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DRS 255 DISABILITY AND LIVELIHOOD

TOPIC ONE

THEORIES AROUND ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT AND WEALTH CREATION,

EMPLOYMENT LEGISLATION, HOW TO SET UP SELF-HELP GROUP AND

INCOME GENERATION, SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOOD

DEFINITION OF EMPOWERMENT

Empowerment refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social, educational, gender, or

economic strength of individuals and communities. The term empowerment covers a vast

landscape of meanings, interpretations, definitions and disciplines ranging from psychology and

philosophy to the highly commercialized self-help industry and motivational sciences.

Sociological empowerment often addresses members of groups that social discrimination

processes have excluded from decision-making processes through - for example - discrimination

based on disability, race, ethnicity, religion, or gender. Empowerment as a methodology is often

associated with feminism.

Sometimes groups are marginalized by society at large, but governments are often unwitting or

enthusiastic participants. For example, the U.S. government marginalized cultural minorities,

particularly blacks, prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This Act made it illegal to restrict

access to schools and public places based on race. Equal opportunity laws which actively oppose

such marginalization, allow increased empowerment to occur. They are also a symptom of

minorities' and women's empowerment through lobbying. Another eg is the Disability Act

passed in 2008/2009. Also, the free education policy for the North.

Marginalized people who lack self-sufficiency become, at a minimum, dependent on charity, or

welfare. They lose their self-confidence because they cannot be fully self-supporting. The

opportunities denied them also deprive them of the pride of accomplishment which others, who

have those opportunities, can develop for themselves. This in turn can lead to psychological,

social and even mental health problems.

Empowerment is then the process of obtaining these basic opportunities for marginalized people,

either directly by those people, or through the help of non-marginalized others who share their

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own access to these opportunities. It also includes actively thwarting attempts to deny those

opportunities. Empowerment also includes encouraging, and developing the skills for, self-

sufficiency, with a focus on eliminating the future need for charity or welfare in the individuals

of the group. This process can be difficult to start and to implement effectively, but there are

many examples of empowerment projects which have succeeded.

One empowerment strategy is to assist marginalized people to create their own nonprofit

organization, using the rationale that only the marginalized people, themselves, can know what

their own people need most, and that control of the organization by outsiders can actually help to

further entrench marginalization.

Women Empowerment

Empowerment of women, also called gender empowerment, has become a significant topic of

discussion with regards to development and economics. Nations all over the world, businesses,

communities, and groups can benefit from the implementation of programs and policies that

adopt the notion of women empowerment. Empowerment is one of the main procedural concerns

when addressing human rights and development. The Human Development and Capabilities

Approach, The Millennium Development Goals, and other credible approaches/goals point to

empowerment and participation as a necessary step if a country is to overcome the obstacles

associated with poverty and development.

Measuring Gender Empowerment

Gender empowerment can be measured through the Gender Empowerment Measure, or the

GEM. The GEM shows women’s participation in a given nation, both politically and

economically. Gem is calculated by tracking “the share of seats in parliament held by women; of

female legislators, senior officials and managers; and of female profession and technical

workers; and the gender disparity in earned income, reflecting economic independence. “It then

ranks countries given this information. Other measures that take into account the importance of

female participation and equality include: the Gender Parity Index and the Gender-related

Development Index (GDI).

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Ways to Empower Women

One way to deploy the empowerment of women is through land rights. Land rights offer a key

way to economically empower women, giving them the confidence they need to tackle gender

inequalities. Often, women in developing nations are legally restricted from their land on the sole

basis of gender. Having a right to their land gives women a sort of bargaining power that they

wouldn’t normally have, in turn; they gain the ability to assert themselves in various aspects of

their life, both in and outside of the home.

