Five Domains: A Framework for Enabling Low-Income Women to Increase Their Incomes
What does it really take to enable low-income women entrepreneurs to increase their incomes and sustain those gains over time?
Between 2023 and 2025, BFA Global worked with 11 enterprises across Kenya through the Opportunity Leads Umbrella Fund, testing different approaches to strengthening women’s livelihoods. What emerged was not a single pathway to higher incomes, but a framework of five interconnected areas that need to work together for women to participate effectively in markets and grow their incomes.
The Five Domains Framework identifies these as support structures and enabling conditions; skills and confidence; networks; productive capital and assets; and market linkages. The research shows that these domains are interconnected and that the barriers women face vary with their circumstances, geography, and stage in their business journey.
The report offers a practical diagnostic framework for enterprises and funders to better understand the constraints facing low-income women, design more effective interventions, and identify where partnerships and additional support may be needed.
Read the report to explore the Five Domains Framework and what it means for designing and funding more effective women’s economic empowerment interventions.
DOWNLOAD
Five Domains
A Framework for Enabling Low-Income Women to Increase their Incomes
