The Agency of women and men in urban vertical gardening: qualitative insights from Nairobi's informal settlements of Kibra

The rapid pace of urbanization in Nairobi's informal settlements has heightened challenges of food insecurity, compelling households to adopt vertical gardening as a locally adapted response. Yet the sustainability and impact of such practices are deeply shaped by gender dynamics that influence access to resources, participation, and agency. This study explores how women and men engage with vertical gardening in Kibera, examining the intersections of gender roles, structural constraints, and collective empowerment. Drawing on fifty in-depth interviews, four focus group discussions, unstructured observations, and key informant interviews, the research reveals a gendered division of labour: women predominantly undertake routine caregiving-aligned tasks such as watering, pruning, pest control, and monitoring plant health, while men assume labour-intensive roles including construction, fencing, and soil preparation. Access to essential inputs like land tenure, quality seeds, tools, training, market linkages, and financial services remains unequal, with women facing structural barriers such as limited land ownership, male-dominated extension services, and mobility restrictions. Despite these constraints, vertical gardening groups have emerged as important spaces for women to exercise collective empowerment, exercise agency, and negotiate for resource and decision making, thereby reshaping household and community power dynamics. This paper advances theory by situating vertical gardening within debates on gendered agency, urban resilience, and food systems transformation, demonstrating how everyday practices in informal settlements reconfigure power relations and expand women's strategic influence within food systems. Policy recommendations include municipal recognition of vertical gardens, subsidies, inclusive training, and microfinance tailored to women. Limitations of qualitative scope are acknowledged, but findings highlight vertical gardening's potential to advance SDGs 2, 5, 11, and 13. Embedding a gender lens within urban agriculture policy will position vertical gardening not only as a pathway for household food security and economic inclusion but also as a catalyst for equitable and sustainable urban food systems.