Publication: Measuring Empowerment : Cross Disciplinary Perspectives
Loading...
Published
2005
ISSN
Date
2012-06-07
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Poverty reduction on a large scale depends on empowering those who are most motivated to move out of poverty-poor people themselves. But if empowerment cannot be measured, it will not be taken seriously in development policy making and programming. Building on the "Empowerment and Poverty Reduction Sourcebook," this volume outlines a conceptual framework that can be used to monitor and evaluate programs centered on empowerment approaches. It presents the perspectives of 27 distinguished researchers and practitioners in economics, political science, sociology, psychology, anthropology, and demography, all of whom are grappling in different ways with the challenge of measuring empowerment. The authors draw from their research and experiences at different levels, from households to communities to nations, in various regions of the world. Measuring Empowerment is a resource for all who are interested in approaches to poverty reduction that address issues of inequitable power relations.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Narayan, Deepa. Narayan, Deepa, editors. 2005. Measuring Empowerment : Cross Disciplinary Perspectives. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/7441 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Empowerment and Poverty Reduction : A Sourcebook(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2002-06)Poverty will not be reduced on a large scale, without tapping into the energy, skills, and motivation of the millions of poor people around the world. This book offers a framework for empowerment, that focuses on increasing poor people's freedom of choice, and action to shape their own lives. This approach requires three societal changes: a change in the mindset, from viewing poor people as the problem to viewing them as essential partners in reducing poverty; a change in the relationship between poor people, and formal systems, enabling them to participate in decisions that affect their lives; and, a change in formal, and informal institutions to make them more responsive to the needs, and realities of poor people. Based on analysis of experiences from around the world, the book identifies four key elements to support empowerment of poor people: information, inclusions/participation, accountability, and local organizational capacity. This framework is applied to five areas of action to improve development effectiveness. These are: provision of basic services, improved local governance, improved national governance, pro-poor market development, and access to justice, and legal aid. The book also offers tools and practices, focusing on a wide range of topics, to support poor people's empowerment. These range from poor people's enterprises, information and communications technology, and, community driven development, to diagnostic tools such as corruption surveys, and citizen report cards.Publication Strengthening Governance through Engaged Societies : Lessons from the Implementation of Poverty Reduction Strategies(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-04)In December 1999, the Boards of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund approved a new approach to their relations with low-income countries. The approach was centered around the development and implementation of Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS), which are intended to be country-driven and medium- to long-term in perspective, comprehensive and results-oriented, partnership-oriented, and built on broad-based participation. Against this tall order of business, experience to date has been varied, and much debate is ongoing on whether the approach can be considered more than "old wine in new bottles." This paper-based on the results of a thorough review of the five-year implementation experience-examines the implementation of the PRS approach from the point of view of participation and accountability. For some 50 countries adopting the approach since 1999, it discusses the factors which can facilitate the development of accountability and participatory governance mechanisms. Lessons learned from distinct country circumstances are analyzed, arguing that ownership of the PRS depends on the way countries and their external donor partners handle real tensions in the relationship between country ownership on the one hand, and perceptions of internationally-driven prescriptions on the other. The central message of the paper is that in several countries the PRS initiative has helped open up societies to forms of dialogue and contestability not previously experienced in-country or observed by external partners. This positive outcome, however, has been largely influenced by the extent to which the PRS process has reinforced existing trends and strengthened institutions already prone to open discussion of policy choices. The paper also shows that even in the best cases change has, to date, been largely in the area of process and that impact of participatory governance on policymaking, while emerging, is still a work in progress. The paper concludes with recommendations for how developing country societies might sustain real achievements in participatory governance and domestic accountability going forward, with external partners playing a key supportive role through harmonization and alignment.Publication Issues and Options for Improving Engagement between the World Bank and Civil Society Organizations(Washington, DC, 2005-03-01)The purpose of this paper is to assess the World Bank's recent relations with civil society organizations (CSOs), that is, nongovernmental organizations and not-for-profit organizations, and to propose options for promoting more effective civic engagement in Bank-supported activities and managing associated risks in the future. The analysis in this paper points to four main issues and challenges for the Bank