Another way to provide women empowerment is to allocate responsibilities to them that

normally belong to men. When women have economic empowerment, it is a way for others to

see them as equal members of society. Through this, they achieve more self-respect and

confidence by their contributions to their communities. Simply including women as a part of a

community can have sweeping positive effects. In a study conducted by Bina Agarwal, (a prize-

winning development economist and Director and Professor of Economics at the Institute of

Economic Growth in Delhi), women were given a place in a forest conservation group. Not only

did this drive up the efficiency of the group, but the women gained incredible self-esteem while

others, including men, viewed them with more respect. (Women’s group in Kenya – Honey

Care Africa).

Participation, which can be seen and gained in a variety of ways, has been argued to be the most

beneficial form of gender empowerment. Political participation, be it the ability to vote and voice

opinions, or the ability to run for office with a fair chance of being elected, plays a huge role in

the empowerment of peoples. However, participation is not limited to the realm of politics. It

can include participation in the household, in schools, and the ability to make choices for one’s

self. It can be said that these latter participations need to be achieved before one can move onto

broader political participation.

When a woman has the agency to do what she wants, a higher equality between men and women

is established. It is argued that Microcredit also offers a way to provide empowerment for

women. Governments, organizations, and individuals have caught hold of the lure of

microfinance. They hope that lending money and credit allows women to function in business

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and society, which in turn empowers them to do more in their communities. One of the primary

goals in the foundation of microfinance was women empowerment. Loans with low interest rates

are given to women in developing communities in hopes that they can start a small business and

provide for her family. It should be said, however, that the success and efficiency of microcredit

and microloans is controversial and constantly debated. Example, Prof. Mohammed Yunus.

Economic Benefits of Women Empowerment

Most women across the globe rely on the informal work sector for an income. If women were

empowered to do more and be more, the possibility for economic growth becomes apparent.

Eliminating a significant part of a nation’s work force on the sole basis of gender can have

detrimental effects on the economy of that nation. In addition, female participation in counsels,

groups, and businesses is seen to increase efficiency. For a general idea on how an empowered

woman can impact a situation monetarily, a study found that of fortune 500 companies, “those

with more women board directors had significantly higher financial returns, including 53 percent

higher returns on equity, 24 percent higher returns on sales and 67 percent higher returns on

invested capital (OECD, 2008).” This study shows the impact women can have on the overall

economic benefits of a company. If implemented on a global scale, the inclusion of women in the

formal workforce (like a fortune 500 company) can increase the economic output of a nation.

According to Rae Lesser Blumberg of the University of Virginia and University of California,

San Diego in her theories on gender stratification and gender and development, she posits that

women’s economic power relative to men, at “nested” levels ranging from the couple to the

state, is the most important of the many factors affecting the level of gender stratification in a

given society/human group at a given point in history, geography or social structure.

In other words, enhanced female economic power is proposed as the prime factor in

reducing gender inequality. Here are some of the hypothesized outcomes of women’s

economic empowerment.

1. Increased income controlled by women gives them:

a. Self-confidence, which helps them to obtain

b. “Voice and vote” in household decisions, such as:

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i. Domestic well-being decisions (women tend to use income clout for more

equitable decisions about sons and daughters’ diet, education and health);

ii. Economic decisions (acquiring, allocating, and selling/alienating assets);

iii. Fertility decisions (most women use their income clout to lower it)

iv. Land use and conservation decisions (rural women tend to favor

sustainable practices since they usually bring the water and firewood,

which takes more time and effort in degraded environments).

Indeed, Weller’s 1968 study in Puerto Rico found that one of the first things women did when

they began to earn their own income was to begin to practice (female) contraception; see also

United Nations 1987 for an overview of World Fertility Survey findings in over three dozen

countries.

c. Control of their “life options” These are aspects of one’s destiny that exist in all human

societies (e.g., marriage, divorce, sexuality, fertility patterns, freedom of movement).

Women’s freedom and control vis-à-vis these options (relative to males), however,

depends not only on their relative economic power but also on the macro-level legal

system and overarching gender norms for their group. These may respond more slowly

to growing female economic empowerment. The life option of fertility may be the

single most important determinant of a female’s life prospects (for example, how many

women readers/listeners would have achieved their present positions if they had begun

having babies in their mid-teens at the 24-27 month average spacing interval that the

Pan American Health Organization found prevalent among non-contraception women

in Guatemala and other Latin American countries?). But other key “life options”

include:

i. “Voice and vote” in marriage (whether, when and with whom), and

ii. Relative freedom of movement.

