ACADEMIA Letters Implications of COVID-19 on Gender Sensitive Youth Agripreneurship Resilience in Kenya Akosa Wambalaba, United States International University, Nairobi Barbara Son, Anaheim University Francis Wambalaba, United States International University, Nairobi Introduction Entrepreneurial resilience conceptualizes traits or characteristics of entrepreneurial firms or individuals that enhance recovery and transformation after a crisis (Korber & McNaughton, 2017). Technology advancement and adoption play a role in resilience, contributing economic value and competitive advantage (El Sawy & Pereira, 2013) which might be shortlived as more people adopt the technology. One of the most recent entrepreneurial resilience frameworks guiding our case studies was the Enterprise Resilience Conceptual Reference Framework (Sanchis, Canetta, and Poler, 2020). Sanchis, et al. (2020) conceptualized that enterprise resilience is the capacity to anticipate and be prepared to face disruptive events and, if an unavoidable occurrence takes place, the capacity to recover as quickly and efficiently. The concept of agribusiness resilience is defined as the ability of the business to adapt to disruptions that threaten existence (Simbarashe, Marizvikuru & Joseph, 2018). This paper aims to determine levels of resilience among male and female agripreneurs in Poultry, Horticulture, and Fish (PHF) agribusiness value chains during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Subsequently, the following objectives guided our case studies. (i) To determine how COVID-19 has affected male and female youth Agripreneurs in Kenya. Academia Letters, February 2022 ©2022 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Barbara Son, bson@anaheim.edu Citation: Wambalaba, A., Son, B., Wambalaba, F. (2022). Implications of COVID-19 on Gender Sensitive Youth Agripreneurship Resilience in Kenya. Academia Letters, Article 4890. 1 (ii) Assess personality and business resilience (input/output performance) levels among our current and alumni male and female youth agripreneurs to develop interventions for enhancing business resilience. (iii) Document case studies on personality and business resilience that will be infused in gender-inclusive entrepreneurial capacity development (training and mentorship) and other support systems offered to agripreneurs to help them deal with challenges triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. (iv) Engage stakeholders to design, and improve initiatives in the enhancement of gender-sensitive business resilience in response to the challenges triggered by COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology A survey of ten cases in counties that were participating in the Metro AgriFood Living Lab model project was carried out by the GAME Center at USIU-A from August 2020 to January 2021. Three case studies were selected for inclusion in this paper based on the agripreneurship resiliency in response to Covid-19 and gender implications. Guided by the Enterprise Resilience Conceptual Reference Framework (Sanchis, Canetta, and Poler, 2020), this study identified respondents with appropriate capabilities to document their experiences in overcoming the COVID 19 crises to strengthen their businesses. The criteria for selection of the cases included: a) Clear lessons of resilience through demonstration of quickly adapting to supply chain disruptions, continuous business operations, and maintenance of overall brand equity during and after the disruption. b) Willingness to participate and provide both quantitative and qualitative data and have the case studies used for knowledge transfer and uploaded in an open repository. c) Variety of agricultural value chains in different locations in Kenya. The four overarching questions were: i) what was the status of your business before the COVID 19 pandemic; ii) how were you affected by COVID 19 pandemic; iii) what did you do to mitigate the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic; and iv) how did the GAME Center capacity building contribute to your mitigation process. Indepth interviews were conducted with the selected entrepreneurs, their cases were recorded, and key triggers for behavior change were documented. In the following Academia Letters, February 2022 ©2022 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Barbara Son, bson@anaheim.edu Citation: Wambalaba, A., Son, B., Wambalaba, F. (2022). Implications of COVID-19 on Gender Sensitive Youth Agripreneurship Resilience in Kenya. Academia Letters, Article 4890. 2 section, we presented the results of three case studies. The first two have been analyzed using the Enterprise Resilience Conceptual Reference Framework with one male and one female. The third case was reviewed concerning gender lenses, specifically reflecting on its gender-sensitive strategy. Results Case Study: Romerey Firm Romerey firm is a two-year-old mixed enterprise start-up that stands on five acres in Siaya county. Since its establishment in 2018, Romerey has experienced multiple challenges that have almost brought it to its knees, but each time, Robert, the owner has immersed himself in knowledge search and guided by his principle to stand up and move on. The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic had a major disruptive effect on business management, operations, and sales. But Romerey firm saw it as a window of opportunity, gathered information, and leveraged their strengths to lay the groundwork for new farm enterprises, to identify new product markets, and to strengthen the management and operation of the business. Robert is working to form a partnership with other local agripreneurs to generate increased revenue and provide food security for the community. He believes the