Empowerment – For A Sustainable Project
Empowerment – For A Sustainable Project
Many NGOs aim to tackle the root causes of poverty and contribute to sustainable, long-term social changes. Influential writers have explained how this depends on local people being empowered to control their lives more.
Amartya Sen is one of the essential writers on development. He describes human development as being ‘integrally connected with enhancing certain capabilities – the range of things a person can do and be in leading a life. We value the freedom of living as we want and even the opportunity to choose our fate.’ This is much broader than meeting fundamental human rights.
Paulo Freire has also been very influential. He emphasized how an outside organization has to work with local people to reflect on their social situation – and think together about what can be done to change it. Dialogue comes before action. Freire’s method is called ‘praxis’ and involves cycles of reflection and action.
Through ‘praxis,’ local people (and outsiders) improve their understanding of social issues and build the confidence and skills to tackle them simultaneously.
Poverty is not just an accident.
Freire pointed out that fighting poverty is political – it means fighting injustice.
Poverty is not just an accident: it is the result of social structures (including political, cultural, and economic factors) that favor the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor and vulnerable. Changing these social structures means fighting established interests at local, national, and global levels.
Implications for NGOs
Building on this work, writers like Robert Chambers and Alan Kaplan emphasize that outsiders cannot ‘do’ development to local people. Local people have to drive their development at their own pace if it is going to have any lasting impact. This makes sense – we prefer to make decisions about our lives.
This makes it difficult for NGOs to achieve their goals for three reasons.
- Firstly, local realities are “local, complex, diverse, dynamic and unpredictable” – every social situation is different and is constantly changing. So, an NGO’s work needs to be adapted to each other place it works (including political, economic, social, and cultural factors). NGOs must also be ready to respond to changes in the local environment as these other factors change.
- Secondly, social change takes time. It relies on individual people changing their views and habits. NGOs must be committed to the people they are trying to help, working with the same people for many years. There are no shortcuts.
- Finally, it is impossible to measure empowerment on a single scale because it is not concrete and takes a different form in every place.
NGOs must, therefore, invest time and energy in respectful dialogue with local people.
This is the most critical factor in working towards empowerment and lasting social change. It helps local people develop their understanding and ‘voice,’ as well as helping make sure that an NGO’s initiatives are relevant and valuable. These insights are in tune with our everyday experience.
We all know that helping people – like the next-door neighbor – is difficult.
Reference: Humentum.