norms and structures that create inequality.

·         Put gender into strategy, rather than putting it into a silo.

·         Recognise that economic empowerment is about power as well as money.

·         Work with women, not simply for women.

·         Bring men into the solution.

·         Invest in relationships and what happens after the project ends.

·         And above all, look beyond the numbers to the change behind them.

The stories I have shared from Kenya are not really stories about training programmes. They are stories about what can happen when women gain knowledge, confidence, opportunity, relationships and a stronger voice — and then use those things to create something of their own.

That, for me, is the heart of feminist practice. We don't simply ask how many women we have reached. We ask what changed, who gained power, whose voice was heard — and what happens next.

Because gender equity isn't a project to complete. It is a way of working, and a commitment to changing who has voice, who has power and who gets to decide.