Further, >economic power also leads to:

d. >Influence by women (often indirect) in community affairs.

2. Moreover, men and women tend to spend income under their control differently, with

important micro and macro level effects:

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a. Women tend to hold back less for themselves and devote income more single-mindedly to

children’s nutrition, health and education, i.e., increasing their human capital;

b. Women tend to spend their income more even-handedly on both daughters and sons’

improved diets, survival, health and education;

c. Therefore, projects that channel income to women as well as men receive a “synergy

bonus” (Blumberg 1989a) of enhanced human capital as well as economic impact.

d. Conversely, when projects reduce women’s relative income (e.g., by expecting them to do

the work but giving the resulting income to their husbands), their position tends to drop

faster than it rises with increased income, often reducing family welfare apace. This also

may lead to the failure of the development project as women turn to sabotage, or to other

income sources they can control (Carloni 1987; Blumberg 1988).

e. An additional caveat is that one gets more power from surplus income than from trying to

stretch insufficient funds to cover bare subsistence: one has more freedom in allocating

surplus. This implies that the “synergy bonus” of female-controlled income is even

bigger if it can be raised above “mere subsistence.”

3. Furthermore, greater female economic power also enhances the “wealth and well-being of

nations” (Blumberg 1989a). It does so for at least two reasons:

a. Women who control their own income tend to have fewer children and the fertility rate is

inversely related to national income growth (Hess 1988);

b. They also are able – and generally more willing than male counterparts – to send daughters

as well as sons to school, even when they earn less than those men (see Blumberg et al.

1992; Blumberg 1993).

c. In turn, the benefits of female education are enormously positive and affect the whole

society (King and Mason 2001). These benefits include (Blumberg 1989a):

(i) >age of marriage;

(ii) >contraception;

(iii) <fertility (e.g., as measured by the Total Fertility Rate, TFR);

(iv) <infant/child mortality;

(v) >female paid modern sector employment, and

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(vi) >female earnings (which results in >education of daughters and sons, i.e., a

“virtuous circle”).

d. In point of fact, almost all the benefits of educating girls are associated with lower fertility,

over and above the direct link specified above (iii). Specifically, a later age of marriage

lengthens generations, cutting the rate of population increase. Higher rates of

contraceptive usage translate into lower fertility. So, too, do lower rates of infant and

child mortality. And both paid modern sector employment and higher earnings for

women are closely linked to their having fewer children. In sum, economically

empowered females promoting their daughters’ education comprise another “multiplier

effect” that enhances development and national income growth, while freeing these

daughters from a bleak future as ignorant “baby-making machines.”

e. Development policy makers are aware of the benefits of girls’ education. That’s why they

have chosen elimination of the gender gap in schooling as the target for the third

Millennium Development Goal (MDG), which is to “promote gender equality and

empower women.”

d. Conversely, when projects reduce women’s relative income (e.g., by expecting them to do

the work but giving the resulting income to their husbands), their position tends to drop

faster than it rises with increased income, often reducing family welfare apace. This also

may lead to the failure of the development project as women turn to sabotage, or to other

income sources they can control (Carloni 1987; Blumberg 1988).

e. An additional caveat is that one gets more power from surplus income than from trying to

stretch insufficient funds to cover bare subsistence: one has more freedom in allocating

surplus. This implies that the “synergy bonus” of female-controlled income is even

bigger if it can be raised above “mere subsistence.”

3. Furthermore, greater female economic power also enhances the “wealth and well-being of

nations” (Blumberg 1989a). It does so for at least two reasons:

a. Women who control their own income tend to have fewer children and the fertility rate is

inversely related to national income growth (Hess 1988);

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b. They also are able – and generally more willing than male counterparts – to send daughters

as well as sons to school, even when they earn less than those men (see Blumberg et al.

