EVALUATION BRIEF The effects of economic development on women's empowerment and gender equality goals (original) (raw)
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Development and Change Journal, 2024
This article examines the prevailing assumption by donors that connecting smallholder women to value chains will close the gender gap and empower women. Based on a case study of a programme that seeks to empower women through their integration into value chains in Vietnam, the article assesses women's empowerment across four dimensions: economic, psychological, social and political. The authors argue that women's engagement in value chains does not always financially benefit and empower women because patriarchal power structures within families, communities and businesses make it challenging for women to gain authority over production decisions in higher-value crops. Women in the study gained more autonomy over 'women's crops' which yielded small incomes, while men had control over production that was seen as 'men's work', and in large-scale and more lucrative production. Gendered power relations affect women's access to economic opportunities: in this context, development agencies should reconsider their approaches to women's economic empowerment by focusing on relational rather than individual empowerment. This means that women's economic empowerment programmes should involve both men and women, with targeted interventions ensuring women are empowered within the household and in their connections with the community, local authorities and businesses.
Indonesia’s new Village Law states that its implementation should emphasise community empowerment and participation, rather than simply fund distribution. The empowerment and participation principles are important for identifying and addressing the basic services that are most needed by villagers, including women and marginalised groups. The empowerment and participation principles are embedded from the National Programme for Community Empowerment (PNPM), a community-driven development programme that was implemented for more than ten years in more than 60,000 villages in Indonesia. However, in two years of implementation of the new law, the practice of those principles is still questionable, especially in addressing the needs of women and marginalised groups. This dissertation examines the impact of women’s empowerment initiatives in PNPM, as well as the current role and involvement of women in the development of four communities in Indonesia. It does so by looking at the perceptions of and actual practice of women’s empowerment and participation in village development and formal political structures. The research also analyses the contributing factors that influence women’s empowerment in the villages. The reality check approach methodology is applied to shed light on the actual practice of women’s involvement in village development by living with and listening to different groups of women and their families and relatives. Semi-structured interviews and a quantitative survey were also conducted to triangulate the findings. The findings were then analysed using the women’s empowerment framework by Sara Longwe (March et al., 1999), which argues that women’s development will be achieved through five levels of empowerment, which are welfare, access, conscientisation, participation and control. It finds that women’ empowerment is slowly progressing, pushed by affirmative actions from programmes like PNPM, levels of education as well as work and organisational experiences. However, the strong perception of the people on differentiation of women’s and men’s role in development strongly affects the achievement of women’s empowerment. The research particularly highlighted the important role played by the PKK, a state-led women’s organisation established by the New Order regime on the 1970s, which is still very strongly institutionalised at village level. Findings show that these older village governance structures are still highly influential on women’s empowerment in the villages that have not been changed much by the PNPM programme. This dissertation has implications for all village development interventions, especially those related to the inclusion of women. The study concludes by considering whether there is a possibility of engaging with and transforming the PKK’s role so that it becomes an agent of women’s empowerment in the village law implementation.
Empowering women through income-generating projects: Evidence from Indonesia
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT JOURNAL, 2002
Most feminists believe that income generating projects are a practical solution to empowering women and one of the strategies to strengthen women's positions (Overholt et al., 1991). Involving women in a project, therefore, should be an important policy for government and development organisations because women as actors, rather than victims, can drastically change their own lives. According to Gionetten et al.(1994), women not only manage economic activities better than men, but also use the economic resources more ...
PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences
Foreign aid has the nature of 'elegant power', which enables donors' intervention. This paper argues that this nature and development interventions have influenced perceptions of women beneficiaries on empowerment. Efforts to empower women have been conducted with various approaches. However, not much has been said about how development projects influence women beneficiaries' perceptions on empowerment, including limited awareness on empowerment due to the approach of development project and dependence on external intervention. The paper looks at a case study on Restoring Coastal Livelihoods (RCL) Project of Oxfam (2010-2015) in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The research applied qualitative research techniques using semistructured interviews and document reviews in the project area, and participant observation in Pangkajene Kepulauan District, one of the four districts covered under the project. The PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences ISSN 2454-5899 Available Online at: http://grdspublishing.org/ 438 institutional ethnographic analysis in this research reveals that women beneficiaries perceive empowerment mostly based on their experiences in the project. However, the degree of empowerment is relative to types of women's engagement in public spheres, men and women understanding of gender relations and equality, and nature of activities. The paper further argues that efforts to empower women tend to rely on external intervention to facilitate the process and to deal with existing dynamics of power relations. Finally, the paper underlines that empowerment depends highly on women's personal knowledge, critical awareness, choice, willingness, and commitment. This research is crucial to contribute to gender and development studies as it highlights the multidimensional and multilayered aspect of aid relations and women's empowerment.
