Women in the Blue Economy Enterprise Window (Round II) – Kenya

The project seeks to contribute to economic empowerment of women enterprises, their suppliers, and producers along key supply chains where women are discriminated against in the Blue Economy in Kenya.

The objective of IIW-BEK is to:

• Support evidence-based programme interventions that support women’s economic participation in the nontraditional sectors of the blue economy.
• Enhance private sector engagement of women as economic actors in the blue economy sector.
• Increase private and public sector investment in women and young women owned Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
• Reduce systemic gender inequalities that hinder women’s effective economic participation.

Objectives of the Women in the Blue Economy Enterprise (WBEE) Window

• Enhance financial inclusivity for the women and young women mediumsized enterprises operating within the blue economy sector increasing access to credit, enabling market linkages, supply of inputs, products, services along the value chain and creating employment.
• Provide targeted enterprise development technical assistance and capacity building on gender mainstreaming for enterprises.
• Advocate and increase awareness of the business case for investing in women in the blue economy in Kenya.
• Provide incentives for sustainable widespread adoption of climate-smart practices in Kenya’s blue economy.

Focus Sectors

Sectors/Example of opportunities

• Fisheries
  • Investments in equipment and technologies for capture/ wild fisheries targeting catches for premium markets.
    • Fishing nets
    • Electric powered boats
    • Fishing bait
    • Fishing boats
    • Fishing boat finance
    • Fishing boat insurance/protection
  • Innovations in food production systems in aquaculture and mariculture.
  • Innovations in non-food production systems in aquaculture and mariculture (e.g., marine biotech – seaweed).
  • Innovations in processing and value addition products from fish and fish by-products e.g., fish maws, fish frames, skins, scales, viscera, fish pads, etc.
• Productive use of renewable energy
  • Complementary to three pillars: renewable energy, sustainable transportation, and energy efficiency, e.g., small wind turbines, hydrokinetic turbine systems, e-mobility, solar micro and mini-grids, e.g., for mini-processing facilities, desalination plants, marine transportation, cold rooms etc.
• Waste management
  • Investments and innovations geared at providing largescale solutions to waste management and conversion of waste to value.
  • Focus on solid and liquid waste management.
• Biodiversity protection (marine and lake biodiversity protected areas),
  • Investments and innovations including High Conservation Value (HCV) approach e.g., wetland management, mangrove protection, mangrove-based crustacean breeding, and harvesting, etc. – water hyacinth beneficiation – fertilizer development, nutrient extraction
  • Natural capital financing – replanting of mangroves forest, sea grass
  • Carbon finance e.g., carbon credits, innovations for carbon verification,
• Tourism – provision of products and services to the tourism sector
  • Fast food (seafood/aquatic food based)
  • Kiosks (seafood aquatic food based)
  • Sales and services to the hotel industry,
  • Crafts
  • Eco-tourism and marine tourism linked to conservation
• Supply of inputs and services (e.g., access to finance, climate-smart technologies – aquatic blue food storage and transportation, market information etc)
  • Electronic/technology platform services (markets, finance, technology, and knowledge) linking wholesalers and exporters to the branded products of women and young women owned MSMEs e.g., e-commerce.
  • Provision of products and services that reduce post-harvest losses e.g., cold chain services
    • Seafood transportation service
    • Seafood storage service
    • Aquatic (blue) food transportation service
    • Aquatic (blue) food storage service
• Social enterprises that reduce the burden of care for women and young women (e.g., daycare child services)
  • Commercial childcare services (daycare)
  • Bundled health access, social protection and financial products and services.

Types of support available

Shortlisted applicants and grantee investees will be able to access AECF’s support package which includes:

• Provision of targeted pre-investment technical assistance on business development services as required by the investee through the AECF Advisory Studio.
• Assist in investment facilitation services that enable the enterprise to access follow on funding from other capital providers.
• Create market linkages that provide access to climatesmart technologies to enhance the sustainability of business models.
• Create pathways for market access through B2B linkages, product development advisory services, facilitation of the certification process and involvement in trade fairs among others.
• Gender equality and social inclusion incentives, e.g., topup funding where applicable, which reward investees that make significant changes to their processes to be genderresponsive and create increased opportunities for women along the value chain, develop policies and practices in response to their gender focus and monitor progress milestones.

Funding Information

• Total grant funds requested from AECF must be between US$ 50,000 and US$ 400,000.
• Programme Duration: 5 years

Eligible Companies

Applicants showing a willingness to participate in the competition for grant funding must abide by the following eligibility criteria:

• Be legally registered as a for profit private sector enterprise with activities aligned to the focus sectors and with direct linkages to small and micro enterprises in the geographical scope. In the case of social enterprise, the firm must demonstrate the ability to commercialise products and services intended to improve wellbeing. The businesses must be physically established in Kenya at the time of award and investment by AECF.
• Enterprises with a minimum of 51% female ownership with a dominant representation of women employees, suppliers of raw materials, and distributors of goods will have a distinct advantage.
• The company should produce audited accounts for at least two (2) years (these could be from the parent company, if recently established as a branch or subsidiary in Kenya).
• The window targets enterprises which have a minimum annual turnover of US$100,000. Promising enterprises that do not meet the minimum turnover threshold will be considered on a case by case basis.
• Be able to show commitment to match AECF’s funding based on the ratios stated in the matching contributions arrangement highlighted in the matching fund’s section above.
• Request the grant funding within the stipulated time and funding range provided.
• Be compliant with the fundamental laws and regulations of Kenya, including tax, regulatory, health and safety, and human resource compliance laws.
• Comply with the applicable international human rights, labour standards, and environmental management laws as expressed in the International Bill of Human Rights and the core labour standards established through the International Labour Organizations.
• Demonstrate commitment to gender equality and the empowerment of women and young women while conducting business.

For more information, visit Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund.