Empoderamiento by Lorena Mancero

Empowerment: strategic concepts and guidelines Re

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Authors: Crespo Patricio, de Rham Philippe, Gonzáles Glenda, Iturralde Pablo, Jaramillo Byron, Mancero Lorena, Moncada Martha, Pérez Artemio, Soria Carlos.

© ASOCAM, Quito, 2007 Asocam Reflections and Learnings Series Empowerment: strategic concepts and guidelines ASOCAM-Intercooperation Technical Secretariat Sponsored by COSUDE The ASOCAM Reflections and Learnings series brings together the main conclusions from the process of study and the annual seminar on the topic. It is therefore a guide for developing strategies and actions in processes aimed at empowerment. The publication is aimed primarily at technical project teams and managers and institutions who work to support development processes in rural areas.

Editorial Committee: Carlos Soria G. Philippe de Rham Photo credits: Philippe de Rham www.poffet.net Text Editing: Martha Moncada

Introduction

1. What is empowerment

Special thanks to the participants in the VIII Asocam Seminar 2005 who contributed many of the concepts presented here by the authors (the list of participants is included in this publication). Also, a special acknowledgement of the contributions made by the Preval team (www.preval.org) for their contributions to the chapter on empowerment indicators.

• Different perspectives of

empowerment 2. Empowerment and the interrelations between its political, social and economic dimensions

• Empowerment and its

dimensions 3. Social empowerment

• How can social empower-

ment generate favorable conditions for stakeholders to become politically and economically empowered? • What is an empowered social stakeholder? • Strategies to make social empowerment operational 4. Political empowerment • How can political empowerment generate favorable conditions for social and economic empowerment? • What is a politically empowered stakeholder? • Processes, strategies and tools to make political empowerment operational

5. Economic empowerment

• What is economic empowerment? • How Can Economic Empowerment Create Conditions Favorable for the Development of Social and Political Empowerment? • What are the characteristics of an empowered grassroots or rural organization? • How can empowered economic organizations be built? 6. Contributions to monitoring empowerment

“Empowerment is a process that helps people and their organizations to be, do, and decide for themselves”. (COSUDE, 2004) “Empowerment is a political and material process that increases the power of the individual and the group, their resistance and their capacity to act on their own”. (Ferguson, 1998)

Editorial design: Verónica Avila . Activa First print run: 1000 copies Reproduction is authorized provided the source is cited. Quito, 2007

Contenido

Introduction

By working on the issue of “Practices of Empowerment”, Asocam is responding to the thematic demand of its members to create a space for reflection based on practice. What we hope to accomplish by producing this document is to contribute clues and guidelines so that the implementation of development projects and efforts can help to create an environment that is conducive to expanding opportunities and building capacity, so that people and their social organizations can become empowered to face the present and the future.

This publication addresses the topic from three thematic perspectives, seeking to describe and specify the different dimensions of the empowerment approach and thus avoid falling into the trap of only discussing generalities. In order to achieve this objective, the content of the document has been structured around two guiding questions: 1. How have different actors managed to empower themselves, and what have been the main factors leading to their success?

2. How have “promotion or service institutions” (projects, NGOs, technical assistance, financial, and training entities, etc.) and local governments generated conditions that are favorable to reducing inequality and promoting the empowerment of people and groups in a position of vulnerability? The main challenges of empowerment are to struggle against poverty, and to transform the relations of domination which have resulted in certain social sectors having fewer opportunities than others to control their own lives. To face these challenges, it is not only important to understand the causes that explain why some people and groups in society are more powerful than others (Sirker, 2002), but it is especially important to discuss, debate and put into practice alternative strategies that can contribute to achieving equality of opportunity, strengthened capacities and a more equitable distribution of the use of and access to resources and social services, in all cases promoting the expression and points of view of the least favored groups in decision-making processes. Other specific challenges with respect to empowerment are the incorporation of the notion of citizenship in the social practice of different stakeholders, contributing to their awareness of their ability to exercise, demand and guarantee respect for the political, social, economic and cultural rights that all people deserve.

1. What is empowerment?

Introduction

Different perspectives of empowerment In order to make progress in this direction, the technical teams of service organizations needed to promote and encourage efforts involving teaching/learning, deepening knowledge of and valuing the cultures, knowhow and practices of different groups, their symbolic systems and rhythms of life; reflecting on and defining the roles, functions and competencies of each stakeholder. The technical teams have the challenge of strengthening the organizational, economic and management capacities of the populations they work with and increasing their self-esteem, and in this sense, moving beyond pedagogical techniques or facilitation tools, face the need to modify institutional habits, attitudes and practices in terms of forging ties with social sectors and organizations, in order to establish relations that are respectful to the community and that encourage the target groups to take leading roles. In working with stakeholders who are responsible for formulating and implementing policies, laws and budgets, the technical teams have the duty to educate and to lobby policymakers to acknowledge the importance of creating, maintaining and formalizing access to information, participatory structures for dialogue, consensus-building and debate; and forums to encourage accountability and to evaluate on a regular basis the fulfillment of obligations made by those in power (Sirker, 2002). In this context, international cooperation agencies, as well as nongovernmental organizations have to delve more deeply into their role as “trainers and facilitators”. It is the grassroots organizations which should adopt an empowerment-focused approach and demand the creation of spaces for citizen participation and the fulfillment of their rights.

Recognizing the voices, interests and opinions of the population on which a project is focused has proven to be an important methodological and operational tool to strengthen the sense of social ownership with respect to a development intervention. In this sense, before designing projects that are highly innovative or alternative, it is important to support the consolidation of initiatives already underway. Adopting this kind of attitude has at least two implications: First, it implies recognizing and valuing the knowledge and practices of a particular community that they can use in their development efforts. Second, it presumes that projects will be designed and implemented in such a way that they address the demands of the target group and local requirements starting with their own inherent capacities and resources. Based on this conception, it is not possible to reduce empowerment to the achievement of economic, legal and personal changes that benefit excluded or poor segments of the population. On the contrary, empowerment should be understood as a process through which the poor or vulnerable can gradually take control of their lives, taking part with other stakeholders in carrying out activities and creating structures that allow people to participate in the issues that directly affect them (Davis, Yuval cited by Ferguson, 2003). Empowerment should give rise to a new notion of power that takes on the shape of democracy, control of and access to the means of production, information, and participation based on the construction of new paradigms of shared responsibility, decision-making and duties, so that people begin to take responsibility for their own development. In this way, empowerment becomes a means and an end to achieve substantial changes in the quality of life.

The text is divided into five parts. The first two chapters are more conceptual in nature. After a brief discussion on the origin and concept of empowerment in chapter 1, chapter 2 describes the three dimensions included in this process: political, social and economic. The three following chapters (3, 4 and 5) address each of these dimensions in a more detailed way. In addition to describing them, emphasis is placed on the relationships that are established with other dimensions of empowerment, the characteristics of the empowered stakeholders in social, political and economic terms, respectively, and some strategies are presented aimed at putting into practice each of the dimensions of empowerment addressed in the text. This work is complemented with a set of annexes containing general methodological and operational guidelines with respect to the indicators (Annex 1) and which describe the results and indicators that can be used in social, political and economic empowerment efforts (Annexes 2, 3 and 4). The final Annex (5) is a list and description of the steps to take to build empowered grassroots economic organizations, intended above all to become a tool to support those organizations and technical teams that work on creating economically sustainable alternatives using the resources, interests and vision of small and medium-sized producers. We hope that this text can help to complement and enrich the debate on empowerment, while providing practical guidelines for carrying out development efforts that are focused on the stakeholders and populations involved.

