How to cite this Dataset
Jones, Karen and Karanja, Faith (2026): Women in climate action leadership in Kenya. University of Reading. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.17864/1947.001509
Description
This project examined women’s participation and leadership in climate action in Kenya. Although Kenya’s National Adaptation Plan requires gender-responsive implementation and the Climate Change Act (Section 8) mandates women’s inclusion in climate-related decision-making, women remain underrepresented in mitigation, research, and leadership despite being disproportionately affected by climate change.
The project therefore aimed (i) to identify key challenges to women’s participation and leadership in climate action in Kenya, and (ii) to assess whether and how women’s leadership development needs should be addressed in future projects aligned with these priorities.
Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were conducted online via Zoom with male and female participants. The FGDs explored barriers to women’s participation in climate research, decision-making, and leadership, and identified research and leadership capacity-building needs to strengthen empowerment in climate action.
A roundtable event was held in Kenya with stakeholders from local community groups, government agencies, civil society organisations, private sector actors, and academic institutions. Efforts were made to ensure representation across genders and rural and urban areas; however, only one male participated. The roundtable examined similar themes to the FGDs, identifying structural and institutional barriers and prioritising research and leadership capacity-building actions to enhance women’s leadership in climate action.
Two individual interviews were conducted with participants that were unable to attend an FGD or RTD.
A total of 38 adult participants were engaged across the data collection formats. All participants were based in Kenya or had a clear operational presence in the country.
| Resource Type: | Dataset |
|---|---|
| Creators: | Jones, Karen  ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5154-4583 and Karanja, Faith ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-3840-5547 |
| Rights-holders: | University of Reading, University of Nairobi |
| Data Publisher: | University of Reading |
| Publication Year: | 2026 |
| Data last accessed: | 20 March 2026 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.17864/1947.001509 |
| Metadata Record URL: | https://researchdata.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/1509 |
| Organisational units: | Arts, Humanities and Social Science > Institute of Education > Improving Equity and Inclusion through Education |
| Participating Organisations: | University of Reading, University of Nairobi |
| Keywords: | Women in Leadership, Climate Action, Kenya, Gender equality, Africa |
| Rights: | |
| Data Availability: | OPEN |
