Role of Empowerment in
Poverty Reduction
By
Deepa Narayan, Senior Advisor
PREM,World Bank
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Why is empowerment
important?
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What is empowerment?
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What are some key actions?
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1.2 billion people live on $1/day
2.8 billion people live on $2/day
Poverty has many dimensions
These dimensions are interlinked, interlocked
Powerlessness and voicelessness ties them
together
How can poor people’s freedom of choice and
action be expanded?
How can poor people’s efforts to lift
themselves out of poverty be supported?
World Development Report
Empowerment
Opportunity
Security
Within An Overall Context of Powerlessness and
Voicelessness, Empowerment is Critical for Poverty Reduction
Nobody hears the poor. It is the rich who are being
heard — Poor men and women, Egypt
We poor people are invisible to others. Just as blind
people cannot see, they cannot see us. — A poor man,
Pakistan
If a poor man is beaten by a rich man and goes to the
thana to file a case against the rich man, the officer
does not even register the case. — A poor man,
Bangladesh
Poverty is humiliation, the sense of being dependent,
and being forced to accept rudeness, insults and
indifference when we seek help. — A poor woman,
Latvia
Corruption is a Regressive Tax
(Results from Ecuador)
9
8
Bribe cost as a share of
firms’ revenue
7
Bribe cost as a share
of households’
income
6
5
Percent
4
3
2
1
0
Micro
(<11)
Small and
Medium
Size
Large
(>99)
(11-99)
(number of employees)
Source: Kaufmann, Zoido-Lobaton, and Lee, 2000.
Low
Income
Middle
Income
(<$110)
($110329)
High
Income
(>$329)
(monthly household income)
Ratings in Institutional Character
Institution
1
2
Municipalities
and Local
Government
Schools
3
Health Services
4
Police
5
Politicians
6
Banks
7
Private
Enterprise and
Traders
Shops/
moneylenders
Service
Delivery NGOs
Emergency
NGOs
8
9
10
11
13
Religious
Organizations
CommunityBased
Organizations
Local Leaders
14
Kin/Family
12
Criteria
Responsiveness
Trust
Participation
Account
-ability
Unity/
Conflict
ResoluTion
Respect
Honesty/
Fairness
Caring/
Loving/
Listening
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–
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–
+
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–
+
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–
+
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tili
tie
M
in
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Pr
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iv
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En cial
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In
fo
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U
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un
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H
Percentage
Global Rural Institutions
Most Important Institutions
30%
20%
10%
0%
tio
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lit
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Percentage
Global Rural Institutions
Most Effective Institutions
30%
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tili
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in
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at
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En cial
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th
di
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In t
fo
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U
M
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Ed
H
Percentage
Global Rural Institutions
Most Ineffective Institutions
30%
20%
10%
0%
What is Empowerment?
Empowerment is the capability of poor people and
other excluded groups to participate, negotiate,
change and hold accountable institutions that
affect their wellbeing.
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Capability
Institutions - social, economic, state and global
Participation and negotiation, voice and representation
Accountability
It is about change, in capacity of people, and the
enabling environment
Empowerment
• Access and control over resources and
decisions
• An active process
• It includes individuals, women and men,
and social groups
• Relevant at community, national and global
levels
• Implications for Government, donor and
NGO operations, including PRSPs
What Capability?
Capability is about assets and capacity
1) Basic capability
livelihood security
health and education
land and housing
savings and loans
2) Ability to participate
Local Organizational Capacity/Networks
Access to information
Direct contact with poor communities
Why is Local Organizational
Capacity so Important?
• There is a relationship between informal and
formal institutions and groups
• Not recognized, not understood, leads to elite
capture of resources and rules
• The rich are connected, high bridging social capital
• The poor - high in bonding, fragmented, little
bridging and linking with each other, state and civil
society
Hence… Need to Change the
Nature of the Inter-relations
• change in rules
• change in social norms, mindsets
• support local capacity to organize, network
and access information
• create the enabling environment- rules and
mindsets: laws, finances, IT, pro-poor
coalitions
Institutional Relations and Connections
Household
States
Poor Man
Markets
Poor Woman
Communities and local organizations
Institutions: The Challenge
• How can state institutions become more effective, responsive
and accountable to poor women and men and pro-poor
coalitions?
• How to create the investment climate to support poor men’s
and women’s entrepreneurship and productive activities?
• How to support poor people’s and communities’ capacity to
hold states and global institutions accountable, especially
through membership organizations/civil society development?
• How to generate change in social norms, values and behaviors
that end discriminatory behavior against the poor, women
and excluded ethnic and religious groups?
Institutions: Priorities for State Reform
• Rules and laws to support freedom of information and
association; poor people’s access
• Transparent, accountable, pro-poor budget expenditure;
monitored by poor households, communities & civil
society
• Delivery of basic services accountable to local groups
including poor people
• Pro-poor decentralization of authority, fiscal resources and
downward accountability
• Legal systems that are gender neutral and accessible to
poor people
Institutions: Priorities for Private Sector
• Understand the domestic investment climate for poor
entrepreneurs, farmers and the poor in the informal economy.
• Work with the state to dismantle rules that hinder poor
people’s trade and exchange in markets, simplify and register
gender-neutral property rights
• Invest in physical and informational access to markets
• Connect poor producers to each other and markets through
information technology including cellular telephones
• Innovate and connect private capital including venture capital
funds to networks of poor entrepreneurs
• Change mindset about the poor from problems to producers
and consumers
• Remove trade barriers in the developed countries
How to Support Poor People’s Organizations
and a Strong Civil Society?
• Support Local and Community Driven Development
• Support local initiatives to empower poor households and
communities, including the capacity to organize, federate and
network
• Create capacity for independent monitoring of public budgets
and performance
• Create Local Empowerment Funds for learning, networking
• Support Global Coalitions for Voices of the Poor to inform
policy shifts for international organizations
• Support rules and finance to strengthen pro-poor civil society
and information disclosure rules
How to Generate Change that Ends
Discriminatory Behavior against the Poor
• Require all policy and operational decisionmakers and
managers to spend a week in a slum or village to
understand poor people’s realities
• Create incentives for behavioral change and peer
support in bringing about change in our own values and
behaviors
• Raise physical violence against women as an issue
• Design projects and policies on understanding of social
norms and not just formal rules
• Publicize poverty and social impact of public policies
Government, donor and NGO operations
The Lens, Four Broad questions
1. Does this promote government accountability for performance to
poor people and pro-poor coalitions?
2. Does this improve the investment climate for poor producers and
entrepreneurs?
3. Does this connect poor people and pro-poor coalitions to
information about state resources, their rights and markets in ways
that are useful to them?
4. Does this strengthen poor people’s associations, networks and propoor coalitions to participate, negotiate, change and hold accountable
institutions state and global that affect their lives?
Strategic Action
1. Support information disclosure rules and activities
2. Poverty and social impact analysis ex-ante and expost of poverty strategies
3. Public and Private Sector Performance contracts,
monitoring and feedback by poor people and pro-poor
coalitions, budget support loans
4. Enable networking and capacity of poor people’s
associations and pro-poor coalitions