ASOCAM Technical Secretariat

The concept of empowerment emerges out of the feminist struggle, as a term aimed at identifying mechanisms and conditions for women to exercise equal power to that of men. “Empowerment is related....to power, changing power relations in favor of those who previously had little authority over their own lives” (Romano, 2002). “Today I dare to express and defend my opinion...I feel more secure” (Gonzales, 2005.) Romano (2002) analyses the emergence of the concept of empowerment in the light of the amplification of the notion of power. From this perspective, the concept is not confined only to power over resources (material, human, financial), ideals, beliefs, values and attitudes. There are other ways to exercise power, for example the power to do something (power as the creator of possibilities and actions); power with, which encompasses the sense that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, especially when a group is facing its problems together (for example, men and women wishing to begin an economic enterprise); and the power within, that is the spiritual force which resides in each of use, based on acceptance and respect for oneself and others, considered to be equal. The exercise of these powers does not necessarily reduce the power of others; but it does imply changes in relationships with others. Along the same lines, Batliwala (1993) defines power as having two central aspects: control over resources (material, human, intellectual, financial, and internal resources), and control over ideology (beliefs, values, and attitudes. “If power means control, empowerment, therefore, is the process of gaining control” (Sen, 2005) by the people.

According to Rappaport (1990), the underlying notion of empowerment is an environment of conflict, the perception of a society made up of separate groups, each of which possesses different degrees of power and control over resources. Empowerment is interested in people who are excluded from society. As Carlos Acuña (2002) says: “If we talk about producing power, contributing to the construction of power for an actor who today has none, we are talking about the inclusion of that actor autonomously in a process of decision-making from which they are now excluded. This process is distinctly political.” Mauricio Garcia (2005) affirms that there are two kinds of empowerment, the first based on the delegation of power and the second on political representation. He defines the latter as “ascendant” because it is inspired by people’s participation in and discussion of public affairs. This notion of empowerment is closely related to the concept of citizenship. For Iturralde (2005), empowerment is focused on transforming asymmetrical power relations. In this way, empowerment comes in two forms: intrinsically, inspired by psychology, and externally, linked to the social world. The model corresponding to this point of view always implies a conscious option in favor of the poor: Empowerment is the process of recreating oneself as an individual and/or collective subject...with the purpose of guiding society in accordance to one’s own interests. Empowerment is related to the concept of power, which represents an idea belonging to the field of human relations which...are always social and political. (...)

2. Empowerment and the interrelations between its political, social and ecoEmpowerment and its nomic dimensions dimensions

What is empowerment?

Power is expressed through the control of certain fundamental resources: economic, state entities, violence, ethical authority, information and communication, knowledge, organization and mobilization. Power is also expressed through the strength (capacities) and solidity (unity around a project, strategy and organization) of a collective subject.”

Soria (2005) observes empowerment as a means or strategy to contribute to democratization and the exercise of citizenship, in such a way that people are the leading actors in their own development. In this process, says the author, the State plays a key part.

Larrea (2005) links empowerment to the subjective sphere of power, in other words he does not focus on relations of economic and political domination, but rather on a social and personal dimension focused on change. Navarro (2004) also reflects on the leading role of stakeholders in empowerment. “Self-efficacy” is intimately related to psychology, that is, to the will and power that each person has to change their life

From a basically individual point of view, or from a more social or political perspective, there would seem to be some coincidence in that empowerment is aimed at strengthening and developing all sectors of society that are excluded or are in conditions of vulnerability.

This concept of empowerment has some similarities with the passage from a non-reflective conscience in which the person is an object and lacks the ability to choose to a subject that faces reality and participates in making decisions and transforming reality (Freire, 1990).

In a broad sense, empowerment is defined as the expansion of the freedom to choose and act (www. worldbank.org).

While the testimony that appears in the box embodies empowerment in gender relations; it also reveals that it is a process aimed at people gaining and building power, not only in terms of access to material goods or services, but also of recognizing and affirming rights, points of view and opinions of people and social groups.

“I was terribly afraid of my husband. If he said sit down, I sat down right away. If he said stand up, I stood up in strict obedience. Arivoli has changed all that. I don’t tremble or shake any more in response to his brutal manners. I stand up and question his authority. For me, ‘Arivoli is springtime for women’.”

The words of Rani, a woman from the district of Pudukottai, talking about the effect that her participation in Arivoli, a program of the Total Literacy Campaign, has had on her self-esteem (Athreva and Chunkath, 1996: 242-243).

Now, to the extent to which social groups are not uniform and that there are marked differences between them due to ethnic background, age or gender, achieving empowerment implies developing strategies not only aimed at external stakeholders responsible for defining policies or enforcing rights, but also toward the interior of social groups and organizations in order to foster and encourage horizontal, democratic relations that are respectful of differences. Another risk involved with empowerment is trying, from outside, to organize and motivate social sectors who truly or apparently share similar interests and needs to come together. When this is the case, empowerment becomes a tool basically aimed at responding to the demands of external agents rather than a process generated based on endogenous motives, which implies serious difficulties for maintaining, consolidating and improving the situation of the groups which were supposedly to be empowered. When empowerment efforts are forced or imposed, there is even a risk of re-organizing the relations of dominance within the social groups themselves. In order for empowerment to bring about positive changes that benefit the groups and organization with whom one is working, it is essential to begin with their perspective and values (Ferguson, 1998).

There are three dimensions present in empowerment: political, social and economic (ASOCAM, 2005). This segmentation, rather than corresponding to objectively verifiable realities (without social empowerment there is no political empowerment, just as economic empowerment cannot work without social and political empowerment), is intended to be a pedagogical and analytical tool to use to understand the interrelation and levels of interdependence among each of the dimensions involved in empowerment. Graph No. 1 illustrates these three dimensions in order to show the levels of complementarity and interrelation that exists among them, and to provide some clues as to how to find the areas of intersection in which the relationship between the various dimensions becomes much more substantial:

Figure 1 / The dimensions of empowerment and their interrelation

Social empowerment: Strong, legitimate and representative organizations

Social pressure and lobbying capacity

Empowered social stakeholders with greater capacity to influence public life

Strengthened social organizations of producers

Improved Quality of life Political empowerment: governance, democracy and citizenship

Economic stimulation and redistribution policies

Economic empowerment: generating opportunities and autonomy

3. Social empowerment

Empowerment and the interrelations between its political, social and economic dimensions

• Social pressure and the capacity to wield influence: the intersection of political and social empowerment shows how strengthened social organizations can increase their ability to lobby the holders of power, and create conditions so that their priorities can become part of the public agenda of the territory in which they operate. • Policies for economic stimulus and redistribution: the intersection between political and economic empowerment highlights the need for a change in economic policies in a given territory. It therefore implies the possibility that public policies (national, regional or local) incorporate strategies, programs, projects and resources aimed at supporting economic and productive reactivation initiatives which benefit small farmers, micro- and small businesses and other expressions of the grassroots economy. • Strengthened economic organizations of producers: the intersection between social and economic empowerment suggests that in order to have influence and change power relations, it is indispensible to have a strong social and economic fabric: associations of producers, associations of merchants, economic consortiums that bring together all players in a given production chain, etc. The synergy among the three dimensions and the consequent effects generated in the areas of intersection favor the empowerment of social stakeholders who can expand their opportunities and build their capacity to improve their quality of life and reduce the poverty that they live in.

To the extent that quality of life cannot be measured only by increased income or the fulfillment of material needs, but implies having influence on those who have political power, achieving better conditions in which to create a dignified life, fostering participation in decision-making, the social acceptance and recognition of the interests and opinions of different social stakeholders and increased self-esteem, it is vital to interrelate the three dimensions of empowerment. The resulting effects and impacts from this process can be seen in three areas: a) socially, through building values and practices like solidarity, collaboration, self-confidence, the promotion of women and the valuation of endogenous resources; b) economically, as expressed in the reduction of poverty, the valuing of traditional methods of production, the promotion of sustainable businesses, better management of individual and collective responsibilities and the sustainable management of natural resources; and c) politically through a greater participation in decision-making, the growing incorporation of women in positions of responsibility, an awareness of the individual and collective conscience and encouraging a sense of responsibility and social control.

Bobadilla (2005) goes even further when he says that empowerment makes it possible to access information, inclusion and participation, improve accountability and builds local organizational capacities. In Latin America, the achievement of these results has been possible, in many cases, within the context of the implementation of projects and programs inspired by empowerment. In any case, the effects of empowerment are related to a multiplier effect in which the results achieved in one context open up the opportunity for new developments; as well as a re-encounter or development of the potential for knowledge and actions, since the completion of a determined process or achievement expands the guidelines for thinking and acting in other directions.

