BrighterMonday Kenya, in collaboration with Mastercard Foundation under the Gen Kazi programme, supported by strategic partners, will strengthen women’s participation in the coastal tourism economy through accelerating dignified work and enterprise growth.
In the initial phase, BrighterMonday Kenya has convened policymakers, employers, development partners, entrepreneurs, educators, and young people to address the structural bottlenecks facing Mombasa’s workforce, more particularly the women in tourism, hospitality, and the wider blue economy.
Mombasa remains one of Kenya’s most economically strategic counties, driven by tourism, port activities, logistics, trade and cultural enterprise. However, employment within the county remains heavily characterised by informality, seasonal work, skills mismatch and limited job protection. Nationally, over 90% of jobs created between 2022 and 2025 were in the informal sector, limiting workers’ access to stability, contracts and social protection.
The coastal workforce is also experiencing a rapid digital shift, with nearly 90% of employers now relying on online platforms to hire. Yet access remains uneven, particularly for women and non-urban youth, with only 25% of non-urban households reporting internet access and 7% owning computers . These digital disparities continue to reinforce exclusion from formal employment and limit the scalability of women-led enterprises.
The initiative is designed to realise workforce reforms to address digital access, safety in employment, industry-aligned training, and entrepreneurship ecosystems across the coast region.
“The economy of Mombasa county for example, must be built on opportunity, protection, and progression,” said Sarah Ndegwa, Managing Director, BrighterMonday Kenya. “Tourism remains the backbone of the county’s workforce, yet women continue to be concentrated in informal, low-wage roles with limited mobility. Through this initiative, we are repositioning women not only as a workforce but as leaders and entrepreneurs in the tourism sector and enterprise ecosystem.”
The initiative further responds to persistent leadership and participation gaps across the tourism value chain, where women remain underrepresented in management, ownership and decision-making roles.
The entrepreneurship drive is aimed at strengthening coastal SMEs. While entrepreneurship continues to be promoted as a pathway to employment, structural barriers remain widespread. Nationally, 41% of young people with disabilities report difficulty starting a business, while refugees and displaced persons remain constrained by documentation and certification challenges.
“Entrepreneurship is not only about self-employment, it is also about economic participation at scale,” added Sarah Ndegwa, Managing Director, BrighterMonday Kenya. “The objective is to motivate women to start businesses and grow them to competitive enterprises through access to capital, capacity-building, digital infrastructure and structured markets.”
The initiative further aligns with Kenya’s evolving employment landscape, which increasingly values hybrid skillsets combining digital fluency with communication and workplace readiness. Despite this shift, 62.1% of employers report that graduates remain inadequately prepared for the labour market, highlighting the urgency of reforming training pathways and employer engagement models.
County-level engagements remain critical to achieving inclusive growth outcomes. The initiative, therefore, supports the County Government’s employment priorities by linking employer demand, training institutions, financing partners, and jobseekers through a coordinated workforce ecosystem approach.
The Generation Kazi programme, implemented by BrighterMonday Kenya, continues to drive gender-responsive workforce transformation, targeting: 70% women, 70% non-urban youth, 10% persons with disabilities, 10% displaced persons, ensuring that those furthest from formal opportunity are positioned at the centre of labour market interventions.
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