1. Role of Empowerment in Poverty Reduction
EMPOWERMENT - HANOI PRESENTATION MARCH 2001
Role of Empowerment in Poverty Reduction By
Deepa Narayan, Senior Advisor
PREM,World Bank

2. EMPOWERMENT - HANOI PRESENTATION MARCH 2001
Why is empowerment
important?
What is empowerment?
What are some key actions?

3. EMPOWERMENT - HANOI PRESENTATION MARCH 2001
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?
Poor people live with very constrained choices, whether to educate a child or feed the rest of the family? Whether to buy medicine or buy food? Whether to accept being beaten up by the husband or being thrown out into the streets in a town or village where everything is unknown?
We also know from endless studies poor men and particularly poor women work long hours with few returns; In Cambodia a poor women defined poverty as working 18 hours a day and still not having enough food to feed her children. They perform many roles, but just in terms of sheer hours they spend the most time on production, but with low returns.
We also know that charity is not going to solve the problems of poverty- issue is not lack of resources, but their distribution, between countries and within countries; and across social groups, ethnic, caste and gender. This is turn is interaction between economic, social and political factors.

4. World Development Report
EMPOWERMENT - HANOI PRESENTATION MARCH 2001
World Development Report
Empowerment
Opportunity
Security
Within An Overall Context of Powerlessness and Voicelessness, Empowerment is Critical for Poverty Reduction

5. EMPOWERMENT - HANOI PRESENTATION MARCH 2001
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

6. EMPOWERMENT - HANOI PRESENTATION MARCH 2001
Corruption is a Regressive Tax
(Results from Ecuador)
Bribe cost as a share of firms’ revenue
Bribe cost as a share of households’ income
Percent
(<11)
(>99)
(<$110)
($ )
(>$329)
(11-99)
(number of employees)
(monthly household income)
Source: Kaufmann, Zoido-Lobaton, and Lee, 2000.

7. EMPOWERMENT - HANOI PRESENTATION MARCH 2001

8. EMPOWERMENT - HANOI PRESENTATION MARCH 2001
Global Rural Institutions

9. EMPOWERMENT - HANOI PRESENTATION MARCH 2001
Global Rural Institutions

10. EMPOWERMENT - HANOI PRESENTATION MARCH 2001
Global Rural Institutions

11. EMPOWERMENT - HANOI PRESENTATION MARCH 2001
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.
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

12. EMPOWERMENT - HANOI PRESENTATION MARCH 2001
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

13. EMPOWERMENT - HANOI PRESENTATION MARCH 2001
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

14. Why is Local Organizational Capacity so Important?
EMPOWERMENT - HANOI PRESENTATION MARCH 2001
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

15. Hence… Need to Change the Nature of the Inter-relations
EMPOWERMENT - HANOI PRESENTATION MARCH 2001
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

16. Institutional Relations and Connections
EMPOWERMENT - HANOI PRESENTATION MARCH 2001
Household
Poor Man
Poor Woman
States
Markets
Communities and local organizations

17. Institutions: The Challenge
EMPOWERMENT - HANOI PRESENTATION MARCH 2001
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?

18. Institutions: Priorities for State Reform
EMPOWERMENT - HANOI PRESENTATION MARCH 2001
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

19. Institutions: Priorities for Private Sector
EMPOWERMENT - HANOI PRESENTATION MARCH 2001
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

20. How to Support Poor People’s Organizations and a Strong Civil Society?
EMPOWERMENT - HANOI PRESENTATION MARCH 2001
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

21. EMPOWERMENT - HANOI PRESENTATION MARCH 2001
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

22. Government, donor and NGO operations
EMPOWERMENT - HANOI PRESENTATION MARCH 2001
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 pro- poor coalitions to participate, negotiate, change and hold accountable institutions state and global that affect their lives?

23. EMPOWERMENT - HANOI PRESENTATION MARCH 2001
Strategic Action
1. Support information disclosure rules and activities
2. Poverty and social impact analysis ex-ante and ex- post 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