Social empowerment is aimed at building a solid social and institutional fabric that includes people and social groups and their organizations. It promotes the approach that the stakeholders themselves play the leading role in taking ownership of the challenges of development.

Social empowerment is a path with multiple dimensions and forms which involves the recognition of oneself as a subject with certain rights, the strengthening of the institutional fabric and the building of organizations’ capacity to impact the different spheres of life, namely economic, political, cultural and institutional. Strengthening the institutional and organizational fabric is at the heart of any economic or political enterprise. It is related to institutional capacity-building, but it is more than that. It has to do with representation, functionality, and therefore the legitimacy of the organizations. Social empowerment, from a personal perspective, is related to the construction of identity, the family, the community and institutions, also involving gender, the life story of each person and multiculturalism. In order to understand the implications of social empowerment, it is necessary to pose questions like the following in different forums, such as the family, work and school: What do we want? What do we have? What don’t we have? An organization is legitimate when it adequately represents its members, when it is able to define clear objectives and is capable of making

1 Chapter 6 presents indicators for monitoring and evaluating social empowerment.

progress Howard achieving them, when it generates credibility and trust among the people that it represents and the institutions that operate in the same environment. This presumes that there are leaders who are accountable for their actions, who consult with their constituency, respect their members without and discrimination because of gender, age or ethnicity, and follow democratic procedures. It also presumes that the constituents are informed, that they actively participate, that they are mobilized and committed and they do not shirk their responsibilities, and they exercise their rights and obligations within their groups and in the context in which they work. Social empowerment strengthens what is known as human2 and social3 capital. This implies the capacity and ability to design strategies, create proposals, forge alliances, embark upon negotiations, establish consensus and exercise social oversight in different areas. 2 Human capital is comprised of individual ability and talent, the capacity to be, do, and decide for oneself, the degree of training, critical reflection and education; the levels of health, leadership and individual values. 3 Social capital represents the networks of reciprocity, solidarity and mutual trust that exist in a community, which generally shares a vision of the future, proposals, attitudes, values, symbols, norms and elements of identity.

How can social empowerment generate favorable conditions for stakeholders to become politically and economically empowered?

What is an empowered social stakeholder?

With the development and strengthening of organizations, which involve people and families – social empowerment – the ability to influence policies and the exercise of public power – political empowerment – is improved, in an inclusive, participatory and democratic sense. This is possible because social empowerment helps to strengthen political elements like the following:

In addition, social empowerment influences the economic sphere by promoting the construction of a social, regulatory and institutional environment that is favorable for productive enterprises and helping to improve the capacities of small and medium-size producers to take on the challenges of the market. The way in which the social dimension of empowerment affects the economic dimension can be expressed through at least five variables:

• Consolidation of shared values and practices that help to solidify and deepen democratic systems and build citizenship.

• Encouraging small and mediumsize producers to build sustainable and competitive associations.

Social empowerment is a multidimensional process that includes the person, the couple, the family, the group, the community, the social organization, public and private institutions, the system of networks and alliances that make up the backbone of the social fabric, and the institutional and cultural context that is related with the social role and values of the institutions in their context.

• Strengthening of representation by increasing the levels of trust and credibility with respect to the role that organizations play. This implies having organizations that can coherently and efficiently advance toward achieving the objectives for which they were created, resulting in their increased legitimacy. • An increase in the capacity to apply pressure and negotiate, making it possible for demands to be heard and included in public agendas. • Multiplication of conditions to encourage alliances and build consensus. • The creation and eventual institutionalization of social oversight mechanisms.

• Helping individuals to become entrepreneurs who are responsible for themselves and move forward with their own effort. • Liking together networks and mechanisms to improve access to markets, knowledge, technology and information. • Strengthening the

mechanisms used to achieve influence in specific policies that can support production, which translates into a commitment on the part of public authorities to those goals. • The development of infrastructure, training services, technical assistance and funding mechanisms.

From there, empowerment can be approached from three different levels: (a) individual, (b) direct environment and (c) institutional context. Given this complex social structure of levels and relationships, the proposal here is to examine empowerment from the three perspectives illustrated in the following figure:

Social empowerment

Figure 2 / Perspectives of social empowerment Source: PADEM - Bolivia

based on the equality of opportunities and the search for improved quality of life and quality of public services. From the point of view of public sector institutions, organizational strengthening requires, as a corollary, promoting citizen participation, fostering co-responsibility and encouraging transparent and efficient management, in order to stimulate the construction of citizenship and respect for human rights “from the bottom up”.

Personal and cultural selfrecognition Self-recognition deals with the person in relation to their immediate surroundings (spouse, family, school and neighborhood), and with the broader surrounding environment, namely local institutions and cultural group membership. In this way, it implies providing a response to questions such as the following: Who am I? What are my capacities and competencies? What are my personality traits? How do I relate to others? In what institutional and cultural context do I live? Self-recognition is related to psychological, pedagogical, anthropological and social factors, as well as equality of opportunity for men, women, people of different ages or social conditions or ethnicity.

Strengthening organizations Empowerment is an essential condition for democratic governance. From the point of view of social organizations, working to strengthen organizations implies assigning importance to the capacity to in partnership, negotiate, build consensus and exploit synergies among various stakeholders, which because of their closeness to the population may be better able to listen to and process demands and work together to define a vision that will benefit the common good. This makes it possible to build “bottom-up” citizenship, develop a sense of belonging, and exercise individual and collective rights and responsibilities,

By helping organizations to develop their capacity to be proactive and make proposals, and to learn to dialogue and forge alliances with other stakeholders, there are political and sociological variables that come into play. Figure No. 2, prepared by PADEM, summarizes the empowerment scheme for rural/indigenous communities, based on the experiences developed in the Bolivian municipal context.

Figure 3 / An example of the empowerment sequence of rural and indigenous communities

Source: PADEM - Bolivia

Social empowerment

Strategies to make social empowerment operational

Figure 4 / Participatory social management and leadership of empowerment

Achieving social empowerment implies putting into practice four strategies:

Source: PADEM - Bolivia

• Personal and cultural development • Organizational strengthening • Participatory social Management • Cultural respect

Knowledge and information

Appropriation of management cycles

Strategy for personal and cultural development: the cycle of education for valuing competencies4.

Strengthening capacities for development

“Formation for the valuation of competencies” is a method created by the EFFE, which begins with the recognition of “oneself”. An initial concept on which this method is based is that the person is a totality or integrity in relation to others as well as in relation to themselves. The dynamics of individuation and socialization are indispensible for full self-realization: the constitution of oneself is done in relation to others.

Participatory social Management and leadership Taking an approach to participatory social management that is immersed in empowerment makes it possible to maximize social capital and increase the efficiency of the actions, programs and policies that emerge, by helping to improve management and leadership abilities and encourage the use of tools for making diagnostic assessments, planning, monitoring and evaluation, as well as knowledge management methodologies, information and social control. By engaging in empowerment from the perspective of social management and leadership, the communities and organizations are able to enhance their levels of participation and decision-making regarding the problems and solutions that affect their lives. Local governments and other public sector institutions build their capacity to evaluate the demand, carry out actions in a planned way and establish priorities in budgetary allocations, and put into place auditing and oversight systems. In this sense, this vision emphasizes how the roles of public and private institutions and civil society organizations interact and complement each other. Figure 3 below illustrates the stages involved in empowerment based on a participatory approach to social management and leadership:

Figure 5 / Relations between the processes of individuation and socialization

The method used begins by analyzing the history, personality and competencies of the individual and continues in a second phase to examine the processes of socialization and

Source: EFFE. Cycle of formation for the valuation of competencies. 2005.

Process of socialization

Self

Immediate surroundings

Institutional context, society

Process of individuation

Self •One’s story •One’s personality •One’s abilities •The person as a whole

Immediate environment •Family •Neighborhood •Friends •Co-workers

The institutional context •Role in relation to existing institutions •Characteristics of the times •Culture and political events

4 Material used in this section was extracted from the presentation of Glenda Gonzalez of EFFE during the 2005 ASOCAM Seminar.

