Measuring empowerment in practice: structuring analysis and framing indicators
Abstract
This paper presents an analytic framework that can be used to measure and monitor empowerment processes and outcomes. The measuring empowerment (ME) framework, rooted in both conceptual discourse and measurement practice, illustrates how to gather data on empowerment and structure its analysis. The 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 first provides a definition of empowerment and then explains how the concept can be reduced to measurable components. Empowerment is defined as a person's capacity to make effective choices; that is, as the capacity to transform choices into desired actions and outcomes. The extent or degree to which a person is empowered is influenced by personal agency (the capacity to make purposive choice) and opportunity structure (the institutional context in which choice is made). Asset endowments are used as indicators of agency. These assets may be psychological, informational, organizational, material, social, financial, or human. Opportunity structure is measured by the presence and operation of formal and informal institutions, including the laws, regulatory frameworks, and norms governing behavior. Degrees of empowerment are measured by the existence of choice, the use of choice, and the achievement of choice. Following the conceptual discussion and the presentation of the analytic framework, this paper illustrates how the ME framework can be applied, using examples from four developmentinterventions. Each example discusses how the framework guided analysis and development of empowerment indicators. The paper also presents a draft module for measuring empowerment at the country level. The module can be used alone or be integrated into country-level poverty or governance monitoring systems that seek to add an empowerment dimension to their analysis.Download Info
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Paper provided by The World Bank in its series Policy Research Working Paper Series with number 3510.Length:
Date of creation: 01 Feb 2005
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3510
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Keywords: Decentralization; Public Health Promotion; Regional Rural Development; Health Economics&Finance; Health Monitoring&Evaluation; Health Economics&Finance; Gender and Social Development; Community Based Rural Development; Non Governmental Organizations; Regional Rural Development;This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2005-02-06 (All new papers)
- NEP-DEV-2005-02-06 (Development)
References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Mick Moore, 2001. "Empowerment at last?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(3), pages 321-329.
- Fox, Jonathan, 1996. "How does civil society thicken? the political construction of social capital in rural Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 1089-1103, June.
Citations
Blog mentions
As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:- Kesä 2010: Voimaantuminen
by Riitta Nieminen-Sundell in Foresight.fi on 2010-06-04 07:24:35
Cited by:
- Joe Devine & Laura Camfield & Ian Gough, 2008. "Autonomy or Dependence – or Both?: Perspectives from Bangladesh," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 105-138, January.
- Sabina Alkire, 2008. "Concepts and Measures of Agency," OPHI Working Papers ophiwp010, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
- Deepa Narayan & Lant Pritchett & Soumya Kapoor, 2009. "Moving Out of Poverty : Volume 2. Success from the Bottom Up," World Bank Publications, The World Bank, number 11838.
- Janssens, Wendy, 2010. "Women's Empowerment and the Creation of Social Capital in Indian Villages," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 974-988, July.
- Ruth Alsop & Mette Bertelsen & Jeremy Holland, 2006. "Empowerment in Practice : From Analysis to Implementation," World Bank Publications, The World Bank, number 6980.
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