What Happens After the Training Ends?
In the first of our Kenya blogs I reflected on how many funders focus on the number of beneficiaries. One of the most rewarding things about returning to Kenya this August was discovering what happened after the training ended.
We often talk about projects as though they have a beginning, a middle and an end.
Funding starts.
Activities happen.
People are trained.
A report is written.
The project closes.
And everyone moves on to the next program.
But what happens when the real impact begins after the project ends and no one is there to recognise it? That was one of the things I wanted to explore when I returned to Kenya and met again with the Kenya Union of Hair and Beauty Workers (KUHABWO).
Our original financial literacy program in 2024 was designed to provide women (and some men) working in the hairdressing industry with practical knowledge and confidence around managing money, saving and making informed financial decisions. Both as a way to increase their confidence and to give them business skills to reduce their risk of gender-based violence.
Sitting down with the KUHABWO team again, it became clear that the story didn’t end with improved financial literacy and reduced risk. The program had become part of a bigger story about women's economic empowerment and wider social impact.
Sadly, my return also came at a difficult time. Cecily Mwangi, General Secretary of KUHABWO (the only female General Secretary of a Union in Africa!), who I was planning to meet had passed away unexpectedly on 5 August.
I attended her memorial service. Again and again, people spoke about Cecily's commitment to empowerment and championing equity. It was impossible not to reflect on how much work people like Cecily do to build organisations that create protection and opportunities for others. And how fragile those organisations can be without sustainable core funding.
KUHABWO now has around 4,000 members (an increase from 2024) and a presence in 4 of Kenya's 47 regions. The ambition is to continue to grow the membership. There are thousands of women working in hairdressing and related beauty businesses, many of them operating informally in settlements, markets and towns, and who aren't yet members of the union.
These women are precisely the people who could benefit from access to the union’s representation, financial support, savings mechanisms and business development.
And this is where the original financial literacy programme becomes interesting.
The training was never simply about teaching people how to manage money.
It was about giving people knowledge and confidence that could be used to make better or different life decisions.
Unfortunately, our engagement with the program ended when the funding ended, so we didn’t have the capacity to carry out a long-term evaluation. However, we stayed in touch with KUHABWO and continued to explore opportunities to extend and deepen the program, while they kept us updated on various participants and developments in the hair and beauty industry.
I got the opportunity to speak to Jane, one of the original program participants. She is a wonderful example of the positive impact our program has had. The skills and confidence she gained didn't just stop with her. She used them to push for new partnerships and to create opportunities for other women. I'll come back to Jane in another blog because what she has done since participating in the program deserves its own space.
Future opportunities for KUHABWO
KUHABWO is exploring business skills development as a follow-on to the financial literacy program. There is a growing need for women to have improved digital and business skills.
There is still interest in scaling up the support to women working in the wig and hair industries, both from a health and safety and an environmental aspect.
Other environmental issues include looking for solutions to the huge quantities of discarded synthetic braids that end up clogging Nairobi’s drainage systems.
Exploring alternative, environmentally friendly materials for hair braids, including biodegradable options made from organic waste, such as banana stems.
Reclaiming and recycling used synthetic braids.
Connecting with the thousands of women working in the informal hair sector to support and improve their working conditions.
These aren't isolated ideas.
These ideas create connections between women's economic empowerment, decent work, environmental sustainability and stronger worker organisations
.
But there is a fundamental problem.
Organisations like KUHABWO need core funding. In some respects it's relatively easy to find funds for a project (although even this is getting harder). However, it is harder to fund the organisations that need to keep the working going between projects. Obviously like all Unions, membership growth helps and so does project funding when successfully secured. The challenges are that organisations like KUHABWO need the capacity to organise, communicate, tell their stories, develop partnerships, support their members and reach the women who currently sit outside their formal structure.
That is why I think funders need to look differently at impact and how they fund projects and/or organisations.
The question shouldn't always be:
“How many people will your project reach?”
For a financial literacy program we should also ask:
“What did those people go on to do?”
Did they start saving?
Did they start a business?
Did they support someone else?
Did they create an organisation?
Did they train another group of women?
Did they become more confident in negotiating?
Did they bring financial literacy into their family?
Did they advocate for better conditions at work?
Those ripples matter.
And they can only be collected after the training and are much harder to measure than attendance figures.
Our original program reached a defined group of just under 100 people.
But the conversations I had in Kenya suggested that its impact had travelled much further.
That is why I now believe the next step should not simply be another project.
It should also be investment in the organisations and people capable of taking what works and making it reach further.
Impact needs time.
It needs relationships.
It needs trust.
And sometimes, most importantly, it needs someone willing to fund the next chapter.
connections game challenges you to group words by hidden links, testing your logic, vocabulary, and pattern-spotting skills in every puzzle.