Social empowerment

Table 1 / Stages of awareness and empowerment toward autonomy Effects identified at three levels

Personal

Institutional

At the level of the society and context in which the person operates

Balance between the personal process and the functioning of the group

Me, my identity, my culture. Me, my history, in my context, appropriating the sense of one’s life.

Revaluing (endogenous) knowledge, capacities, potential competencies.

Valuing the collective competencies of association, developing projects, mobilizing additional support.

Training for transferring the method

Being aware of oneself, the context, the sense of one’s actions. Acknowledging one’s interests.

Breaking down internal and external obstacles in order to pursue collective interests.

Stimulating the social fabric (effects at the social, economic and political level) through confidence and taking ownership of one’s actions.

Adapting the method to each audience and context

Acting, deciding on actions, building or developing a process.

Taking into account institutional interests.

A multiplier effect through the transfer and replica adapted to different contexts.

Autonomy in practice

With stakeholders, without acting for them or over them.

Transmitting to one’s environment a conscious way of functioning through common actions.

Facilitating a re-encounter with or development of potential knowledge and actions.

Source: EFFE. Cycle of formation for the valuation of competencies. 2005.

individuation. For this purpose, the direct environment is looked at (the couple, the family, the neighborhood, friends, school, co-workers) as well as the institutional and cultural context in which each individual carries out their daily lives (relations with institutions, cultural codes that exist where they live, the political context, etc.). The synthesis of the “formation for valuing competencies” is presented in figure 5

Figue 6 / Different spaces that an organization can occupy Source: EFFE. Cycle of formation for the valuation of competencies. 2005

This working approach translates in to a series of stages called “awareness-raising and empowerment toward autonomy”, which are detailed in table No. 1.

Strategy to promote the strengthening of social organizations: toward a policy of partnership and synergy This strategy encompasses everything from the diagnostic assessment of capacities to strategic planning, providing training, the consolidation of democratic operating procedures, improving representation, legitimacy and internal cohesion and promoting a policy of cooperation and partnership with other organizations and institutions. The methodology and instruments to be used for this strategy will depend on the various areas of work of these entities, their

characteristics and their own organizational culture. Within the realm of inter-institutional relations, an organization can be located along a power axis, or can simply occupy an irrelevant isolated space: the space that an organization can occupy is represented in Figure 5, which illustrates three types of situations: an organization can be very isolated and lack any links with other similar entities (pink). On other occasions, organizations can develop lots of linkages and a great capacity

for synergy (light blue), or on the contrary, maintain “closed” relationships with a set of similar organizations (red), which may translate into a the formation strong group but is not functional for establishing connections and linkages in a broader institutional context.

Participatory social management strategy From the point of view of its capacities, any social organization runs the risk of stagnating, experiencing a

Social empowerment

crisis and even disappearing if it does not maintain its “representation and minimum levels of consultation in decision-making; if it does not fulfill the function for which it was created and if does not have enough power to defend the interests and expectations of its members” (Llona and Soria, 2004). From there emerges the need to carry out actions that are intended to strengthen the social management of organizations. For example, methodologies are needed to encourage accountability and collective oversight, procedures aimed at improving information flows among the various stakeholders, as well as methods and instruments for improving the processes of planning, implementation, follow-up and evaluation. In order to make progress in this direction, the following paragraphs contain a set of recommendations aimed at strengthening participatory social management: • Self-sustainability is a key element. This means that the growth in capacities should be aimed at ensuring that the organizations can develop alternatives to sustain themselves and sustain their initiatives and proposals with the means that are within their reach, or within the framework of public policies which are designed and implemented in response to advocacy efforts carried out by the organizations themselves. The support that they receive from cooperation projects and agencies must be only of a secondary and transitory nature. Not following this path means a return to the practices of dependence on outside aid which, instead of resulting in empowered and autonomous social organizations, generate more entrenched dependency and artificial results that break down the moment that the external assistance is reduced or withdrawn. Considering the importance of selfsustainability, it should be proposed as one of the main objectives

Strategy of cultural respect

Despite the many cultural differences, rural and indigenous communities in the Andean region of South America have very similar traditional organizational practices.

Encouraging participation and organizational robustness involves respect as a fundamental value. Respect must be extended to all cultural manifestations, particularly the organizational practices, language and the diversity of local customs and uses. Doing the contrary would be to continue with discriminatory practices frequently masked as modernization projects.

“1. The base of community organization is the family, not the individual, and grounded in land tenancy. The man is normally responsible for representing the family. 2. Decisions are made in assemblies or councils, generally by consensus and not voting. 3. All community members at some point will occupy a leadership position under the principle of rotation (generally annual) in the appointment of community authorities.” (PADEM, 2005).

of any enterprise, and included as one of the primary indicators to be closely monitored and evaluated.

• Inter-institutional coordination is

another essential aspect. No local forum, no matter how small, is an empty space. In all of them there are multiple and varied stakeholders: from those which are organized temporarily to address certain demands to those which involve a prolonged and sustained experience of organization; from local government entities with different attributes, responsibilities and resource to non-governmental organizations, churches, companies and the sectoral offices of central or provincial governments. These stakeholders can collaborate and interact to the extent that they recognize and value each other’s existence, are open to dialogue and to building a common vision, and take into account the different and complementary roles that each can play. Key tools for this purpose are the information made available in a transparent way and the role of convener and coordinator that the local authority should play.

• A third recommendation is related to the need to encourage active and balanced participation that is efficient and effective. Frequently, the criteria of efficiency and efficacy are associated with the

business world, while they are largely ignored in public institutions. It is also common for participation and efficiency to be treated as contrary and mutually exclusive elements, as it is assumed that only hierarchical structures are capable of achieving results in determined time periods and at the lowest possible costs. The great challenge for social management is to make those aspects compatible with each other through the clear definition of objectives and targets, promoting participation, and appropriate and transparent oversight and accountability mechanisms, among other strategies. • The tools of monitoring and evaluation have special importance in social leadership. They should measure the degree to which results and impacts were achieved, using quantitative measures while not ignoring qualitative aspects, using participatory methodologies that make it possible to analyze and process any proposed adjustments or changes needed with all relevant stakeholders. When putting a participatory social management strategy into place, it is very important to take into account the existing organizational culture. These organizational forms, no matter how deeply rooted they are, do not remain unchanging in the face of new pheno-

mena like the gradually loss of social homogeneity, temporary migrations, school education and others. They must also confront new challenges like the decentralization of the State and other political reforms. Many organizational practices should change and evolve to better respond to those challenges. Nonetheless, an elemental methodological principle suggests that the communities themselves should be the ones who decide on the pertinence, the opportunity, the mode and rhythms of that evolution. This implies that a project interested promoting empowerment must work with and out of the existing organizational structure instead of artificially creating their own separate spaces.

In conducting feasibility studies for and designing of programs and projects, it is usual to pay special attention to economic and financial aspects, at the expense of other variables like socio-political conditions, the characteristics of the population, and the predominant uses and customs. Only a study that pays attention to the particular background and experience of social stakeholders, the context in which they operate and their organizational responses can avoid the appearance of eventual conflicts among the prevailing organizational and cultural philosophies and the proposals put forward. Cultural respect brings with it the rejection of prejudice toward other cultures and of the fundamentalism of certain indigenous discourses which only exalt the attributes of native cultures. To the contrary, cultural respect assumes that cultures are historical constructs that evolve and change incessantly to respond to variable situations. Cultural respect is recognition of the fertile potential of multiculturalism. Exclusion and marginalization are frequently expressed in the absence of information and the deprivation of the voice and visibility of large social groups and sectors. Therefore, a process of empowerment cannot be separated form the democratization of communication and information processes, which is equivalent to proposing the democratization of society itself and the redistribution of power.

Following are some guidelines for how to institute cultural respect:

✓ Create interpersonal spaces where experiences are exchanged and shared, and participants reflect on the objectives and strategies of a determined action or project.

