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Paper short abstract

This paper explores how women in Nairobi’s informal settlements use everyday care and grassroots networks to meet gendered welfare needs amid limited state support, revealing both the empowering possibilities and the structural limits of these alternative systems.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines alternative social welfare practices in Nairobi’s informal settlements to understand how gendered needs are recognized, negotiated, and addressed in contexts of limited state support. While non-state actors—ranging from community groups to non-governmental organizations—increasingly provide essential services, their ability to meet the specific needs of women remains uneven. Drawing on an ethics of care and feminist relational perspectives, the paper foregrounds women’s lived experiences to explore how everyday acts of care function as informal welfare mechanisms. It identifies key gendered needs, including protection from domestic violence, sexual and reproductive health rights, access to childcare, and economic security, and assesses the extent to which alternative welfare systems incorporate these concerns or reproduce gendered hierarchies. Special attention is given to the practices of marginalized groups such as sex workers, refugees, and single mothers, whose access to welfare support varies significantly across social and spatial divides. By tracing how women organize, negotiate, and create their own support structures when existing mechanisms fall short, the paper demonstrates how grassroots agency both compensates for state absence and challenges entrenched inequalities, but also reveals the limitations of these arrangements—such as resource scarcity, exclusionary norms, and the emotional burdens placed on women. Ultimately, it shows how everyday care practices reshape the meaning of welfare from below while highlighting the constraints that continue to hinder more transformative gender justice.