Further Reading
SDC’s Performance Towards Empowerment of Stakeholders from the Recipients’ Perspective
SDC Independent Evaluation (2007)
The main objectives of this evaluation were to a) assess SDC's performance in empowerment of communities by examining SDC’s interactions with implementation partners and, in turn, their interactions with the communities, b) appraise SDC’s approaches to building on capacities and sensibilities of implementation partners' organisations to be responsive to community needs and priorities, and, c) initiate an institutional learning process within SDC on how to consistently include the stakeholder perspective in its activities. SDC selected
No more adoption rates! Looking for empowerment in agricultural development programmes
Andrew Bartlett (2008) Development in Practice 18 (4 & 5): 524-538
The debate on empowerment encompasses an older discourse about the intrinsic value of empowerment, and a newer discourse about the instrumental benefits of empowerment; the concept of agency is useful in understanding this distinction. In agricultural development, empowerment efforts are often instrumentalist, viewed as an advanced form of participation that will improve project effectiveness, with adoption rates that promote compliance rather than intrinsic empowerment. Nevertheless, it is possible for projects to enhance the means for - and facilitate the process of - intrinsic empowerment. Read more >>>
Empoderamiento: Conceptos y Orientaciones
Intercooperation, ASOCAM (2007)
Este documento enriquece el debate respecto al empoderamiento, al mismo tiempo que brinda orientaciones prácticas. La publicación, que aborda el tema desde tres entradas temáticas (social, política y económica), ha sido estructurada sobre la base de dos preguntas orientadoras: ¿cómo los actores han logrado empoderarse y cuáles han sido los factores principales para estos logros? y ¿cómo las instituciones de promoción o de servicios y los gobiernos locales han generado condiciones favorables para reducir la inequidad y promover el empoderamiento de los actores en situaciones de vulnerabilidad? Descargar el documento >>>
The vicissitudes of empowerment in conflict-afflicted Nepal
Barbara Weyermann, Office for Psychosocial Issues (OPSI), Berlin. Paper presented at The Third International and Interdisciplinary Trauma Research Net Conference on Trauma – Stigma and Distinction: Social Ambivalences in the Face of Extreme Suffering, St. Moritz, Switzerland, 14-17 September 2006.
While trauma work in crisis areas usually starts during acute conflict, the large aid community in Nepal has, after 10 years of civil war, yet to acknowledge that it has to deal with trauma. Although it is an advantage that Nepal has been spared the trauma boom with its medicalization of suffering and transfer of Western treatment methods the question has to be asked why in Nepal almost no means exist to support people in dealing with their experience of war. This paper will explore how the logic of development agencies and the dynamics of the highly hierarchical Nepalese social system play on each other and reinforce each other's denial of chronic fear and extreme suffering. The paper suggests that aid organizations should integrate a psychosocial understanding of disempowerment caused by trauma, loss and grief so as to develop practical measures of addressing the social and collective fragmentation within the framework of their ongoing projects. By initiating such a process they will be able to also gain a better understanding of how to work with the structural violence of the social exclusion of large parts of society that is an underlying cause of the war. Download (PDF).
Is SDC contributing to empowerment in Latin America?
This was the guiding question of a workshop of SDC's Latin American Divsion organised in 2002. This SDC document highlights the lessons learned during the workshop . The initiative of learning and sharing about empowerment was continued in the ASOCAM multipartner workshop of 2005 on empowerment.
Download (Pdf 620 kb Spanish / English / French / German)
Transversal study on empowerment
Anja Sieber (2004)
This study was commissioned by SDC's gender and development desk. The study looks at the interface of gender, empowerment and the building of peace, and screens 16 projects with an empowerment focus, analysing contribution to women's empowerment withregard to violence, security and access to resources. The study includes projects of the "Christilicher Friedensdienst" (Christian Peace Service) in Palestine, Israel, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Morocco and Switzerland. Download (Pdf 460 French)
Beyond buzzwords: 'poverty reduction', 'participation' and 'empowerment' in development policy
Cornwall, A. and Brock, K. (2005) UNRISD Overarching Concerns Paper 10. Geneva: UNRISD.