✓ Establish horizontal and twoway information flows: from and toward communities, and from and toward other stakeholders. .

✓ Include the demands and proposals of social organizations in the public agendas at different levels.

✓ Use and combine different means of dissemination to complement each other, including traditional means and those which make use of new information and communication technology (ICT). Some culturally respectful attitudes and efforts demonstrated by institutions can include the following: “During events, speak the native language of participants, especially when they are not fluent in Spanish. Make the effort necessary to understand the logic of the other and do not assume one’s own logic as the only option. Respect the cultural know-how and knowledge of the group and the importance of the symbolic and the affective, in order to facilitate the construction of new knowledge. Ensure that social and cultural changes are the decision of the Group or community, not the institution that is coming from outside.” (Bischof, 2005).

4. Political empowerment5

How can political empowerment generate favorable conditions for social and economic empowerment?

Power is present in all human relations -- between people, families and communities – and can be acquired by developing one’s capacities (Acevedo, n.d.). Nevertheless, the power asymmetries that exist in most Latin American societies have excluded significant social groups from access to decision-making, participation in the definition and implementation of public policies and from defining priorities that affect their lives.

Political empowerment is aimed at transforming exclusive power relations so that social groups can make decisions related to improving the quality of their lives in a democratic and equitable way.

5 Chapter 6 contains a proponed set of results and indicators related to political empowerment.

Political empowerment, by encouraging, legitimizing and institutionalizing spaces of participation, accountability and consensus-building sustained by information flows and transparent practices, promotes social empowerment. By encouraging horizontal dialogue among diverse stakeholders and promoting the formation of citizenship, creating awareness of rights, duties and the capacity to take initiative, facilitates the social empowerment of those stakeholders. Social empowerment is also strengthened to the extent that political empowerment is a powerful tool to encourage the emergence of new leadership and to take popular mandates and transform them into public policies by engaging in advocacy efforts. From this perspective, political empowerment emerges as a process aimed at enabling social sectors that have endured exclusion, discrimination and poverty to effectively contribute to changing these circumstances, seeking to balance power between public authorities and the citizenry by establishing forums for participation and legitimate rules of the game that can guarantee inclusive and representative governance for the effective solution of conflicts related to the strengthening of the democratic system. Political empowerment is the antithesis of paternalism (CEPAL 2002). From a political point of view, empowerment is especially relevant, since the inclusion of vulnerable groups does not only involve strengthening their organization (social empowerment) and more effectively incorporating them into the circuits of production, markets and consumption (economic empowerment), but also their active and deliberate participation in the spaces of power and public decision-making. “It is a systemic concept, which holds that when the power to make decisions and exercise control increases for those who never had it before, the system is transformed (...) inevitably.” (Perez 2005).

One requirement for people and their organizations to occupy a place in the spaces of power is to reinforce their exercise of citizenship. Promotion efforts, then, must be aimed at making excluded people aware of their rights and responsibilities, and of the fact that they belong to a political community with the capacity for taking initiatives to resolve the problems facing the community. In addition, as Perez (2005) points out, political empowerment makes it possible to relate the local with the global, as it places people in a broader context than that of their family or community. The processes of political empowerment which manage to balance power at the local level, facilitate trust-based relationships among individuals and their organizations and between the state and society, which in turn generates social capital that promotes local socio-economic and political development, resulting in improved capacities for negotiation with regional and national political entities for access to resources and respect for their rights.

From the side of economic empowerment, there are also factors which, based on political empowerment, help to consolidate autonomy and generate jobs and economic opportunities for the population. In this sense it is especially important to design and implement public policies that promote economic revitalization and include economic incentives intended to improve the situation of excluded groups or crossed subsidies that favor equitable economic growth and development. In terms of capacity-building and fostering consensus, political empowerment is a potential way to disseminate information and provide technical assistance to economic organizations of producers as a way to generate territorial economic development as well as to encourage dialogue among public and private stakeholders in an effort to build common economic and productive visions with respect to a given territory.

What is a politically empowered stakeholder?

While socio-political processes are not a like an escalator that ascends step by step, it can happen that there are times when power is accumulated and can increase the levels of empowerment. The speed of this ascent is influenced by the exercise of citizenship and the leadership that is forged within social organizations.

Figure 7 / Levels of political empowerment6 The political level, building capacity to analyze and mobilize the social milieu in order to produce changes. The social and economic level, related to the participation in community organizations and networks and the importance of having an income that allows for an autonomous and independent life. The psychological level, related to the development of self-esteem and self-confidence, necessary for good decisionsmaking. The cognitive level, which involves the awareness of reality, Rights and responsibilities, and power relations.

Figure 7 shows how political empowerment is more a result of prior processes rather than a prerequisite. In order to achieve politically empowered agents or organizations, there must be people who are aware of their rights and responsibilities, who have information on the existing power relations and confidence in themselves. So, a stakeholder who is empowered in political terms is one which has accumulated a set of abilities, values, attitudes and aptitudes which will allow them to successfully participate in forums of discussion, debate and decision-making; and who has the capacity to analyze reality, formulate proposals, mobilize others and produce significant changes in power relations.

6 Graph presented during ASOCAM seminar by Artemio Perez (2005)

Processes, strategies and tools to make political empowerment operational

Political empowerment

A social or economic organization is empowered in political terms when it manages to democratize its interior leadership, when the power structures incorporate the interests that the organization defends in the public agenda, when consensus-building processes include people who historically have been underprivileged on an equal footing. An organization is also politically empowered when it is engaged in policy advocacy, agreements and alliances with other sectors, lobbying mechanisms and strategic management tools that help to democratize power.

Introducción

Political empowerment (ASOCAM, 2005) can strengthen democratic values and help to create the conditions necessary for human development. It was not in vain that the former Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, declared that “Democratic governance is perhaps the most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development” (Chediek, 2006).

The strategies for political empowerment include the following:

This situation is possible because the articulation of political empowerment strategies generates four interrelated processes, the dynamics of which are presented in figure 7:

• Awareness-raising and information: people and groups must be properly informed and aware of the content and progress of a determined policy advocacy initiative.

• Innovation in institutional and legal frameworks

• Consolidate political will: strategies are needed to promote and strengthen the political will of the authorities. But this does not emerge spontaneously. The authorities have initiative when they can sense the returns of a certain action and when they feel enough public pressure on a certain issue.

• Strengthen the exercise of citizenship: Excluded people have to overcome their fear, weaknesses and ignorance of their Rights and responsibilities, as well as reinforce the sense of belonging to a political community in which they can participate.

• Changes in public policies • Develop information and communication flows • Create linkages, alliances and networks with other entities.

• Organizational and institutional strengthening: the basic elements of political advocacy (information + awareness-raising + will) contribute to institutional and organizational robustness, in such a way that the different stakeholders are in a position to push for the desired changes.

Figure 8 / The inter-connection of political empowerment

Legal framework

The exercise of citizenship Awarenessraising and information

Organizational strengthening

Co-management

Political empowerment

Political framework

Planning

Information and Communication

Linkages with other entities Political will

Accountability Common agenda

There are instruments and Tools which have proven to be successful for many groups and communities: participatory budgeting, development planning, capacity-building, risk maps and accountability mechanisms. The creation of public spaces for debate, participation, citizen oversight and control are linked to the practice of democracy. An example of the use of these instruments is the case of Alvorada.