Jurnal Ilmiah Ilmu Administrasi Publik, 2020
ABSTRACTThis research is intended to analyze and describe the Socio-Economic Impact of the Ikat Weaving Women's Group Empowerment Program in Letmaffo Village, Insana Tengah District, North Central Timor Regency. To answer this problem, it is supported by various theories that have relevance to the research phenomenon. This research is a qualitative study using the Milles and Huberman data analysis technique. The results of the study explain that the socio-economic impact on the weaving empowerment group also faces many obstacles, namely related to indicators of increasing household economy, this has not been going well because the economic income of group members has even decreased due to low productivity results and low prices woven fabrics in the market, another obstacle is the indicator of the development of the group's economic structure on this indicator, the goal is that this group of weaving ties must have a market place or place to market productivity results but thi...
Ecofeminism, or ecological feminism, is based on a belief that the social mentality that leads to the domination and oppression of women is directly connected to the social mentality that leads to the abuse of the natural environment . This paper, based on field assessments conducted from March – June 2013, will show that agricultural development models focused on income generation, as most of the women in agriculture projects are, simplify complex issues into pure economics without touching upon the root problems both men and women face in Indonesia’s agriculture sector. The “gender strategies” used to reach project goals disempower women as they also encourage the systematic domination of industry over smallholder farmers, and export commodities over food security. In conclusion, these combined “strategies” are leading to the degradation of rural, agricultural families and rural ecology in Indonesia.
2014
Ecofeminism, or ecological feminism, is based on a belief that the social mentality that leads to the domination and oppression of women is directly connected to the social mentality that leads to the abuse of the natural environment1. This paper, based on field assessments conducted from March–June 2013, will show that agricultural development models focused on income generation, as most of the women in agriculture projects are, are based on “gender strategies” that instrumentalize women to achieve productivity goals. These ideological hierarchies that instrumentalize women, also allow for the systematic domination of industry over smallholder farmers, and commodities over food security. In conclusion, these combined “strategies” are leading to the degradation of both rural, agricultural families and rural ecology in Indonesia.
Strategies for Women’s Empowerment in Household Industries in the Province of South Sulawesi
Review of Behavioral Aspect in Organizations and Society
The study was conducted in 4 districts or cities in the province of South Sulawesi, namely Takalar, Maros, Gowa, and Barru. The locations were deliberately chosen with the consideration that they are the potential development areas for women working in product diversification processed in domestic processing industries. The study had been carried out for six (6) months, from May 2019 to October 2019. The subjects of the study were 50 groups of women in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The data was analyzed by using the analysis of excellence, analysis of R/C ratio, and SWOT analysis. The results of the study showed that the level of financial feasibility of the women groups in product diversification processed in domestic processing industries needed to be developed. Therefore, strategies that can be applied for women’s empowerment are: increasing work motivation and skills to support the sustainability of the production, improving product quality and quantity to access broad ma...
This thesis argues that international development interventions influence the way women perceive empowerment. It does so by looking at aid relationships and the relevance of development interventions. It involves a case study of Oxfam’s Restoring Coastal Livelihoods Project (2010-2015) in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Efforts to empower women have been channeled through various approaches. However, little has been said about the practice of aid relations within projects and how aid relations work through the ‘aid chain’ and influence women’s perceptions of empowerment. Also, there has not been much said about how, in the intersectionality of aid relationships, women make ‘empowerment’ their own, appropriate it, transform it, adapt it to their stories and needs through their active engagement in projects. The qualitative research which involved a five-month period of ethnographic research found that women beneficiaries perceived empowerment mostly based on their experiences in the pro...