One of the key pillars of SNV's Enhancing Opportunities for Women's Enterprises (EOWE) program to effectively empower rural women in agriculture focuses on stimulating household and community dialogue around gender disparity in economic opportunities. Through facilitated Household Dialogues, the program aims to influence perceptions and practices that hinder rural women from successfully engaging in agricultural enterprises. In Kenya, the program developed and tested a contextualised facilitator’s handbook, which is used to train and guide local facilitators in the implementation of the Household Dialogues in eight arid and semi-arid counties in Kenya.

The Household Dialogues consist of 12 group sessions, in which couples discuss three key gender norms that were identified to inhibit women from running profitable and viable agri-businesses in the eight counties in Kenya: (i) Time-use/heavy workload, (ii) Lack of control over the use of income and (iii) Lack of access to and control over credit. The handbook seeks to equip the local facilitators of the Household Dialogues with knowledge on these three identified norms and issues and presents a step-by-step guide and tools to facilitate a change in perceptions and behavior around these norms.

To ensure sustainability and scale of the positive behavior change in the communities, influencers and opinion shapers — like elders, religious leaders and community leaders — are invited to participate in community dialogues that inform the community about the activities and progress the program is making. In addition, the program organizes Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) interventions, like radio shows and posters, at the community level to foster long-term, normative shifts in gender-equitable behavior in the selected households and the wider community.

Access the full handbook here.