Testimonials | STRENGTHENING THE SAFETY NET: Anti-sexual harassment procedures removing barriers to women’s workforce participation

As Deevabits set out to expand its operations from 12 to 32 counties in Kenya, the company faced a critical challenge: attracting and retaining women field staff. Extensive travel through remote areas raised safety and security concerns for potential women employees. To address this, Deevabits, with technical advisory from Value for Women, took action by establishing an anti-sexual harassment committee, crafting a comprehensive anti-sexual harassment policy and rolling out a training program for both the committee and all employees.

Today, 100% of the anti-sexual harassment committee has received the training and expanded committee members’ understanding and awareness of sexual harassment, uncovering many actions previously overlooked, as explained by this committee member.

Figure 1. Anti-sexual harassment committee members who correctly identified as sexual harassment...

Since Deevabits implemented these improvements, women field staff feel tangibly safer.For example, women field staff reported a 122% increase in awareness of whom to contact in unsafe situations.

An additional unintended benefit was that team interactions have become more respectful and open, as more than 4x as many women field staff feel confident in giving open feedbackto their managers without fear of retaliation, and over 2x more than before feel that disrespectful jokes will not be tolerated.

Figure 2. Increase in respondents that strongly agree with the following statements, between baseline and endline

Deevabits plans to build on this momentum by expanding training programs with regular refresher courses and a train-the-trainer program to ensure continuous awareness among all employees. Watch this committee member speak to her commitment to promoting a safe and inclusive workplace at Deevabits.

Deevabits’ experience underscores that prioritizing employee safety and dignity is not just a legal necessity but a cornerstone of organizational success and sustainability.

If you want to learn more, read Deevabits’ full case study here.

Video Credits: Norman Sarria and Gerardo Mejía