as it seeks to achieve more constructive and effective engagement with CSOs in the future: 1) Promoting best practices for civic engagement; 2) Closing the gap between expectations, policy and practice; 3) Adapting to changes in global and national civil society; and 4) Achieving greater Bank-wide coherence and accountability. To attain these objectives, the report proposes ten priority actions: Establishing new global mechanisms for Bank-CSO engagement to help promote mutual understanding and cooperation; establish a Bank-wide advisory service/focal point for consultations and feedback; piloting a new Bank-wide monitoring and evaluation system for civic engagement; Conduct a review of Bank funds available for civil society engagement in operations and policy dialogue, and explore possible realignment or restructuring. reviewing the Bank's procurement framework; instituting an integrated learning program for Bank staff and member governments as well as capacity-building for CSOs on how to work effectively with the Bank and its member governments; holding regular meetings of senior management and periodically with the Board to review Bank/civil society relations; developing and issuing new guidelines for Bank staff on the institution's approach, best practices, and a framework for engagement with CSOs; emphasizing the importance of civil society engagement in preparing Country Assistance Strategies (CAS) as well as in CAS monitoring and evaluation; and developing tools for analytical mapping of civil society.Publication Ending Poverty in South Asia : Ideas That Work(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007)The case studies in this book were developed as part of a year-long learning process initiated by the World Bank in 2003-4 to examine large scale poverty reduction programs in a wide range of developing countries around the world. This volume presents 12 of the case studies from South Asia. . The last two decades saw substantial change in the countries of South Asia. All countries of the subcontinent experienced more rapid growth than in the earlier decades and also saw a definite reduction in the incidence of poverty, resulting in the improvement of the lives of hundreds of millions of poor people. One common element was the adoption of broad based economic reforms involving rethinking of earlier approaches to development. The reforms in South Asia were notable in that they were homegrown, gradual, and accompanied by continual redesign and fine tuning. Individuals can make a difference in fighting poverty when ways are found to institutionalize creative ideas and apply them on a scale extending beyond pilot projects. This book recounts 12 such cases from a range of countries and sectors in the South Asia region, with a focus on how these programmes scaled up and on the potential for applying lessons in other settings. These case studies do not offer a blueprint or model for poverty reduction; there is no single model. Nor do they cover every issue that is important. But they suggest the range of ideas that can be successful and the underlying principles that cut across these diverse initiatives. All the programmes tap the imagination and ingenuity of the South Asian people- in government offices, in civil society organizations, in the private sector, and in the villages and urban neighborhoods. All seek to empower poor people to access the economic opportunities and basic services so necessary to human dignity. The lessons are complex, and applying them will undoubtedly require redesign and fine-tuning to fit the initiatives to the local context. What is important, however, is that the experience of the last two decades has shown that reforms and scaling-up innovations can work in South Asia-and if these examples can be strengthened and expanded in the coming decades, the dreams of a subcontinent free of poverty may be realized.Publication Conflict, Livelihoods, and Poverty in Guinea-Bissau(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2007)Conflict and political instability have weakened Guinea-Bissau's productive infrastructure considerably during the past three decades. This situation contributes to an increase in the degree of vulnerability of the population, especially in rural areas where most economic activities continue to take place. As growth has been weak, poverty levels remain high. This book provides a collection of papers on conflict, livelihoods, and poverty in Guinea-Bissau based on both the nationally representative 2002 household survey and a small scale survey with both quantitative and qualitative components implemented in 2004. The chapters deal with growth and poverty, institutions and social networks, the determinants of poverty, the means of livelihoods of the population, and finally cashew production and taxation.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Data Transparency and Growth in Developing Economies during and after the Global Financial Crisis(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-12)The study explores the effects of data transparency on economic growth for developing economies over a unique time period—at the onset of the 2007–2009 global financial crisis and thereafter. Data transparency is defined as the timely production of credible statistics as measured by the Statistical Capacity Indicator. The paper finds that data transparency has a positive effect on real gross domestic product per capita during a period of considerable uncertainty. The estimates indicate an elasticity of the magnitude of 0.03 percent per year, which is much larger than the elasticity of trade openness and schooling in the estimation sample. The empirics employ a variety of econometric estimators, including dynamic panel and cross-sectional instrumental variables estimators, with the latter approach yielding a higher estimated elasticity. The findings are robust to the inclusion of several factors in addition to political institutions and exogenous commodity-price and external