empowerment

A WORKING DEFINITION:

The process through which those who are currently disadvantaged achieve equal rights, resources and power

KEY PRINCIPLES

•  it is concerned with increasing realisable and informed choices within a framework of human rights and equality

•  it inevitably involves challenging existing inequalities in power and resources

•  it involves a combination of individual initiative and collective action

•  it is a complex process which consists of interlinked and mutually reinforcing dimensions (economic, cultural, legal, political, psychological) and levels (e.g. individual, family, community, macro-level)

•  it requires not only 'self-help' by those who are currently disadvantaged but changes in those who are currently advantaged and addressing macro-level inequalities

ELEMENTS OF AN EMOWERMENT FRAMEWORK

• process of transformation in power relations
• dimensions of inequalities where change is needed eg economic, social,political, legal
• levels at which change is needed eg individual, household, communities, markets, national, international.

Universal Concept?

"Empowerment is like obscenity; you have trouble defining it but you know it when you see it" (Rappaport 1986)

"I like the term empowerment because no one has defined it clearly as yet; so it gives as a breathing space to work it out in action terms before we have to pin ourselves down to what it means. I will continue using it until I am sure it does not describe what we're doing." (NGO worker quoted in Batliwala 1993)

'Empowerment' is a notoriously contentious concept. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the English term 'empowerment' originated in the second half of the 17th century. But it only gained widespread currency in the 1960s linked to North American Black radicalism. In the 1980s the term was adopted by NGOs in both the South and the North to signify an alternative development agenda for poverty alleviation based on principles of participation and self-help. In the 1980s neo-liberal politicians also adopted the term empowerment to underline a commitment to increasing individual choice and self-help in the context of market reform (and also the cynical might suggest to increase their popular appeal).

In some other languages versions of the term have a long history. Even where precise indigenous equivalents do not exist the concept is not one imposed on the South by the North, but an extension of earlier concepts of freedom, emancipation and political struggle of the oppressed. This enabled the term to be incorporated into indigenous grassroots movements and radical political struggles for social transformation, including many Southern women's movements and organizations.

KABEER FRAMEWORK

Dimensions

• Resources (conditions)
• Agency (process)
• Achievements (outcomes)

Outcomes can only be assessed in relation to initial conditions and agency.

Levels

• ‘Deeper levels’ Structural relations of class/caste/gender
• Intermediate levels Institutional rules and resources
• Immediate levels Individual resources, agency and achievements
  Change is needed on all these levels.

(Kabeer 2003)

(Rowlands 1997 building on Kabeer 1994 and Nelson and Wright 1996)

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CHEN FRAMEWORK

commissioned by UNIFEM for AIMS micro-finance impact study.

Distinguishes between:

material change

• income: increased income and income security
• resources: increased access to, control over, and ownership of assets and income
• basic needs: increased or improved health care, child care, nutrition, education, housing, water supply, sanitation and energy source
• earning capacity: increased employment opportunities plus ability to take advantage of these opportunities

perceptual change

• self-esteem: enhanced perception of own individuality, interest and value
• self-confidence: enhanced perception of own ability and capacities
• vision of future: increased ability to think ahead and plan for the future
• visibility and respect: increased recognition and respect for individual’s value and contribution

relational change

• decision-making: increased role in decision-making within the household and community
• bargaining power: increased bargaining power
• participation: increased participation in non-family groups, in local institutions, in local government, in political process
• self-reliance: reduced dependence on intermediation by others for access to resources, markets, public institutions plus increased ability and ability to act independently
• organisational strength: increased strength of local organisations and local leadership

LONGWE FRAMEWORK

Women's empowerment as a progression through:

• welfare: The level of material welfare of women, relative to men in such matters as food supply, income and medical care.
  
• access: Women's access to the factors of production: land, labour, credit, training, marketing facilities and all publicly available services and benefits on an equal basis with men.
  
• conscientisation: The understanding of the difference between sex roles and gender roles, and that the latter are cultural and can be changed.
  
• participation: Women's equal participation in the decision-making process, policy-making, planning and administration.
  
• equality of control: over the factors of production, and the distribution of benefits so that neither men nor women are in a position of dominance.