Distribution by Region

Distribution by Organisation Type, Document Type, Region and Year

Empowerment occurs mostly in documents published in Europe, followed by Asia, North America, Africa and MENA with comparatively smaller contributions. Overall, the top five contributors in terms of occurrences are IGO, NGO, NGO_Fed, State and RE organisations.

IGO documents provide the greatest number of occurrences, primarily from general documents published in Europe. Occurrences from NGO, NGO_Fed, State and RE were mostly obtained from activity reports published in Europe.

Empowerment (generic) ...

• is a/an

  • organisational program

• ability/capacity

• is part of development

• can be part of humanitarian work (although this is debated)

• has many subtypes, grouped by

  • target recipient

    • gender (women’s, girls’, gender)

    • age (youth, child)

    • group

• • area/focus

• suffers resistance from traditional power holders

• should be seen as an opportunity, not a loss

• requires

  • systemic changes & cooperation

  • better monitoring and metrics

• can have an overly individualistic focus

• has myths and misconceptions

• should not be thought of as a uniquely modern, Western notion

Women's empowerment ...

• is a/an

  • objective, socio-cultural goal

  • cross cutting issue

  • component of gender equality

  • dimension of human development

  • ability

    • to access the components of development

    • to exercise control over one's actions

• is the most prevalent type of empowerment

• includes

  • gender empowerment (almost always)

  • girls' empowerment (generally)

• is part of gender equality and women's empowerment

  • which is part of several global development plans

  • in which equality & empowerment may seen as one goal

• has been included in various UN plans

• is part of several monitoring indices

• may focus on

  • girls, adolescents

  • women in poor areas

  • food insecure women & children

• has methods

• has express purposes

Community empowerment ...

• is a principle

• is contrasted with

  • immediate aid assistance

  • service delivery approaches

• has subtypes

  • participatory, rights-based, grass root level community empowerment

• may focus on

  • women, children, families

  • the most vulnerable, marginalised

• has methods

  • promoting networking

  • forming groups

  • health interventions

  • monitoring services, access and results

  • capacity building, training

• has express purposes

Economic empowerment ...

• is a

  • dimension of sustainable development

  • key area of focus

  • key interconnected theme

  • window of hope and stability for young people

• leads to

  • resilience, self-reliance

• is contrasted with

  • rehabilitation-based methods

• may focus on

  • farmers

  • rural populations

  • women, young people

  • adolescent girls, young women living with HIV

  • trafficking survivors

• has methods

• has express purposes

• has secondary results

  • decrease tension in families & communities

Legal empowerment ...

• may focus on

  • women, girls

  • poor, marginalised, disadvantaged populations

• has methods

  • legal services, aid consultations

  • legal capacity building

  • legal reform

  • integrating formal and extralegal economic sectors

• has express purposes

  • protect poor people from globalisation and help them benefit from it

  • fight inequality

  • capacity building to defend water rights

  • improve access to justice

Political empowerment ...

• is a key theme

• may focus on

  • women

• comprises three indicators

  • ratio of women with seats in parliament over male value

  • ratio of women at ministerial level over male value

  • ratio of number of years of a female head of state (last 50 years) over male value

• results in

  • improved environmental sustainability

Social/Socioeconomic Empowerment ...

• may focus on

  • women

  • indigenous people

• has methods

  • microfinance

  • integration with the renewable energy sector

  • capacity building, training

  • increasing role and visibility of women in society

  • organise stakeholder dialogue (government, NGO)

Youth Empowerment ...

• is a process & gateway

• has methods

  • sustainable, decent employment

  • capacity building, training

  • improve education, health services

  • increase opportunities

• has express purposes

  • peace

  • create leaders and volunteers

  • well-being

Empowerment is the process through which we enable people living in poverty to become rights activists.

Empowerment, as the term is used here, refers to a TCRS-facilitated process of awareness building, capacity building, and training for marginalized people and their local leaders, so that they are able to take actions themselves that lead to improvements in their lives.

We define empowerment as the total sum of changes needed for a woman to realize her full human rights: the combined effect of changes in her own aspirations and capabilities, the environment that influences or dictates her choice, and the interactions she engages in each day.

Empowerment means strengthening the material and organizational capacities of people and communities to enable them to take control of their destiny.

empowerment: the possibility for people to speak out and participate in the decision-making processes that shape their society

And while the concept of empowerment – giving excluded people the right to control their resources through the same property and business tools that wealthy people have – has guided discussions among international donors, they have found it difficult to put into practice.