• Build a common vision and agenda: it is necessary to establish the entities or spaces necessary for consensus-building or dialogue in order to build a share vision and agenda, the only way to deepen democratic governance. • Participatory planning: by having a platform for consensus-building, stakeholders are prepared to engage in processes of planning and preparing participatory budgets. • Joint action: implementation should be done through participatory mechanisms. In this way, one can ensure that the empowered stakeholders are co-responsible for the entire cycle of public mana-

“The participatory budget is organized through participation and direct representation of the population, through popular assemblies and the councils of delegates and councilors. Alvorada was divided into 11 regions, based on the cultural, socio-economic and historical characteristics of each neighborhood. The participatory budget is self-regulating through those who participate in the process, discussing the internal rules and defining a series of principles and procedures at the beginning of each year. There are three fundamental reasons why the participatory budget is a success in Alvorada: the government’s commitment, the capacity and willingness to invest, and the organization of the social fabric”. (Farias,

2001).

gement; however, for the sake of efficiency, this does not replace or free the public servant or democratically elected authorities from their responsibilities. • Accountability, public oversight, monitoring and evaluation: political leaders must be accountable for what they have done, people must organize to oversee those actions, and in general all empowered stakeholders should create institutionalized democratic and participatory mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating public administration. The critique of neoliberal models which favor market values over the common good is based on the fact that the former undermine the rules

of the democratic game by supposing, mistakenly, that democracy can be reduced exclusively to the delegation and representation of power. In order to achieve democratic governance, the only appropriate solution is to harmonize representative and participatory mechanisms. “Everything indicates that citizen participation that is linked to but does not replace representation becomes the source that feeds democracy....participatory processes cannot be thought of independently from the processes of representation; rather, linking the two together demands joint reflection and proposals for action.” (Gomariz, 2005).

5. Economic empowerment9

Political empowerment

Table 2 / Tools that can be used to further political empowerment strategies7 Components

Tools

Strengthening the exercise of citizenship

Workshops. Socio-dramas. Campaigns.

Awareness-raising and information

Radio programs. Newsletters, brochures, videos. Community meetings.

Political will

Lobbying. Communication.

Organizational and institutional strengthening

Leadership development. Leadership courses. Organizational assessments. Institutional changes (new paradigm).

Building a common vision and agenda

Consensus-building roundtables. Management committees. Expanded assemblies and town hall meetings. Parliamentary procedures.

Participatory planning

Strategic plans. Participatory budgets.

Joint management

Plan for providing accompaniment. Plan for providing technical assistance for implementation.

Accountability, social oversight, monitoring and evaluation

Methodologies to ensure accountability and social oversight: the creation of entities, oversight committees, observatories, etc. Establishing systems of monitoring and evaluation. Participatory innovation nuclei8.

Common agenda

Strategic objectives. Priority work areas.

Because of existing inequalities, asymmetrical access to the means of production, uneven patterns of consumption and the profound differences in the distribution of income, in Latin American countries, it is unfortunately not always those who work more who can enjoy relative economic security that allows them to make decisions and build a dignified life. It is common for those sectors of society living in poverty to pay more for basic services, sell their services or what they produce at prices below their true value, or become immersed in a practically endless spiral of debt. This situation, and the resulting increase in inequality and poverty that many countries in this region are facing, has forced governments to begin to think about including economic policy variables that can help to empower those groups. In this sense, in recent years there has been a growing concern for promoting a more favorable environment through public policies aimed at improving the economic situation of the most underprivileged groups. Unfortunately, many of these policies continue to be subsumed to a welfare-like, temporary and even clientelist approach, like the distribution of direct contributions to people in the lowest quintiles of poverty or subsidies for certain goods and services. The search for situations aimed at improving the economic situation of the poor has been developed on the basis of processes in which the beneficiaries have been considered the victims of poverty, in need of state help and not as the possessors of rights.

Coordination with local and national stakeholders.

7 Adapted from the table developed by the political empowerment group at the ASOCAM Seminar (2005: 19). 8 These nuclei, invented by German philosophers Peter Dienel and Hans Haras, have been applied successfully in various European countries in order to adjust or correct certain public policies.

9 The results and indicators proposed for economic empowerment are presented in Annex 4.

In light of the lack of timely and sustainable state responses, the small-scale business and agricultural sectors have begun to develop strategies aimed in part at effecting an equitable distribution of wealth, achieving better working conditions and more recognition for their work or developing and implementing economic reactivation strategies, elements which together are related to the possibility of influencing public policies. At the same time, these sectors have begun to embark upon alternative economic enterprises as part of their household survival strategies, to cooperate with the fight against poverty and build a new kind of social development with equity.

What is economic empowerment?

The importance of economic empowerment is based on the right that every person has to live with dignity, which requires, among other things, money. If one realizes that the lack of money intensifies dependencies of all types, it is easy to conclude that a person who enjoys relative economic security is more able to control their own destiny and exercise greater autonomy. To this extend, economic empowerment should help to expand opportunities for all people to support themselves and their families through their own efforts. Empowerment is intended to facilitate development processes that are capable of generating sustainable alternatives which do away with economic, political and social systems that lead to exclusion and poverty.

Economic empowerment is a process aimed at building capacity and increasing opportunities for small rural or urban producers to improve their quality of life and have access to the factors of production and services in order to develop their competitiveness and participation in the marketplace, as a way to increase income and generate productive employment10. Putting this process into motion requires creating a series of conditions that will allow community-based or rural companies and organizations to improve their economic status and position themselves in the market. One of these conditions is association as a mechanism of cooperation between small and/or medium-size producers that can take on the form of a micro-enterprise. Creating an association implies that each participant, based on their shared missions and visions, commonly maintaining their legal independence and managerial autonomy, participates voluntarily in a joint effort to achieve a common goal that will lead to greater levels of profitability, efficiency and organization.

Some of the benefits of creating associations range from improving conditions for access to credit and carrying out shared purchasing and marketing efforts, to researching a given problem and addressing the different stages of the business cycle: design, planning, production, processing, marketing and selling.

10 While all dimensions of empowerment must include the search for equality of opportunities for men and women, in economic empowerment, the existing differences are perhaps more visible than those in other dimensions. It is almost universal that in the labor market, women have higher rates of unemployment than men, or their wages are lower; in addition, the fundamental role that they play in domestic activities, caring for and protecting their children (household reproduction in general) is not socially recognized nor valued.

Economic empowerment

The main characteristics of an associative business arrangement are the following:

capacities of the partners as well as the availability of technicians and researchers.

1. It is an economic business organization that seeks profits and benefits for its partners, men and women, and which functions by way of efficient and functional technical, administrative and leadership practices that are appropriate for its context.

• Financing: This is the money that associated or cooperative business ventures receive to make the investments required to operate the business and acquire the means of production.

2. It is a representative social organization, since the relationships that are established between its members are characterized by solidarity, cooperation and reciprocity, regardless of any competition or conflict that may arise. AT the same time, it is an organization that represents the demands and interests of its members in interactions with other external stakeholders. 3. It is a working unit in which each member contributes to the common objective for which it was created. Working in association, in addition, helps to energize and optimize the use of the economic factors that can develop a business11. Among these factors are the following: • Labor: This is the mental and physical force exerted by people in the different operations of the business to modify raw materials or generate a service to meet a demand. • Material means of production: These are the physical elements – raw materials, land, water, facilities, machinery – which are part of the process of commercialization and processing. • Technology: this refers fundamentally to knowledge and know-how that is used in production and commercialization procedures, which generates innovation and is constantly being formed and re-formed. It implies the installed 11 Classic economics only considered three factors of production: land, labor and capital. Currently, knowledge and technology are also often included, whether as independent factors or as element linked to labor and capital, respectively.