networking goal of supplying local markets will open skill and knowledge windows for the export market and lay foundations for systems that future agripreneurs can ride on for growth and expansion. Case Study: Evelyne’s Farm As Evelyne’s farm became a model farm, donors sent farmers there for knowledge sharing. In September 2019, Evelyne with other Kenyan women agripreneurs were invited to participate in the launch of a seed bank in Uganda, under Biodiversity International. She believes if she starts cultivating peanut, a high-value crop, she can reduce wastage by feeding the cow peanut leaves and making savings on commercial feeds. She wants to use the knowledge she has learned from her farm experience and has approached an organization Practical Action, hoping they can research her idea. The Conceptual Resilience Framework Analysis The conceptual resilience framework (Sanchis, et al., 2020), is composed of disruptive events that enterprises consider as endangerments to their continuity. The framework also comprises Academia Letters, February 2022 ©2022 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Barbara Son, bson@anaheim.edu Citation: Wambalaba, A., Son, B., Wambalaba, F. (2022). Implications of COVID-19 on Gender Sensitive Youth Agripreneurship Resilience in Kenya. Academia Letters, Article 4890. 3 constituent capabilities of enterprise resilience in terms of preparedness and recovery capabilities and elements that support the transition from the “AS IS” situation to the “TO BE.” The study used partial components to assess the two entrepreneurs at both conceptual and psychological levels as reflected in tables 1 and 2. Table 1. Conceptual Resiliency Framework The conceptual resiliency framework (Table 1) indicates that activities performed by Robert and Evelyne are characteristic of entrepreneurs who can withstand multiple challenges and move forward. Table 2. Psychological Resiliency Framework As displayed in Table 2, the relationship between challenges and outcomes is not causal, and intangible psychological attributes mediate the relationship between adversity/disruptions and outcomes of resiliency. In interviewing Robert and Evelyne, these personality attributes were evident. Academia Letters, February 2022 ©2022 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Barbara Son, bson@anaheim.edu Citation: Wambalaba, A., Son, B., Wambalaba, F. (2022). Implications of COVID-19 on Gender Sensitive Youth Agripreneurship Resilience in Kenya. Academia Letters, Article 4890. 4 Case Study: Wosster and Wells Ltd Kelly Kadivira and her father Lewis Kadivira entered into a partnership with Wosster and Wells Ltd in 2019. Being gender-sensitive and considering the nature of the work to be done on their farm, they were careful in getting the right people for the said tasks. For instance, the multiplication of mushrooms is intensive and suited for males, while poultry tasks such as handling chicks, cleaning the feeding troughs and drinkers, as well as the actual feeding are better apportioned to females. Also, they introduced flexible working hours for their female employees who reported as from 9 am, allowing them to take care of their domestic chores before reporting to work. They were also cognizant of the distance to the work from the homes of their employees. Some of their best employees covered a long distance and they preferred them to those who come from the neighborhood but were not as passionate about their jobs. Conclusion As men and women experienced the pandemic, they did not have similar adaptation and resiliency requirements as they adopted practices and decisions that enabled them to renegotiate complex contexts (Kaijser and Kronsell, 2014). In our case studies, gender was found intersecting with cultural norms, marital status, and education with both negative and positive effects. Our conceptual and psychological resilience frameworks were designed to help understand how agripreneurs improve business resilience in the face of challenges triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, our findings of business resilience during the major pandemic were expected to improve the GAME Center’s mentoring program as well as the entrepreneurship curriculum and resources of the USIU-A. Academia Letters, February 2022 ©2022 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Barbara Son, bson@anaheim.edu Citation: Wambalaba, A., Son, B., Wambalaba, F. (2022). Implications of COVID-19 on Gender Sensitive Youth Agripreneurship Resilience in Kenya. Academia Letters, Article 4890. 5 References El Sawy, O. A., & Pereira, F. (2013). Digital business models: review and synthesis. Business modeling in the dynamic digital space, 13-20. Kaijser and Kronsell. Korber, S., & McNaughton, R. B. (2017). Resilience and entrepreneurship: a systematic literature review. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research. Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock & Fisheries of Kenya (2017). Kenya Youth Agribusiness Strategy. https://repository.kippra.or.ke/handle/123456789/550Sanchis, Canetta, and Poler, 2020. Sanchis, R., Canetta, L., & Poler, R. (2020). A conceptual reference framework for enterprise resilience enhancement. Sustainability, 12(4), 1464. Simbarashe, K., Marizvikuru, M., & Joseph, F. (2018). Approaches to measuring resilience and their applicability to small retail business resilience. Problems and Perspectives in Management. 16. 275-284. 10.21511/ppm.16(4).2018.23. Academia Letters, February 2022 ©2022 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Barbara Son, bson@anaheim.edu Citation: Wambalaba, A., Son, B., Wambalaba, F. (2022). Implications of COVID-19 on Gender Sensitive Youth Agripreneurship Resilience in Kenya. Academia Letters, Article 4890. 6