Empowerment, defined as the freedom to act in pursuit of personal goals and well-being,75 can be enhanced through movement.

• organisational program

  • process

  • core program component

  • cross-cutting theme

• • key to change & success

  • precondition for grass-roots development

  • outcome of participation

• ability/capacity

  • individual's ability to make decisions

  • ability to make choices

  • possibility to participate in decision-making

  • freedom to act for personal goals & well-being

  • changes for the full realization of a woman's human rights

According to the findings of the Task Force on Education, Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, which forms part of the UN Millennium Development Project, gender equality and women''s empowerment is an objective that includes three core dimensions: i) human abilities, such as education and life expectancy; ii) opportunities to use or apply these abilities by accessing economic and political resources; and iii) security, which refers to the necessary step of making women less vulnerable to violence.

Economists have been exploring the degree of correlation between the fostering of gender equality, women''s empowerment (defined as the ability of women to access the components of development – health, education, earning opportunities, rights and political participation) and overall economic development.

Women empowerment refers to the ability of women to transform their economic and social status with their representation in all major strata's of the society.

Women and girls make up the majority of those living in extreme poverty. It means rights denied, opportunities curtailed and voices silenced. CARE works with women and girls, men and boys to achieve gender equality as a fundamental human right. Women’s empowerment is an essential component of gender equality. Empowered women – women with the ability and freedom to identify and choose their life courses – will act in ways that lift themselves, their families and communities out of poverty. Women’s empowerment is more than giving a woman training or a loan and expecting her to do more or to do things differently. Empowerment is derived from the changes needed for a woman to realise her full human rights

• is a/an

  • objective

  • component of gender equality

  • cross cutting issue

  • socio-cultural goal

• • dimension of human development

• • ability

    • to access the components of development

    • to exercise control over one's actions

• has been included in UN plans

  • global goals adopted by UN Member States

  • United Nations System-Wide Action Plan on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN SWAP) (AR-4221)

  • UNICEF’s Gender Action Plan

• is part of monitoring indices

  • Gender Empowerment Measure (GD-190)

• • Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (GD-153)

    • production

• • • resources

• • • income

• • • leadership

• • • time

• • Gender Inequality Index (GD-219)

• may focus on

  • girls, adolescents

  • women in poor areas

  • food insecure women and children

• has methods

  • women's centers, networking

  • access to food, micronutrients

  • policy, legal, accountability frameworks

  • maternal and child health

  • access to reproductive health services

  • increase resource availability

  • capacity building, training, workshops

• • international exchange programs

• • increase market access

  • government recognition, policy recommendations

  • volunteer groups

  • educate all of society about the shared benefits of empowering women

  • adult literacy

  • technology access, usage, and training (especially mobile phones)

  • school programs

  • increase access to & quality of education

  • CARE India Framework (AR-1266)

    • agency

• • • structures

• • • relations

• has express purposes

  • improve decision-making

  • fight poverty

  • sustainable development

  • financial independence

  • human rights

  • stability, prosperity, peace

  • save lives through women farmers

  • reductions in rates of stunting

  • family and community empowerment

  • give women voice in decision-making

  • freedom from violence

  • lower health and other risks

  • empower families via empowering girls

• is a principle

• is contrasted with

  • immediate aid assistance

  • service delivery approaches

• has subtypes

  • participatory, rights-based, grass root level community empowerment

• may focus on

  • women, children, families

  • the most vulnerable, marginalised

• has methods

  • promoting networking

  • forming groups

  • health interventions

  • monitoring services, access and results

  • capacity building, training

• has express purposes

  • improve access to education

  • positive social change

  • peace building

  • reconstruction of war affected societies

  • project ownership, dignity, participation, sustainability and self-reliance

  • disaster risk reduction (DRR)

  • alleviate poverty

  • increase household food security, utensils/ furniture, farm sizes, crops, animal husbandry

  • climate change adaptation

  • enhancing economic growth and social development

• is a

  • dimension of sustainable development

• • key area of focus

• • key interconnected theme

• • window of hope and stability for young people

• leads to

  • resilience

  • self-reliance

• is contrasted with

  • rehabilitation-based methods

• may focus on

  • farmers

  • rural populations

  • women, young people

  • adolescent girls, young women living with HIV

  • trafficking survivors

• has methods

  • capacity building, training

• • develop reports on access to banking, financial services to those earning 1-2 USD/day

