KENYA - Empowering SMEs through a gender transformative approach: insights from the GTA SME Loop training

From 7th to 15th October 2025, IYBA-SEED Kenya and GIZ Kenya successfully conducted the Gender Transformative Approach (GTA) SME Loop Training and Coaching Program in Kisumu.
The training brought together six innovation hubs from Kisumu, Uasin Gishu, and Nakuru Counties - Wise Hub, Nakuru Box, Eldo Hub, Homeless Of Kisumu, The Cube, and COELIB - each represented by team leads, backstoppers, trainers, and coaches. 
The objective was to strengthen their capacity to deliver high-quality Business Development Services (BDS) using the SME Loop methodology, while embedding gender transformative principles into enterprise support programs.

What is a Gender Transformative Approach?

GTA aims for structural, profound, and sustainable change by addressing the root causes of inequality. It promotes mutual respect, challenges traditional gender norms, and ensures that empowerment benefits everyone -women, men, youth, and persons with disabilities. It seeks to:
• Create critical awareness among men and women about gender roles and norms.
• Promote more equitable and respectful business relationships.
• Influence power dynamics in communities for shared benefits.
• Empower individuals to generate their own transformation.

The GTA SME Loop: A Pathway to Inclusive Entrepreneurship

The SME Loop methodology fosters continuous learning and improvement through structured reflection, coaching, and peer exchange and integrates gender transformation across four key stages:
1. Define Your SME Loop: Identify gender dynamics and transformative opportunities.
2. Getting Started: Engage diverse champions and expand inclusive networks.
3. Implementation: Foster environments for exploring gender equality and empowerment.
4. Completion & Beyond: Capture insights and outcomes to enable lasting transformative change.

Guiding Principles for implementation

To orient SME Loop implementation toward gender transformative change, practitioners should:
• Apply a gender lens holistically from the beginning.
• Recognize that gender includes women, men, youth, and other groups.
• Encourage empowerment as a self-driven process.
• Promote transformative learning and self-organization.
• Expand the definition of impact to community-wide transformation.
Towards Inclusive and Sustainable Entrepreneurship

By the end of the training, participating hubs developed practical strategies to embed gender equity and inclusivity within their programs. The GTA SME Loop equips hubs to support entrepreneurs not merely as beneficiaries but as co-creators of gender-transformative ecosystems.

This marks a key milestone in advancing IYBA-SEED’s mission of empowering early-stage enterprises and promoting an inclusive entrepreneurial culture across Kenya.