• Business administration or management: This is the capacity to organize, process information, make decisions and oversee the steps needed to respond to the changing conditions of the surroundings and the dynamics of the business, in order to effectively coordinate the interaction of all economic factors. Proper insertion in the market is also fundamental for gaining economic power, and becomes a determining factor for the sustainability of a business (ASOCAM, 2005: 29). If the business is properly anchored and is responsive to specific demands, with attractive prices and competitive advantages for small producers, its chances of success increase. This implies forging wider and wider economic and social relationships in order to provide lasting employment and income, with the recognition that economic relations are not limited to closed geographical spaces, but rather involve constant mobility and complementarity between urban and rural, formal and informal. “In a number of cases, for instance, it has been shown that the “closed door” style of project management has led to prioritizing a certain offering of products without taking into account current and future demand trends, at times resulting in an excess supply of products which impedes the recovery of one’s investment, and at other times the frustration of producers who are unable to sell their products on the market” (COSUDE, 2004). Being integrated into the market represents a certain amount of security for the members of an association, as they make it possible

to obtain various kinds of benefits: income, services, security, etc., as a reward for their efforts and investments. There are at least four factors that impact commercial integration: • Stable insertion into differentiated markets (with different market segments) • A supply of products with competitive advantages. • Innovation, value creation and ongoing quality development (ASOCAM et al, 2006) • Improved access to information on market trends, pricing and inputs, so that small producers can adapt and better respond to changing market scenarios. In addition to properly inserting oneself into the market, economic empowerment demands developing the competitiveness of grassroots or rural economic organizations. Competitiveness should be understood as the ability to maintain competitive advantages vis-à-vis other companies, in order to reach, sustain and improve ones position in the market and in the socio-economic environment. Competitiveness has two levels, one internal and one external. Internal competiveness refers to the capacity of the organization to achieve maximum return from the available resource (personnel, capital, materials and ideas) and the processes of transformation. External competiveness, on the other hand, has to do with achieving success in the market or in a specific economic sector. Competitiveness is created and achieved through a long process of learning and negotiation among groups that make up the organization or are related to it: members, the leadership team, workers, customers, public institutions and society in general. There are certain actions or approaches that can reinforce competitiveness, like continuous improvement, constant innovation, monitoring and adapting to changing demand, the availability of business development support services and productivity enhancement policies.

One of the approaches that helps to boost competitiveness is that of value chains, which refers to the need to build connections and alliances with the different links that are involved in a determined economic activity: suppliers, producers, merchants, processors and consumers, to overcome the fragmentation that has normally characterized the different areas of the production – sale – distribution – consumption cycle. By connecting these links together, the businesses involved can optimize costs and enhance their production innovation capacities in order to maintain a competitive position in the market. Nonetheless, value chains cannot be looked at statically, but must be regarded in their dynamic complexity. To the extent that the competitive advantages are blurred and markets and preferences are changing, grassroots and rural economic organizations need to put into place change management strategies that are expressed through continuous technological, commercial and institutional innovation. In addition, it must be recognized that belonging to a value chain does not necessary imply participation under equal conditions nor an equitable distribution of benefits. These chains are affected by different and even contradictory interests, as well as asymmetrical power relationships. Thus, the control normally exercised by the “leaders” or those in power must be broken in order to generate a cooperative attitude among all links of the chain, based on a vision of complementary efforts, convergent objectives, work done in association and increasing levels of trust. Beyond all of the conditions described here, access to economic empowerment requires, in a fundamental way, the inclusion of small productive initiatives in social and economic public policies linked to the generation of new regulatory legalregulatory frameworks for investment, subsidies and incentives.

How Can Economic Empowerment Create Conditions Favorable for the Development of Social and Political Empowerment?

What are the characteristics of an empowered grassroots or rural organization?

From the perspective of strengthening the economic initiatives of small-scale producers, the social and political dimensions of empowerment are very important. It can even be said that economic empowerment is not possible without social and political empowerment, and vice versa.

During a workshop attended by small farmers who belonged to associative businesses and technicians who were supporting those businesses, participants defined empowered economic organizations in the following way (Iturralde, 2005):

Economic empowerment can contribute to social empowerment on the basis of five strategies:

“A rural economic organization is empowered when it generates economic and social benefits,

• Successful associative economic initiatives provide organizations and communities a solid economic base on which to sustain growth. • Expanding and strengthening trust, motivation and a sense of belonging among members of an organization are the cement that improves relations among them as they seek collective benefits that complement their individual aspirations and interests. • Encouraging participation and its inclusion in organizational principles strengthens negotiating capacity vis-à-vis the market and gives more weight to the community and the social organization. • Building and strengthening specialized capacity in the technical, administrative and financial aspects of negotiation and marketing helps increase the capacity to adapt to changes demanded by the market and the environment • Taking advantage of local potential helps to revalue the know-how that communities already have, along with their social identity. The relationship between economic and political empowerment translates into the design and implementation of public policy advocacy processes intended to create and/or modify the environment so that it benefits the economic activities of small-scale producers. In this regard, at least three strategies can be identified: • The development of small-scale

Economic empowerment

thanks to having integrated itself into the market, and develops a business-oriented organization, which makes it possible to properly manage its business, using strategic business administration, operational and monitoring tools, guided by a shared vision of the future, created in a participatory way, capable of communicating and interacting with its surroundings and governed by a set of

values that encourage a harmonious relationship between people and their surroundings”. A number of elements emerge from the above definition: socio-economic benefits, market integration, business organization, business administration, tools, a vision for the future, information and communication, values.12

Table 3 / Characteristics of empowered associative businesses12 Socio-economic benefit

producers’ businesses motivates the establishment of a regulatory framework based on the demands and participation of organized producers. Governments can support the economic initiatives of citizens by promoting, not hindering, their efforts on their own behalf. This type of assistance is based on the understanding that work is a right that should be respected and that society has the obligation to create an environment that enables such work. • The creation of new public institutions that promote rural and community-based economic organizations within the framework of value chains, especially in local environments (local economic development) • The search for participation to influence in the preparation of budgets and public investments as well as the implementation of plans, programs and projects to assist rural and community-based economic organizations

Part of the revenue earned by associative businesses is distributed among all Partners with equity and fairness. The leftover percentage should be used to finance priority social investments that can help to improve the business.

Insertion in the market This not only implies the sale of products, but a marketing process Ahmed at identifying competitive advantages using strategies like marketing studies, product differentiation, market segmentation and the development of specific customer niches.

The existence of economic benefits presupposes having committed and responsible people operating and leading the company.

Business administration

Within the organization there is a clear division of roles and functions at the executive, managerial and operational levels, and there are clear and enforceable policies and regulations, which are abided by universally by all company units and associated people.

Tools

This requires the availability of people with the capacity to achieve self-management, profitability and sustainability. The people involved must develop, in this sense, the capacity for leadership, setting directions and executing plans, and have the ability to hire support services to improve business management and development practices.

Values

Information and communication

Vision of the future

The firms have methodologies and instruments that are adequate for guiding strategic and operational management, monitoring, evaluation and oversight, which have been designed in a participatory way by all partners.

Business organization

There is an adequate flow of information that provides feedback among the different levels (leadership, managerial and operational). There are also systems in place for communicating with people and institutions from the surrounding area in order to share experiences (successes and failures), thus providing critical contributions for how to improve business practices.

The members share a series of qualities: • A desire to serve • Teamwork, overcoming individualism • Honor, honesty, truth • A willingness to learn and contribute for the benefit of all • The ability to strive for a common interest • Ama shwa, ama killa, ama llulla (no stealing, no lying, no laziness) • Entrepreneurs and innovators

Members of the business know clearly what they want and have managed to build a shared vision of their future. They have a strategic plan designed by all members, which does not stay filed away but serves to guide everything the company does on a day-to-day basis.

• Development of ownership, identity, loyalty • Self-esteem and confidence to move their company forward • The ability to resolve conflicts

12 Taken from Iturralde, 2005.

6. Contributions to monitoring empowerment

How can empowered economic organizations be built?

The systematization of multiple experiences of the economic organizations of small farmers and rural or urban associative businesses makes it possible to establish a few strategic guidelines for promoting economic empowerment. The stops listed below13 are not intended to be followed in a linear or mechanical way, but rather they are dynamic, inter-related and there may be overlaps among them, depending on the level of development of the economic enterprises of small farmers, their internal dynamics and the characteristics of the market and the local/regional context.

1. Identify the potential of small producers in a given territory

7. Develop strategic plan and business plan

2. Develop an idea for a business or economic enterprise

8. Capacity-building: business administration, productivity, marketing and sales, processing, socio-organizational capacities.