  • early recovery of agricultural production, income

  • improve food security

  • improve access to credit

  • microfinance

  • women's legal rights

• • increasing women employers, salaried workers

  • women's participation in public service

  • encourage regional tourism

  • establishing development funds for women

  • advocacy

• has express purposes

  • families' needs being met

  • improve women's independence

  • improve quality of life in rural areas

  • reduce poverty

  • increase agency for poverty reduction

  • increase women's political power

  • give women freedom from violence

  • help find employment

  • promote growth

• has secondary results

  • decrease tension in families and communities

Legal Empowerment

Political Empowerment

• may focus on

  • women, girls

  • poor, marginalised, disadvantaged populations

• has methods

  • legal services, aid consultations

  • legal capacity building

  • legal reform

  • integrating formal and extralegal economic sectors

• has express purposes

  • protect poor people from globalisation and help them benefit from it

  • fight inequality

  • capacity building to defend water rights

  • improve access to justice

• is a

  • key theme

• may focus on

  • women

• comprises three indicators (see GD-212)

  • ratio of women with seats in parliament over male value

  • ratio of women at ministerial level over male value

  • ratio of number of years of a female head of state (last 50 years) over male value

• results in

  • improved environmental sustainability

Social & Socioeconomic Empowerment

Youth Empowerment

• may focus on

  • women

  • indigenous people

• has methods

  • microfinance

  • integration with the renewable energy sector

  • capacity building, training

    • entrepreneurship

    • business, vocational skills

    • small savings

    • microcredit groups

    • strengthening co-operatives

  • increasing role and visibility of women in society

  • organise stakeholder dialogue (government, NGO)

• is a

  • process, gateway

• has methods

  • sustainable, decent employment

  • capacity building, training

    • literacy

    • English

    • vocational skills

    • technology

  • improve education, health services

  • increase opportunities

• has express purposes

  • peace

  • create leaders and volunteers

  • well-being

Youth empowerment is an attitudinal, structural, and cultural process whereby young people gain the ability, authority, and agency to make decisions and implement change in their own lives and those around them. Youth empowerment is often addressed as a gateway to intergenerational equity, civic engagement and democracy building. Therefore, many local, state, provincial, regional, national, and international government agencies and nonprofit community-based organizations provide programs centered on youth empowerment.

The dual role of gender equality and women's empowerment –as a means and end of human development–has been consistently reflected in the global development agenda. In the Millennium Development Goals and in the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, gender equality and women's empowerment appear both as standalone goals and part of most development objectives. This view, in turn, has trickled down to other multilateral, regional, national and local government entities, supported by a global network of civil society organizations.

Gender equality and women’s empowerment are critical to achieving all the goals and, with this in mind, the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Education and Gender Equality1 identified seven strategic priorities for women’s empowerment:

• Strengthen opportunities for post-primary education for girls while simultaneously meeting commitments to universal primary education.

• Guarantee sexual and reproductive health and rights.

• Invest in infrastructure to reduce the time women and girls spend on tasks such as fetching water.

• Guarantee women’s and girls’ property rights.

• Eliminate gender inequality in employment by decreasing women’s reliance on informal employment, closing gender gaps in earnings, and reducing occupational segregation.

• Increase women’s share of seats in national parliaments and local governmental bodies.

• Combat violence against girls and women.

The chart below represents the distribution of empowerment between 2005 and 2019 in terms of the number of occurrences and relative frequency of occurrences. It also allows you to view the distribution across Regions, Organisations and Document types.

The spread of the concept of “women’s empowerment” in the Arab region has excited the rancour of certain socio-political forces. They have tended to see it as “imposed” by the West and not emerging from either the realities or needs of Arab societies, which are based on the entrenched role of the family as society’s basic building block. This has driven some to resist development plans that adopt the gender perspective and to resist the governments and the women’s organisations which work in accordance with it.

Youth empowerment key to future development in Arab countries The report argues that young people are not a problem or a burden on development; they are rather a key resource for resolving the problems of development in the region. It concludes that Arab states can achieve a huge developmental leap and ensure durable stability if they put the empowerment of their youth at the top of their urgent priorities and harness their energy to advance development processes.

