Blog

Filter your results by:

Blog

Kenya launches the Year of Climate Action (#YoCaKenya)

On the morning of November 3rd, 2020, I was honoured to be part of the launch of the Year of Climate Action in Kenya (#YoCaKenya).

Read more
Blog

For maximum value, financial innovation must address real world problems

Kenya has received world-wide recognition as leader in financial innovation. This is a laudable achievement because finance holds the potential to unlock solutions to the real-world problems that Kenyans face in their daily lives.

Read more
Blog

“Maybe someone is out there fighting for you.”

In this series of mini-interviews, researchers and respondents in the Kenya Financial Diaries reflect on their experiences. 

Read more
Blog

A bridge too far? Paying for school in an economic crisis

Parents across Kenya are receiving ambiguous messages about the timing of school re-openings amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Read more
Blog

The opportunity for financial inclusion in health insurance coverage

In 2019, FSD Kenya and Turaco – a Kenyan microinsurtech startup providing simple, low-cost health and life insurance products to emerging market consumers – collaborated on a three-month pilot project in with a leading digital lender in Kenya. The study found that 80% of respondents were most interested in an in-patient cover to cushion the cost of hospital admissions, saying getting such insurance for free is incentive enough to repay their loans on time. Almost 50% of the treatment group opted in to having insurance payments added to their future loans, citing the idea of low-cost insurance from a financial service provider they know and trust as a key incentive.

Read more
Article

6th FSD Kenya Public annual lecture 2020 – A glimpse into how scarcity shapes life in Kenya

The year 2020 will undoubtedly go down in history as the point in time when COVID-19 paralysed the world.

Read more
Blog

How are things now? Summary of September/October COVID diaries findings

Between 7 September and 14 October, our team spoke with 207 participants from the Kenya Financial Diaries, tracing the ways COVID-19 was impacting their lives.

Read more
Blog

Investors and Indigents: Divergent trajectories of Kenyans in the COVID era

As we completed a new round of COVID-19 Diaries interviews in mid-October, we noticed a shift in the story of economic hardship.

Read more
Blog

Finance bends; will it break?

On average, families in the Kenya Financial Diaries started to see improvements in their economic situation as of October 2020, but incomes are still far from normal.

Read more
Blog

From financial inclusion to inclusive finance: The power of frameworks to catalyse change

Below, we’ll discuss the power of frameworks in shaping research and providing insights for financial inclusion policy and investment.

Read more
Agriculture & processing finance

Money to the grassroots: Rethinking agricultural finance models

Why is agricultural sector the least funded sector in Kenya by the formal financial sources despite being the largest sector in terms of GDP contribution (at over 50% GDP contribution directly and indirectly)?

Read more
Blog

Set sights on informal sector recovery

The Covid-19 pandemic is throwing a curved ball at us. It has made planning virtually impossible.

Read more
Blog

Njoroge’s story: How Kenya’s informal economy is struggling in the shadow of COVID-19 and graft

After several years of “hustling,” my friend Njoroge saved money enough to construct his own little fruit shack in the Hurlingham suburb of Nairobi.

Read more
Affordable housing finance

The cost of an extra parking space

Read more
Blog

Combining new and traditional mechanisms in Northern Kenya to cope during COVID-19

In mid-July we interviewed a subset of FSD Kenya/CARE’s Building Livelihoods programme beneficiaries in Northern Kenya to understand the extent to which resources built up through the programme are supporting resilience of beneficiary households during COVID-19, and how these compare and interact with traditional pastoralist coping mechanisms.

Read more
Blog

Debts in distress: how ordinary people are finding the liquidity they need to survive COVID

“Things are getting bad,” Vanessa told us. When we spoke with her in late June, her family had just about run out of food and were waiting for the next harvest.

Read more
Blog

COVID-19 impact-recovery pathways for the economy: Features and implications

As COVID-19 continues to ravage economies across the world, a key point of emerging macroeconomic focus is its variated impact at sectoral level.

Read more
Blog

Corona case studies: Loss of income, loss of pride

They were making only about Ksh 4,000 per month (about $40) the last time we saw them in 2015.

Read more
Blog

The buck stops with women

How Kenyan mothers are keeping food on the table through the coronavirus crisis

Read more
Blog

Kenya enhances its cash transfer programmes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic

As the world reels from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, a key lesson it has taught us is the universality of our vulnerability.

Read more
Blog

COVID-19 and digitisation: Will digitisation drive inclusion or inequality?

The economic fallout engendered by COVID-19 has already been dire with many going without food and/or accruing different types of debt to stay afloat.

Read more
Blog

When hustling fails: The impact of coronavirus mitigation efforts on ordinary people’s livelihoods

Unlike many Kenyans, Esther in rural Makueni is not yet too worried about the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) on her livelihood. 

Read more
Blog

Dilemmas of distancing

Barriers to coronavirus prevention behaviour change in Kenya

Read more
Blog

Understanding drivers of resilience in Northern Kenya in the time of COVID-19: Part 1

Over the past four years, FSD Kenya’s Building Livelihoods programme in Northern Kenya has explored how extremely poor households can be transitioned out of poverty and into sustainable livelihoods through stronger engagements with markets.

Read more
Agriculture & processing finance

Can platforms and technology accelerate the African Green Revolution?

The agricultural sector in Africa is yet to take off despite being the dominant employer and the key contributor to the gross domestic product (GDP) for most countries on the continent.

Read more

FSD Kenya newsletter

Stay informed with regular updates from FSD Kenya

Subscribe to our mailing list

Our partners