By Betty Luke
A new women-led funding model aimed at breaking barriers to accesing funding opportunities for marginalized indigenous women has been launched, signaling a shift from traditional donor funding models.
The initiative, dubbed Naapu Fund (maasai word for raising), adopts a trust based approach where both formal and informal indigenous women groups can access resources while bypassing all the laid down protocols including having a bank account, formal leadership, audited accounts and other compliance.
The three year Comic Relief funded initiative will inject Sh120 million directly to grassroots indigenous women groups through a simplified, trust-based system that will forego barriers such as proposal writing and strict audit requirements.
Implemented by Samburu Women Trust (SWT), an indigenous led organization, the fund will support 20 formal and 10 informal groups across 12 Arid and Semi Arid Lands (ASALs) counties, with additional counties to be considered in every six months.
SWT Executive Director Jane Meriwas said the fund targets women who have historically been excluded due to limited access to technology, illiteracy and development initiatives among others.
“This is an initiative that will deliberately disrupt status quo by supporting those facing serious barriers that hinder them from applying for funding opportunities,” she told The Press Point.
She added that the fund would allow beneficiary to make decisions on specific initiatives they would want to implement, including climate change interventions, culture preservation and water provision, among others.
“The fund adopts a trust based accountability mechanism. When paying for anything, ensure you use mobile money or better still ensure the smallest form of accountability is applied,” said Ms Meriwas.
Koibatek Youth and Women Network founder Judy Kipkenda hailed the initiative, saying it would restore confidence in indigenous youth seeking to address some of the issues their communities were facing.
“Young women are often disregarded due to their age, lack of capacity and gender. We appreciate SWT for trusting us and we commit to uplift our communities through support received,” she said.
Marsabit Women Advocacy and Development Organizaton (MWADO) founder Nuria Gollo said indigenous women had for a long time unsuccessfully struggled to access funds due to limited capacity.
“Although we lack formal capacity to manage donor funds, the fact that we engage in beadwork, livestock business and other income activities clearly indicates that we can handle and manage money,” she added.
The Naapu fund also targets indigenous women living with disabilities who have hailed the initiative as timely, coming at a time when many of them were struggling with myriad challenges at the community level.
“This fund will offer a huge relief to us (living with different forms of disability) because we are often left out of both government and donor initiatives,” said Rose Resiato.
Beneficiary Nakdori Moru said her unregistered women’s group intends to invest in provision of safe drinking water for her community that relies on untreated borehole water.
“We want to provide piped water to our members because the borehole water we use is not safe for our health,” she said adding that,“We have never applied for funding before because we are not registered, but now, we will learn how to open a bank account and formalize our group.”
The fund also incorporates capacity building, for informal groups to ensure they are able to apply for funding for other potential donors.
