interviews were scheduled with each member for the survey modules on demographics, income, and
personal assessment of group functioning. An additional module was administered separately to the
chairperson, the treasurer, and the secretary of each group to gather information on the history,
organizational structure, and costs and revenues of the group. Given that the methodology of this
study required a complete survey of all participants in the group, only groups for which at least 90
percent of the members were successfully interviewed were retained in the sample. This leaves us with
18 groups for a total of 303 individual members. While the sample is certainly not representative of
all groups in the informal settlements of Nairobi, it can provide a reasonable representation of small
and medium-sized groups with a focus on income generation and a low degree of formalization.
[Insert table 1]
As can be seen from table 1, the groups in the sample differ substantially in terms of size and
of the number of years they have been in place. The smallest group has 6 members and the largest
has 30, with an average of 14 members per group. The average group has been in place for almost 5
years, with a minimum of 9 months and a maximum of 16 years. Groups are mostly mixed in terms
of gender, with 33 percent of them being all-women and 11 percent being all men. These figures are
not surprising, given the prominent role of women groups in the informal sector of most developing
countries. The average group member is 31 years old, but this figure hides substantial differences in
the sample: the ‘youngest’ group has a mean age of its members equal to 19, and the ‘oldest’ group
of 60. Approximately 10 percent of the respondents has no formal schooling, 48.4 percent has Class
1-8, and the rest has higher education. This is an important piece of evidence because it shows that
in the reality of urban informal settlements with strong barriers to entry in the formal labor market,
self-help groups cater not only to unskilled workers. Finally, members’ wealth was assessed on the
basis of ownership of a basket of durable consumption goods such as radio, TV, camera, bike, car,
stove, electric or gas cooker, stove, clock, sofa, bed and mattress, weighted by an estimate of their
prices in the informal market.6 Based on this index, the average respondent owned durables for 7,379
6 The average prices for these items on the second hand market at the time of the interview were as follows (in Ksh).
Byke: 4000, car: 180000, electric cooker: 4800, gas cooker: 4500, stove: 400, charcoal burner: 200, sofa: 4500, bed:
2000, mattress: 1100, mat: 350, radio: 700, tv: 4000, camera: 2000, wall clock: 900.