RURAL WOMEN’S ENTREPRENEURSHIPand MICRO-FINANCE: Lessons on Household Development Strategies from Vihiga County-Kenya.

This book has addressed the special problem of development in poor rural areas that are densely populated and highly patriarchal, and have a high percentage of adult males engaged in migrant labor. Micro-Finance through women’s groups has been advanced in this book as a highly useful tool for addressing these constraints. This book addresses two things through a focus on Vihiga County in Western Province of Kenya where I have had considerable experience , supplemented with some involvement with rural development in small farming areas of Kenya’s Western, Nyanza, North Rift Valley and parts of Central Province. These regions are classified as highlands areas where agricultural production is tha main occupation. The Analysis and arguments offered are relevant to other parts of Kenya and Africa, and perhaps South Asia as well, although Vihiga is the most densely populated rural area in Sub-Saharan Africa.