
Sierra Leone
Agriculture
Open University of Kenya has developed a pilot production facility where Kenyan women’s groups can produce sanitary pads from corn stover. This innovative project addresses two key issues: access to sanitary products and pollution from burning agricultural waste. The project team will use FID funding to test this prototype under real-life conditions in a rural village, conduct safety and absorption testing, assess the product’s acceptability, and refine the business model for future scale-up.
Project deployed by:
In Kenya, menstrual health remains a critical issue, particularly for women living in rural areas or experiencing financial hardship. According to Kenya’s Ministry of Health (2019), 65% of women and girls cannot afford commercial sanitary products. In rural areas, only 46% of women use sanitary pads, while one in five resort to non-hygienic alternatives, such as cloth or toilet paper.
Maize farming is widely prevalent in Kenya, occupying 48.5% of arable land (FAOSTAT, 2019). After the harvest, corn stalks are often burned, increasing air pollution and carbon emissions. However, this agricultural waste is rich in cellulose (32-40%) and hemicellulose (20-30%), giving it excellent absorption capacity (Li et al., 2022).
To meet these challenges, Open University of Kenya and Moi University have developed a small pilot production unit where local women’s groups can make affordable, biodegradable sanitary towels directly from corn stalks.
FID financing will be used to:
Open University of Kenya is leading this project, in partnership with Moi University, and the Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute (KIRDI) is providing support to scale-up production.
This preparatory phase will lay the groundwork for the project’s wider scale-up by testing its feasibility and acceptability.
The long-term goal is to develop a sustainable solution that can be easily replicated, while improving access to quality menstrual products and reducing the environmental impact of agricultural waste in Kenya.
Projects
Projects funded by FID
Sierra Leone
Agriculture
South Africa
Democracy and Governance
Institutionalizing data-driven policymaking to improve access to water, air, and energy in Cape Town
South Africa
Democracy and Governance
Institutionalizing data-driven policymaking to improve access to water, air, and energy in Cape Town