Essentail Elements Of Empowerment

I recently talked about how Empowerment is the process of enhancing the ability of an individual or a group to make choices, as well as how it transforms these choices into positive actions and outcomes. Actions, which build individual and collective assets as well as improving efficiency and fairness, are central to this process.

Essential to Empowering an individual comprises a number of elements. A big part of this is "Access to Information". Information is power...it Empowers an individual. Let's use government for example. Two-way information flows from government to citizens and from citizens to government...a critical factor for responsible citizenship and responsible governing. Informed citizens are better enabled to take advantage of opportunities, access services, exercise their rights, negotiate effectively, and hold state and non-state actors accountable. Without effective, timely, relevant information, it is impossible for the common people to be heard and proactive. Information does not stop with documents in print such as blogs, but it expands to include debate, group discourse, self-help groups, culturally effective types of communication such as the media, internet, as well as local news delivered in the language most understood by local individuals. Timeless access to information at the local level is key to Empowering individuals, allowing them to realize that they matter...they are important...they are Empowered...

"Inclusion and Participation" is an Empowering approach that views individuals as co-producers in the decision making process, giving them autonomy and control over decisions and resources. At the local level, especially in environments where individuals may likely have lower self-esteem due to cultural barriers, especially in uneducated and impoverished areas, including these individuals in the priority and decision making process not only Empowers them, but helps insure that local resources are amassed to assist as needed. A sustained effort to proactively include these individuals on a more permanent basis usually demands that rules and regulations, evolves in an appropriate fashion for the culture and local train of thought. This does not mean that we must lower our standards, but rather use the
3-E's... "Examine,Educate, and Empower". Priority decision making is not always harmonious and priorities may be contested, so conflict resolution mechanisms need to come into play to manage disagreements.

Sustaining these types of evolving changes whereby lower chaste individuals become involved on a more permanent basis where there have long been a sense of exclusion or conflict, is a complex process that requires resources, facilitation, and the willingness to change. The tendency is to revert back to a more centralized control, rather than having confidence in local people to be proactive and Empowered.

Accountability, always a cornerstone of Empowerment, refers to the calling of individuals in charge to be held to a certain standard, and that they be answerable for their policies and actions. A range of options exist to ensure greater accounting to individuals for actions and outcomes. Access to information Empowers individuals to hold "those in power" to being accountable for their actions. Accountability relates directly to responsible control, being fiscally conservative, insuring that goals are attainable, and that actions are delegated appropriately so that attention is paid to all details. When these all come into play, not only are each individual(s), but also the groups are Empowered.

Since the beginning of time, individuals, groups, and communities have organized to take care of themselves. Local organizational capacity refers to the ability of people to work together, organize themselves, and mobilize resources to solve problems of common interest. As individuals organize into groups and communities, they become Empowered and confident. Organized communities are more often likely to have their voices heard and their demands met than communities with little organization. People of lower economic status maybe effective in survival needs, but more often than not they will be constrained by limited resources and technical knowledge. When groups cross cultural barriers and network together, they truly benefit each other and become more Empowered. Knowledge is expanded, needs are better met, self-esteem improves, and individuals as well as groups realize that collectively, they are stronger, better educated, have an improved economic status. They are truly Empowered!