3. Market opportunities survey 4. Feasibility analysis: social, technical, financial, environmental

9. Launch economic enterprise

5. Enhance and strengthen business organization

10. Support services: innovations in technology, inputs, finances, information

6. Conduct production chain analysis

11. Oversight, monitoring, measurement and evaluation By way of illustration, these steps are represented in Figure 9.

Figure 9 / The process of empowerment for grassroots economic organization

Favorable environment: - Market - Financing - Innovation and technology

Support services

Monitoring, follow-up, evaluation

Launch/ implement the enterprise

Políticas públicas para crear un entorno favorable e institucionalizar los emprendimientos económicos

Identify potential of small producers, Business opportunities

Individual motivation and leadership

Prepare Business idea

Market opportunities survey

Starting point Build business and technical capacities

Often for an institution or project, documenting and providing evidence of empowerment processes with precise data is a true challenge. As it is a multi-dimensional process, there are no definitions or standards that make it possible to easily identify what aspects or variables must be included. This section is meant to provide examples of indicators that can serve as references in an organization’s efforts to prioritize and measure signs of changes that result from an empowerment strategy. As the final chapter of this document, the only intention here is to provide some clues for how to include the issue of empowerment in a monitoring and evaluation system. It should be emphasized that this has to be done in accordance with the specific nature of each case. A monitoring and evaluation system must culminate in identifying indications of changes that have taken place. When dealing with empowerment, these changes are not easily identifiable or measureable, and therefore one must identify “pertinent indicators” – an indicator reflects a change, and makes it evident. It makes it possible to measure what has happened, directly or indirectly. In order to monitor the results of an empowerment process, it is advisable to use both quantitative and qualitative indicators. • Quantitative indicators express an objective quantity based on a number; the data are gathered by counting, inventory, surveys, or structured interviews.

Feasibility study

Strategic plan and Business plan

13 These steps are discussed in detail in Annex 1 of this document.

Production chain analysis

Organize and strengthen the economic organization

• Qualitative indicators express a quality or describe a phenomenon based on perception, the opinion of those involved and the observation of practices and events. These kinds of indicators are very relevant to the topic of empowerment.

Monitoring and evaluation are particularly important in social management, which is why a monitoring and evaluation system with a focus on empowerment must follow certain principles: • The identification and selection of indicators must incorporate the points of view of the stakeholders. • Information useful for the stakeholders has to be generated and managed at their level. • The system should feed and enrich a culture of reflection and social learning which feeds back into the empowerment process itself. Therefore, building indicators is a participatory process involving the representatives of social groups who are in the process of empowerment. By participating, these stakeholders can take over the monitoring process with their visions of the hoped-for change, proposing the elements to take into account and selecting indicators which best reflect the changes that they want from their point of view. For each of the three areas of the empowerment process (social, political and economic), this section will provide some examples that can serve as a reference point for “fields of observation” that will help to identify possible key questions and examples of indicators. It should be said that we have chosen, in the interest of simplicity, to use the term “indicator”, but from a strictly methodological point of view, what are being presented are “criteria”, as they are not specified in terms of time, place, or quantity and require a more precise translation in order to be able to gather data.

Contributions to monitoring empowerment

Table 4 / Social Empowerment Indicators

Table 5 / Political Empowerment Indicators

Field of observation

Dimensions to be considered

Examples of indicators (for illustrative purposes only)

Self-recognition

• • • •

• % of people with a positive, promising vision of their current and future situation in relation to the past • % of people who have taken the initiative to become informed and/or study and/or embark upon new activities • Number of people who have managed to reduce, by their own accord, the frequency and/or duration of temporary emigration • % of people who are able to self-diagnose their relationship with their immediate surroundings (couple, family, neighborhood) and the institutional environment (work, school, authorities, public service)

Level of pessimism / optimism Self-esteem Construction of identity Capacity to put into practice one’s own ideas and projects (doing and deciding for oneself) • Valorization of endogenous competencies and talents • Relating with surroundings

Equity and inclusion of vulnerable groups

• Equitable participation of women and youth in assemblies and in community, town and neighborhood tasks • Women, youth, members of marginalized social groups with their own resources • Women, youth, members of excluded groups exercising their rights as citizens

• • • •

Strengthening the social fabric

• Consolidating the solidarity and reciprocity among members of the same single organization or community • Institutional representation and legitimacy • Exercise of rights and responsibilities within the groups, with equitable participation between men and women • Cultural respect • Capacity to make proposals and to aggregate demands with a forward-looking, productive vision • Self-sustainability • Openness to inter-institutional dialogue and to building common visions • Institutional capacity to forge alliances for negotiations and consensus-building

• % of organizations whose members participate actively (>50%) in their initiatives and calls for action • % of members informed about the plan and budget of their institution • Number of members per organization who feel that their leaders respect their opinion without regard to gender, age or ethnicity • Number of organizations which manage to sustain their initiatives and proposals with the means at hand (with external support as secondary and temporary) • % of events in which the native language of the participants is used • Relationship by social organization between proactive initiatives and mobilizations vs. taking of merely reactive positions • Number of practices of cooperation and formal agreement between peer institutions and organizations • Existence of local inter-institutional spaces for the exchange and sharing of experiences and collective reflection around a determined action

• Clearly defined objectives and the capacity to progress towards achieving them • Leaders with the capacity to defend the expectations and interests of their members • A focus on being proactive • Democratic internal operating procedures and trust in management • The ability to forge alliances with others to reach a common goal • Improvement of accountability mechanisms

• Existence of strategic plans prepared in participatory manner • Level of qualifications of organization staff for management, administration and technical services • Use of tolls for monitoring and evaluating plans and progress • Number of times that leaders consult with members • Number of times that leaders report to membership to give account of their acts and performance • Frequency/seriousness of internal conflicts in comparison with previous periods • Nmber of proposals made to public authorities on issues related to the organization’s objectives.

Building institutional management and monitoring capacity

Field of observation

Dimensions to be considered

Examples of indicators (for illustrative purposes only)

Governance

• Institutionalized instances of participation and consensus-building • Channels for conflict resolution • Accountability

• Number and % of representatives of excluded sectors participating in public forums for debate and decision-making • Number of women and youth in positions of public responsibility • Number of operational mechanisms to hold local authorities accountable • % of municipal financial resources collected through taxes and fees

Inclusive and democratic public policies

• Democratization of power • Information on the political/legal framework that promotes democracy • Changes in the organic-functional structure of the public sector • Inclusive policies expressed in the annual budget

• % of the local public budget that is allocated based on criteria of equity and inclusion (level of poverty, % of female-headed households, access to public services) • Number of laws and decrees issued by governmental entities which contribute to a greater democratization of power • % of people who feel that the local and regional government practices are less discriminatory and more inclusive • Degree of fulfillment in the implementation of participatory budgets

Participation in public administration

• Influence of citizens on public management • Exercise of oversight functions

• Existence of mechanisms of citizen consultation and degree of implementation • % of municipal and regional budgets allocated through a participatory process of priority-setting • % of municipal and regional budgets managed in a participatory way • Existence of mechanisms of public oversight and degree of implementation

% who own land % with their own source of income % with access to credit % participating in decision-making forums; i.e. the participatory budget • % of people interviewed who recognize the capacity of these people to act as leaders

Contributions to monitoring empowerment

Table 6 / Economic Empowerment Indicators Field of observation

Dimensions to be considered

Examples of indicators (for illustrative purposes only)

Improved quality of life

Increase in economic income aimed at building the capacity of local human resources and improving quality of life

% increase in net household income % of household income allocated to education by each family member % of economic income allocated to productive investment and household assets % of economic income spent of health care for family members

Business self-management

Productive employemnt

Changes in type of employment by family members who have received training

Member families taking control of the administration of their organizations and businesses

Community businesses have agreed upon, participatory mechanisms for internal functioning Companies have planning and monitoring instruments Number of business management instruments that are effectively used Number of markets accessed and sales made through the businessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; own efforts % of profit spent on strengthening internal capacity and social reinvestment

More favorable environment for popular economic organizations

Second-degree organizations or businesses have the ability to influence public and private institutions at the local level

Number of spaces for consensus-building in which these businesses participate at the local and provincial level Number of proposals submitted, negotiated and implemented at the local, regional and national level

ASOCAM, the Latin American Platform for Knowledge Management for Rural Development. Its members are 50 entities located in 7 countries. ASOCAM uses working methodologies that promote the collective construction and recovery of learnings from practice. The results of these processes are disseminated through different communication products that present approaches and guidelines on priority rural development issues to strengthen and enrich institutional practices.