debt-financing shocks.Publication Evolution of the World Bank’s Thinking on Governance(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-01)The preparation work for the 2017 World Development Report on Governance and the Law in 2016 will coincide with the 25th anniversary of the World Bank’s decision to broaden its ongoing work on public sector management to embrace key issues of governance in the Bank’s borrowing countries. This paper provides a broad overview of the major Bank reports on governance that went through a review process at a sufficiently high level in the institution that they can reasonably be described as reflecting the Bank’s considered views at the time on the subject. The objective is to review the evolution of the Bank’s thinking on governance and assess the relevance and effectiveness of the work and its implications for the forthcoming World Development Report. Section two of this paper begins with a brief account of how the Bank came to focus on issues of governance, reviewing the major upheaval of governance in many of the Bank’s borrowing countries in the 1980s, the legal constraints the Articles of Agreement impose on the Bank’s work on governance, and a brief overview of the Bank’s initial policy statement on governance issued to the Bank’s Board in June 1991. Section three reviews major Bank work on governance as reflected in successive World Development Reports and examines the Bank’s analysis of the issue of corruption, reviewing how the Bank’s thinking on this symptom of poor governance has evolved. Section four steps back to assess what the Bank got right and some of the issues it missed or failed to address adequately. Section five draws attention to the dramatic changes experienced by the developing world in these past 25 years, and points to the need to better understand the implications of these changes for the governance context facing developing countries.Publication Statistical Performance Indicators and Index(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-03)The World Bank’s Statistical Capacity Index has been widely employed to measure country statistical capacity since its inception two decades ago. This paper builds on the existing advantages of the Statistical Capacity Index, conceptually and empirically, to offer new statistical performance indicators and the Statistical Performance Index, which can better measure a country’s statistical performance. The new index has clearer conceptual motivations, employs a stronger mathematical foundation, and significantly expands the number of indicators and countries covered. The paper further provides empirical evidence that illustrates the strong correlation of the new index with other commonly used development indicators of human capital, governance, poverty, and inequality. The framework can accommodate future directions to improve the index as the global data landscape evolvesPublication Governance in Sub-Saharan Africa in the 21st Century(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-04)What can be learned from the governance trajectory of African countries since the beginning of the 21st century What is the quality of governance on the African continent and how does it shape development The first decade of the millennium saw promising growth and poverty reduction in much of the continent. Yet, Sub-Saharan Africa has also been the stage of a stream of governance reform failures and policy reversals, and many countries continue to suffer from the consequences of poor governance. This paper explores the dynamics of governance reform on the continent over the past two decades and points to four key trends. First, effective state institutions, capable of maintaining peace, fostering growth, and delivering services, have developed unevenly. Second, progress has been made on enhancing the inclusiveness and accountability of institutions, but it remains constrained by the weakness of checks and balances and the persistence of patterns of centralized and exclusive power arrangements. Third, civic capacity has risen considerably, but the inability of institutions to respond to social expectations and political mobilization threatens to turn liberal civic engagement into distrust, populism, and radicalization. Fourth, the combination of these three trends contributes to the rise of political instability, which constitutes a major threat for the continent.Publication Economic Governance Improvements and Sovereign Financing Costs in Developing Countries(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-05)Low- and middle-income country governments are increasingly tapping the global debt capital markets. This is increasing the amount of finance available for development, but at a considerably higher cost than traditional external borrowing on concessional terms. Using a novel methodology based on estimating sovereign credit ratings using the Moody’s scorecard, and examining the associations between these ratings and the World Bank’s Country Policy and Institutional Assessment scores, this paper examines how making improvements in the quality of economic policies and institutions can help lower governments’ financing costs. This method aims to overcome the small-sample problem due to the number of rated developing country sovereigns still being relatively limited (although growing). Better economic governance Country Policy and Institutional Assessment scores are associated with better estimated ratings and materially lower financing costs; on average, improvements that are sufficient to increase the Country Policy and Institutional Assessment economic governance indicator score by one point are associated with interest costs that are lower by about 40 basis points, even setting aside the direct impact on ratings of better governance indicators. There are many reasons why improving governance is a good thing. Among them is the potential payoff to the public purse — savings of $40 million or more on a standard $1 billion, 10-year bond.