SDC Experience and Practice on Empowerment

Empowerment in SDC Today

A variety of different understandings and practices of empowerment can be found within SDC. These different understandings reflect context specific issues, are a results of a long history of debates, changes and specific influences within each division / region, and partially overlap. In a general sense, empowerment covers a wide field that is central to the principle challenges of development. The following is a brief overview of empowerment in SDC today. For specific activites in the regions, please see:

A Map of the Different Understandings of Empowerment

A key reference is "Understanding and operationalising empowerment" (C. Lutrell, et al. ODI, SDC mandate).

This paper presents an overview of debates surrounding the different definitions and conceptual approaches to empowerment and explores a number of conceptual issues which have practical implications for the operationalisation of empowerment. These include whether empowerment is viewed as a process or an outcome; whether an ‘agency’ or a structural approach is taken. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these principles for working with partners and explores the potential of empowerment as a multidimensional approach for poverty reduction. Read more about "Understanding and Operationalising Empowerment" >>>

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A Brief Overview of the Landscape in SDC

  • Latin America Division elaborated its key strategic guidance in 2003, based on case studies and thourough participation among partners:  ¿Contribuimos al empoderamiento en America Latina? (2003). This strategy was reviewed in 2008 leading to the document  ¡El empoderamiento deja sus huellas! (2009)
  • West Africa Division has undertaken a long reflection on endogenous development, self-help, visionary actors, and capacity development.
  • South Asia Division has focused in the past on Human and Institutional Development, discrimination, structural violence, and today on a human rights based approaches.
  • With respect to gender, SDC’s focus has been on power relations between men and women, discrimination and empowerment of women, governance and human rights based approaches, empowerment of rights holders, and developing the capacities of duty bearers.
  • Concerning, conflict and a psycho-social perspective, the focus has been on the notion of disempowerment
  • Finally, with respect to principles in the fight against poverty, SDC has placed emphasis on discrimination and dignity.  

    • SDC Independent Evaluation on Empowerment (2007)

    A team of evaluators from India assessed SDC’s work in Head Office and in Burkina Faso and Bolivia. The main results were:

    • There is no shared understanding of empowerment at SDC, rather a plurality of cultures, which makes joint learning difficult.
    • Partnership for empowerment. This is a disctinctive strength, but experiences of « up-scaling » should be better shared
    • The need to ensure that the most poor people are included

    Follow up of the Evaluation includes learning processes within different divisions (West Africa, Latin America, Mekong) and exchanges on common issues: i.e. empowerment and the Paris Declaration. Read more about the Evaluation >>>

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    Empowerment – Capacity Development and the Paris Declaration

    The empowerment and capacity development agenda takes on a particular importance in the context of the Paris Declaration. SDC’s experience in

    • promoting citizen participation, consensus building and human rights,
    • piloting forms of linking central and local state control and responsibility in a subsidiary way permitting decentralized ownership,
    • linking micro and macro levels permitting a reality check and
    • engaging in long term partnerships that develop the capacities of civil society and local governments

    is highly relevant in this regard, as these are key aspects of the Paris Declaration and the Accra Aid Agenda.

    Elements of Consensus

    Empowerment represents both a goal and a method for SDC in its work. It is an emancipation process in which the disadvantaged are empowered to exercise their rights, obtain access to resources, and participate actively in the process of shaping society and making decisions. (Creating a Prospect of Living in Dignity: Principles Guiding SDC in its Commitment to Fighting Poverty, 2004) Read more >>>

    Empowerment happens when individuals and organised groups are able to imagine their world differently and to realise that vision by changing the relations of power that have been keeping them in poverty. (R. Eyben, IDS, DAC Povnet, 2008)

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