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assessing empowerment. What are we talking about?. “Empowerment means that people, especially poorer people, are enabled to take more control over their lives” (Chambers 1993)
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What are we talking about? • “Empowerment means that people, especially poorer people, are enabled to take more control over their lives” (Chambers 1993) • “Empowerment … refers to the expansion in people’s ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied to them” (Kabeer 2001)
A dichotomy • Instrumental empowerment • A relatively new discourse that recognises gains in efficiency and productivity from worker participation • Intrinsic empowerment • An older discourse associated with the struggle for land and liberty
What’s the difference? • It’s the difference between … • people being given a role in our agenda • and taking control of their own agenda • It’s the difference between … • the adoption of planned behaviour • and the demonstration of agency
What are we looking for? • The assessment of empowerment is a search for signs of agency… • Signs that people are engaged in critical thinking, exercising choices, taking action that gives them greater control of livelihood assets… • … and transforming the power relationships in their lives
Behavioural Indicators from Bangladesh • organizational behaviour: women in leadership roles, active participation in group decision-making, collective actions • planning behaviour: a combination of setting goals, taking steps towards their achievement (e.g. savings), and self-monitoring • entitlement behaviour: exercising rights, making claims as individuals or groups, engaging in advocacy • economic behaviour: holding and using cash, making sales and purchases, making leases, negotiating wage rates • learning behaviour: seeking information, and taking action to share knowledge with others • experimental behaviour: testing and modifying technologies, rejection of a technology as a result of critical thinking
How are we going to assess agency? • The question of how cannot be divorced from the question of who. • Empowerment involves a challenge to, and a change in, relationships. • Assessment is – in itself - a manifestation of a power relationship within or between groups • It can be argued that the assessment of empowerment in development programmes can only be done by the parties involved in the development relationship. • Those parties can be described as ‘developers’ and ‘developees’.
Case studies as an assessment method • Case studies can be used as a method for all 5 types of assessment in the typology • Agency entails a process that is situation specific. Case studies are useful because they can take account of both context and chronology. • By comparing the before and after situations, and examining the sequence of events that connects the two situations, case studies can go some way to establishing a counterfactual, and attributing behavioural changes to particular interventions. This is particularly valuable for impact assessment.
Case studies in Indonesia • Context: a national programme to train farmers in agro-ecology using experiential learning techniques. • Farmer groups in 182 sub-districts produced case studies of their achievements • The cases included: maps, photos, timelines, quotes, a summary of group discussions, and financial calculations. In total: more than 3,000 pages • Many of the achievements were expected, but a meta-analysis identified the frequency of 62 types of ‘spontaneous behaviour’, i.e activities that had not been planned by the government or the development agencies • Eg., farmers formed their own organisations in 35 sub-districts (19%), carried out protests in 33 sub-districts (18%) and set up marketing schemes in 14 sub-districts (8%).
Expecting the Unexpected • If we are serious about intrinsic empowerment, we need to pay more attention to unplanned behaviour change • This may be difficult for some development planners to accept. • In agriculture, we may find that more change is being initiated by farmers than by the ‘experts’. And not all of these changes are appreciated by those is authority • Although greater participation in officially approved programmes is welcome, empowerment often involves a struggle against government policies and regulations, and a challenge to the roles and attitudes of those in power.
The unexpected in Laos • The landscape of Northern Laos has been transformed in recent years by a boom in the production of rubber and maize. • The boom was started by farmers themselves. They brought knowledge and planting materials from across the border in Thailand and China, and worked with small traders to export their produce. • A sign of empowerment perhaps? But also a new opportunity for exploitation. • The Government is now promoting the idea of farmer groups and associations, while also granting land concessions and trading rights to large companies. • With the benefits of rubber and maize being ‘captured’ by bigger players, some farmers are already looking for new opportunities.
A final quote “Delightful as the pastime of measuring may be, it is the most futile of all occupations, and to submit to the decrees of the measurers the most servile of attitudes” (Virginia Wolf, 1929)
