3 per cent: The damning number driving construction's gender push

Women at a construction site at Ganjoni in Mombasa in this photo taken in 2020. [File, Standard ]

Women make up less than 3 per cent of Kenya's construction workforce, industry leaders have warned, as they unveiled tools to dismantle barriers shutting out half the population.

The Global Buildings Performance Network (GBPN), in partnership with the National Construction Authority (NCA), the State Department of Public Works, Women in Real Estate (WiRE) and the Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK), unveiled the Building Fair Futures initiative on Tuesday in Nairobi.

The package includes a Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Toolkit and the She Builds Sustainably Training programme.

The launch lays bare a sector struggling to build 200,000 climate-resilient homes annually while locking out the very population needed to do it, with 55 per cent of women excluded from formal financial services in Kenya.

"The question is no longer whether women should be included in sustainable construction. It is how quickly we can remove the barriers that keep them out," said Eva Muraya, founder and chief executive officer of BSD Group, in her keynote address.

Patience Mulondo, president of Women in Real Estate, said the sector's climate transition cannot be called just if women are absent from decision-making.

"For too long, we have talked about sustainable buildings without talking about who builds them," noted Mulondo.

GBPN chief executive Peter Graham said the Kenyan model offers a global lesson.

"Globally, the transition to zero-carbon buildings must also be a transition toward equity. Kenya is helping demonstrate what that looks like in practice," said Graham.

The initiative also targets youth, persons with disabilities and low-income communities, who organisers say remain locked out of both decision-making and economic participation in the built environment.

Mugure Njendu, Africa programmes lead at GBPN, noted that climate goals and social justice cannot be separated.

"Climate action and social justice must advance together. We cannot achieve the 1.5°C pathway if half the population is locked out of the solutions," noted Njendu.