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[From ELDIS] MEASURING
EMPOWERMENT IN PRACTICE: STRUCTURING ANALYSIS AND FRAMING INDICATORS
Author(s): Alsop, R.,; Heinsohn. N., Produced by: World Bank (2005)
This paper proposes a framework for measuring empowerment (ME)
comprising three core concepts: agency, opportunity structure, and
degree of empowerment. In this regard, it defines empowerment as a
person's capacity to transform choices into desired actions and
outcomes. The authors suggest that this framework can be used to
measure empowerment at both the intervention level and the country
level, as a part of poverty or governance monitoring. The paper
illustrates how the Measuring Empowerment framework can be applied,
using examples from four development interventions. Within each example
it discusses how the framework guided the analysis and development of
empowerment indicators. Some of the findings that emerged during the
development and preliminary effort to test the measuring empowerment
framework include: * the framework informed the conceptualisation and
the activities of two empowerment projects and structured country case
studies on power, equality, and poverty * while providing very broad
boundaries, the concepts of domains, sub-domains, and levels provide a
solution to the fact that degrees of empowerment vary according to what
people are engaged in and where the activity occurs. * the
conceptualisations of assets and opportunity structure can be used to
understand the underlying reasons and dynamics shaping the degrees of
empowerment of different actors, and for identifying activities and
strategies for improving people's empowerment. * distinguishing between
different degrees of empowerment makes it possible to capture gradual
advancements in the empowerment status of respondents. * using the
concepts of domains and levels, useful cross- country commentary is
possible on the relative degree of empowerment of different groups.
Additionally, if empowerment indicators become part of regular surveys
generating panel data, changes in degrees of empowerment in different
countries can be observed over time.(Posted 22/05/07)
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