IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jodepp/v6y2021i2p144-167.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Empowerment Through Genuine Participation: Giving Voice to the Neglected Majority

Author

Listed:
  • Liberatus J. Rwebugisa
  • Janet Usinger

Abstract

Empowerment is often a goal of community development projects aimed at poverty reduction; yet, ascertaining whether empowerment occurs can be elusive. This case study research examined the empowerment process. Thirty community partners participated in a three-year community-led initiative to improve public education in a rural northwest Tanzanian village. The initiative included capacity-building activities to enhance personal and collective agency. The findings from the analytic framework of self-determination theory indicated that the initiative simultaneously nurtured and satisfied community partners’ innate basic psychological needs of relatedness, competence and autonomy: hence affirmed their feelings of empowerment. Implications for the theory and practice are presented.

Suggested Citation

  • Liberatus J. Rwebugisa & Janet Usinger, 2021. "Empowerment Through Genuine Participation: Giving Voice to the Neglected Majority," Journal of Development Policy and Practice, , vol. 6(2), pages 144-167, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jodepp:v:6:y:2021:i:2:p:144-167
    DOI: 10.1177/24551333211035181
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/24551333211035181
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/24551333211035181?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robin A. Richardson, 2018. "Measuring Women’s Empowerment: A Critical Review of Current Practices and Recommendations for Researchers," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 137(2), pages 539-557, June.
    2. Christian Blickem & Shoba Dawson & Susan Kirk & Ivaylo Vassilev & Amy Mathieson & Rebecca Harrison & Peter Bower & Jonathan Lamb, 2018. "What is Asset-Based Community Development and How Might It Improve the Health of People With Long-Term Conditions? A Realist Synthesis," SAGE Open, , vol. 8(3), pages 21582440187, July.
    3. Facundo Alvaredo & Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez & Lucas Chancel & Gabriel Zucman, 2018. "World Inequality Report 2018," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-01885458, HAL.
    4. Palash Kamruzzaman, 2020. "Exploring the Nexus Between Participation and Empowerment," Journal of Development Policy and Practice, , vol. 5(1), pages 32-53, January.
    5. Alsop, Ruth & Heinsohn, Nina, 2005. "Measuring empowerment in practice: structuring analysis and framing indicators," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3510, The World Bank.
    6. Jandhyala Tilak, 2002. "Education and Poverty," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(2), pages 191-207.
    7. Deepa Narayan, 2005. "Measuring Empowerment : Cross Disciplinary Perspectives," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7441, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sabina Alkire, 2007. "The Missing Dimensions of Poverty Data: Introduction to the Special Issue," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(4), pages 347-359.
    2. Alkire, Sabina & Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Peterman, Amber & Quisumbing, Agnes & Seymour, Greg & Vaz, Ana, 2013. "The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 71-91.
    3. Burchardt, Tania & Evans, Martin & Holder, Holly, 2013. "Public policy and inequalities of choice and autonomy," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 51267, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Vijayamohanan, Pillai N. & Asalatha, B. P., 2012. "Measuring Women Empowerment: Dissecting the Methodological Discourse," MPRA Paper 44077, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Maria Ana Lugo & Esfandiar Maasoumi, 2008. "Multidimensional Poverty Measures from an Information Theory Perspective," Working Papers 85, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    6. Pratley, Pierre, 2016. "Associations between quantitative measures of women's empowerment and access to care and health status for mothers and their children: A systematic review of evidence from the developing world," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 119-131.
    7. Claudio Araujo & Catherine Araujo-Bonjean & Victor Beguerie, 2018. "Community mills and women's empowerment in Burkina Faso," CERDI Working papers halshs-01958755, HAL.
    8. Alison Riddle & Abby Ramage & Cynthia M. Kroeger & Zulfiqar A. Bhutta & Elizabeth Kristjansson & Monica Taljaard & Carol Vlassoff & Sara Wuehler & Becky Skidmore & Alexandria L. Bennett & Anita Rizvi , 2021. "PROTOCOL: The effects of empowerment‐based nutrition interventions on the nutritional status of women of reproductive age in low‐ and middle‐income countries," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(3), September.
    9. Tania Burchardt & Holly Holder, 2012. "Developing Survey Measures of Inequality of Autonomy in the UK," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 106(1), pages 1-25, March.
    10. Deepa Narayan & Lant Pritchett & Soumya Kapoor, 2009. "Moving Out of Poverty : Volume 2. Success from the Bottom Up," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 11838, December.
    11. Shree Saha & Sudha Narayanan, 2020. "A Simplified measure of nutritional empowerment using machine learning to abbreviate the Women's Empowerment in Nutrition Index (WENI)," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2020-031, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    12. Alkire, Sabina & Meinzen-Dick, Ruth Suseela & Peterman, Amber & Quisumbing, Agnes R. & Seymour, Greg & Vaz, Ana, 2012. "The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index:," IFPRI discussion papers 1240, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    13. repec:cep:sticas:/174 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Tania Burchardt & Martin Evans & Holly Holder, 2013. "Public policy and inequalities of choice and autonomy," CASE Papers case174, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    15. Bilfield, Alissa & Seal, David & Rose, Diego, 2020. "From agency to empowerment: women farmers’ experiences of a fairtrade coffee cooperative in Guatemala," 2021 Annual Meeting, August 1-3, Austin, Texas 338763, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    16. Friis-Hansen, Esbern & Duveskog, Deborah, 2012. "The Empowerment Route to Well-being: An Analysis of Farmer Field Schools in East Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 414-427.
    17. Regina Scheyvens & Heidi van der Watt, 2021. "Tourism, Empowerment and Sustainable Development: A New Framework for Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-19, November.
    18. Tania Burchardt & Martin Evans & Holly Holder, 2012. "Measuring Inequality: Autonomy The degree of empowerment in decisions about one’s own life," CASE Reports casereport74, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    19. Klein, Elise, 2014. "Psychological Agency: Evidence from the Urban Fringe of Bamako," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 642-653.
    20. Elodie ROSSI, 2023. "Child malnutrition in Nepal: Women’s empowerment or promotion of their socioeconomic status?," Bordeaux Economics Working Papers 2023-04, Bordeaux School of Economics (BSE).
    21. Sven Resnjanskij & Jens Ruhose & Simon Wiederhold & Ludger Wößmann, 2021. "Mentoring Improves the Labor-Market Prospects of Highly Disadvantaged Adolescents," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 74(02), pages 31-38, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jodepp:v:6:y:2021:i:2:p:144-167. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.