Empowerment
Empowerment has turned into the paradigm of development theory. This concept has allowed for the individuals and societies that until now have been marginalised from decision-making processes to become the central axis to the interventions. However, diverse obstacles like the lack of agreement upon its definition and the limited empirical work related to this approach has impeded its adequate incorporation into international development cooperation policies. How does official development cooperation and non governmental actors put into practice the concept of empowerment?
Backgrounder by FRIDE
In spite of rhetoric, the development agencies largely do not take in to account a key aspect in the fight against poverty: Empowerment. Is the development of a society possible if it does not have the capacity to make decisions? (only available in Spanish)
Statement by Paula Cirujano, University of Coruña
Empowerment requires activities that motivate change (like the support of organisational movements, strengthening of networks etc.) rather than the planning of activities in itself. This causes an especially critical question in the Spanish Development Cooperation. Can the current methods adapt to these kinds of interventions? (available only in Spanish)
Statement by Jenny Pearce, Department of Peace Studies and International Centre for Participation Studies, University of Bradford, England
Empowerment, or “reflective power consciousness”, allows the individual to develop a critical conscience so that she can detect unequal power structures that until recently were considered part of the social order. Thanks to this, new priorities can arise given that society opens itself to other possibilities, which power holders in the past had kept off the agenda.
Statement by Alejandero Berdaña, Director, Centre of International Studies, Managua, Nicaragua
Development as it is currently understood does not work. The new paradigm must settle itself in a more humanistic definition based on the people and the nations that choose and carry out their own development. But what implication will this new power distribution have for the IFIs and the donors?