Conceptual Analysis of Gender Responsive Monitoring and Evaluation of Trade Facilitation Programs in Kenya

Abstract

This conceptual discourse covers the critical implementation gap of the trade policy and programs in Kenya where gender barriers in trade facilitation remain prevalent despite the documented national trade commitments to inclusivity. The paper explores insufficiency of existing monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems, posing the question about what it would mean to have a gender-responsive framework that would reveal these obstacles, quantify them, and act upon them. The study uses a conceptual research design to synthesise policy documents, scholarly literature and institutional reports using a feminist political economy lens. This, in turn, questions the ability of gender-evasive M&E frameworks to unearth the structural dimensions of gender inequality that women traders experience including gendered corruption, border harassment, and a lack of access to institutional recognition. The analysis reveals that the current assessment approaches are mainly accommodative as they are structured around the participation of women instead of institutional shifts in terms of power or access. As a result, the valuable contributions and limitations of women in cross-border trade remain statistically obscured which undermines policy accountability. To this end, this study suggests a change towards a gender-responsive transformative approach to M&E (GRM&E). This model gives more emphasis to the aggregation of sex disaggregated information and utilises measures that monitor the variations in trader security, economic empowerment and bias in the system. The main contribution of the study is that it provides a conceptual roadmap on how GRM&E practices can be aligned to Kenya’s and Africa’s inclusive trade ambitions including within the AfCFTA. It suggests institutionalising gender-disaggregated data gathering, incorporating transformative indicators into program development and establishing capacity to facilitate evaluation at county levels to make sure that trade facilitation produces equitable and measurable results to all Kenyans.