Although it is important to promote women's empowerment as part of efforts to advance gender mainstreaming, focusing solely on women may not achieve the desired results. This also requires changing the consciousness of men, decision-makers and socially influential people such as administrative officials, educators, politicians and religious leaders. In other words, it is necessary to reform the social structure and systems surrounding women.

 In addition to this specific package of commitments, the WHS should integrate women and girls into all its areas of work. The WHS should advance the empowerment of all women and girls--not just pursue gender equality. We need to foster mechanisms that ensure women are in the lead in program design and decision-making as well as benefit from innovative ways of work.

At the meeting there were questions on the extent to which participation or engagement in humanitarian contexts should necessarily have empowerment as an overt goal. Many participants – from Robert Chambers, who gave the keynote speech, to representatives of small African local NGOs – viewed social “It is sometimes unclear whether engagement is seen as a right and a moral duty, and thus a valuable objective in itself, or simply as a way to achieve better humanitarian outcomes.”22 ALNAPSTUDY change as a key rationale for engaging with affected groups. The more traditional humanitarian Dunantist4 voices, who would argue that it is not for humanitarians to engage with the root causes of structural crises, were very much in the minority. Thus the ambiguities around the application of more developmental approaches to humanitarian situations remained largely unresolved. Not all actors in a humanitarian context would necessarily be comfortable with an empowerment approach or share social change objectives. Some might be pursuing engagement for instrumental reasons, for example to facilitate access and meet humanitarian objectives, but not as part of a social change strategy.

A number of development organisations have adopted the concept of “women’s empowerment” as a general compass for policies and activities in women’s development. As with many concepts relating to women’s development, that of “empowerment” has caused controversy in women’s and developmental circles. Some feel that the concept of empowerment is incapable of achieving the desired change because it focuses only on the empowerment of individuals. It neglects collective empowerment, which aims to change the social, economic and political infrastructure that generates oppression and discrimination not only against women but against the majority of the poor and the marginalised as well (Agarwal, 1994; Kabeer, 2003; Radtke and Stam, 1994; Rowlands, 1998).

The goal on gender equality and women's empowerment has tracked progress on education, employment and participation in parliament. It has helped hold governments accountable, mobilize new resources, and stimulate better laws, policies, programmes and data. But the goals overall did little to cut the roots of discrimination and violence against women and girls– as evidenced by the fact that the slowest progress on any of the MDGs was in reducing maternal mortality. Glaring omissions include the lack of a reference to ending violence against women and girls. Also missing are issues fundamental for women's economic empowerment , such as equal property rights and a fair division of household and care responsibilities. In the future, a stand-alone goal to achieve gender equality, women's rights and women's empowerment could fuel faster, broader progress.

The GEM demolishes two widely held myths about gender empowerment. First, there is no evidence that Islam necessarily represents an obstacle to female empowerment, as measured by political representation. Malaysia, a Muslim country, has a GEM far higher than Saudi Arabia’s and comparable to that of Greece. Second, there is no clear evidence that gender inequalities automatically diminish at higher levels of income (figure 1.24). Two members of the Group of Seven (G-7) industrial countries are poor performers on the GEM.

• Women’s economic contribution is limited when women are not employed [....]

• Women’s economic participation equals women’s economic empowerment [....]

• There is an automatic win-win between gender equality and wider development outcomes [....]

• What works for one group of women will work for another [....]

• Increasing women’s individual skills and aspirations is the main challenge [....]

The empowerment of women is not a ‘Western’ notion, foreign to Asian and Pacific cultures. Nor is it the result of recent globalization. Historical records and folklore from the region show that women exercised power and influence, and demonstrated intelligence and creativity, much before feminist ideas came into the global political discourse. Is There a Common Understanding of Gender Equality? The concept of equality in general, and gender equality in particular, is complex. Numerous debates have taken place on how to define and achieve equality. This Report advocates that equality is based on fairness in freedoms and choices and is inherent to the idea of human development.

1) disempowerment is a root cause of poverty (and vice versa)

• (reducing poverty is an empowerment strategy)

2) food insecurity is a root cause of disempowerment

• (food security plays a role in empowerment)

3) household conflict causes disempowerment

• (empowerment decreases household conflict)

4) disempowerment complicates resolving environmental issues

• (empowerment is aligned with sustainability)

5) disempowerment is a cause of violence against women

• (stopping violence is an objective of empowerment)