This thought-provoking paper takes a critical look at how the word “empowerment” has come to be used in international development policy. It emphasises the scope of different meanings and agendas behind the use of the term ‘empowerment’. Along with the words "poverty reduction" and "participation", the authors suggest that the word "empowerment" gives development policies a sense of optimism and suggests a controllable world where everyone gets a chance to take part in decision making. Challenging this, the authors question whether these words bring any difference in practise and how their use has led to any meaningful change in the policies pursued by mainstream development. The paper begins by investigating the form and function of development buzzwords in the statements of intent of development agencies and how these buzzwords have changed over time. Their argument is that the terms are never neutral, rather that they are given meaning as they are put to use in policies. The authors also stress that these policies, in turn, influence how those who work in development come to think about what they are doing. They emphasise the way in which words that once implied attention to politics and power have been apoliticised. This raises the danger that the adoption of such terms may offer little hope for the tackling of poverty. Download (Pdf 640 kb)
Towards Participatory Local Governance: Assessing the Transformative Possibilities
Gaventa, J. (2003), Paper prepared for the conference Participation: From Tyranny to Transformation. 27- 28 February, 2003 Manchester, UK
As part of a wider paper on participation, this paper introduces the Power Cube as a model for analysing power relations. By emphasising the need to look at a combination of spaces, places and visibility of power relations, the Power Cube represents the multidimensional character of power. It also shows that different types of power take place in a continuum and thus challenges the idea of seeing power in terms of binary oppositions. The wider paper discusses the way in which current interest in issues of participation and local governance creates new opportunities for redefining democracy. It emphasises that ananalysis of power relations is crucial to understanding these new spaces for democratic engagement. It is only through a deeper analysis of power relations, that participatory democracy and participatory development can be understood and promoted. Download (Pdf 315 kb)
The Monitoring and Evaluation of Empowerment
INTRAC report. Oxford, UK. Oakley, P. and Clayton, J. (2000)
This paper forms a general introduction to the complex issue of the monitoring and evaluation of empowerment. It reviews the common approaches to empowerment and sets out the key methods and instruments for its evaluation. The paper begins with a discussion of the concept of empowerment and provides an overview of the various approaches to its study. Three case studies of NGO projects concerned with empowerment are presented and some basic guidelines for monitoring and evaluating are laid out. In the final section a practical exercise on the M&E of empowerment is outlined, based upon the case studies presented. Download (Pdf 508 kb)
This report is superseded by the book (not available on the web) from this workshop: Oakley P., ed., (2001) Evaluating Empowerment: Reviewing the Concept and Practice, INTRAC NGO, Oxford, pp. 137-151
From marginalisation to empowerment. Towards a new approach in small enterprise development
Mayoux, L. (2003) Berne, Switzerland, Intercooperation: Paper presented to SDC's E&I Division Workshop 'Small Enterprise Development and Empowerment' January 9/10 2003 - Study Centre Gerzensee, Switzerland.
This report focuses primarily on the need for an emphasis on power relations and empowerment if micro enterprise policies are to address poverty reduction. The report is of interest because of the way in which it applies general empowerment theories to a particular sector, and in particular a sector where the implications of empowerment are rarely analysed. The paper argues that power relations are key determinants in any market place, therefore if power relations are not addressed in small enterprise development, the very poor are very unlikely to benefit from them. The report also discusses the need to incorporate gender issues in macro-level enterprise policy and analyses whether small-scale enterprise is having positive or rather negative effects on women's labour. Download (Pdf 340 kb)
Empowerment and Institutional Change: Mapping Virtuous Circles of State-Society Interaction
Fox, J. (2005) in Power, Rights and Poverty: Concepts and connections, R. Alsop, eds., World Bank/DFID, UK.
This paper tackles the issue of the conceptual links between rights-based approaches and empowerment approaches to poverty alleviation through reinforcing citizen rights. Within this debate the paper stresses the importance of recognising the interaction between formal and informal power relations in the processes of institutional change. The author analyses various conceptual categories. These include the distinction between empowerment understood as actors’ capacities, and rights as institutionally recognized opportunities. It also discusses how pro-reform power might be limited by informal anti-reform power. With four case studies of development interventions in Mexico, the author illustrates the way power sharing was uneven in implementation. Thus he points out the difficulties of bringing about empowerment and transforming institutions where different and opposing interests intervene at a local and national level. Download (Pdf 3.2 MB)