1992; Blumberg 1993).

c. In turn, the benefits of female education are enormously positive and affect the whole

society (King and Mason 2001). These benefits include (Blumberg 1989a):

(i) >age of marriage;

(ii) >contraception;

(iii) <fertility (e.g., as measured by the Total Fertility Rate, TFR);

(iv) <infant/child mortality;

(v) >female paid modern sector employment, and

Barriers of Women Empowerment

Many of the barriers to women empowerment and equity lie ingrained into the cultures of certain

nations and societies. Many women feel these pressures, while others have become accustomed

to being treated inferior to men. Even if men, legislators, NGOs, etc. are aware of the benefits

women empowerment and participation can have, many are scared of disrupting the status quo

and continue to let societal norms get in the way of development.

The process of empowerment

This is the process which enables individuals or groups to fully access personal or collective

power, authority and influence, and to employ that strength when engaging with other people,

institutions or society. In other words, “Empowerment is not giving people power; people

already have plenty of power, in the wealth of their knowledge and motivation, to do their jobs

magnificently. We define empowerment as letting this power out (Blanchard, K)." It encourages

people to gain the skills and knowledge that will allow them to overcome obstacles in life or

work environment and ultimately, help them develop within themselves or in the society.

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To empower a female "...sounds as though we are dismissing or ignoring males, but the truth is,

both genders desperately need to be equally empowered." (Dr. Asa Don Brown) Empowerment

occurs through improvement of conditions, standards, events, and a global perspective of life.

Empowerment may also have a negative impact on individuals, corporations and productivity

depending on an individual’s views and goals. It can divide the genders or the races. Strong skills

and critical capabilities are often held back to open doors for those who meet the empowerment

criteria. Those who use empowerment as a selfish advantage tend to become difficult, demeaning

and even hostile colleagues. The end result is a weak business model.

Empowerment includes the following, or similar, capabilities:-

The ability to make decisions about personal/collective circumstances

The ability to access information and resources for decision-making

Ability to consider a range of options from which to choose (not just yes/no, either/or.)

Ability to exercise assertiveness in collective decision making

Having positive-thinking about the ability to make change

Ability to learn and access skills for improving personal/collective circumstance.

Ability to inform others’ perceptions through exchange, education and engagement.

Involving in the growth process and changes that is never ending and self-initiated

Increasing one's positive self-image and overcoming stigma

Increasing one's ability in discreet thinking to sort out right and wrong

Workplace Empowerment

Empowerment of employees in the work place provides them with opportunities to make their

own decisions with regards to their tasks. Nowadays more and more bosses and managers are

practicing the concept of empowerment among their subordinates to provide them with better

opportunities. According to Thomas A. Potterfield, many organizational theorists and

practitioners regard employee empowerment as one of the most important and popular

management concepts of our time. Companies ranging from small to large and from low-

technology manufacturing concerns to high-tech software firms have been initiating

empowerment programs in attempts to enhance employee motivation, increase efficiency, and

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gain competitive advantages in the turbulent contemporary business environment. Ciulla

discusses an inverse case: that of bogus empowerment.

Empowerment in Management

In the book Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute, the authors, Ken Blanchard, John P.

Carlos, and Alan Randolph, illustrate three keys that organizations can use to open the

knowledge, experience, and motivation power that people already have. The three keys that

managers must use to empower their employees are:

1. share information with everyone

2. create autonomy through boundaries

3. replace the old hierarchy with self-managed teams

According to author Stewart, in her book Empowering People she describes that in order to

guarantee a successful work environment, managers need to exercise the “right kind of

authority”. To summarize, “empowerment is simply the effective use of a manager’s authority”,

and subsequently, it is a productive way to maximize all-around work efficiency.

Share information with everyone – this is the first key to empowering people within an

organization. By sharing information with everyone, one gives them a clear picture of the

company and its current situation. This fosters trust; by allowing all of the employees to view the

company information, it helps to build that trust between employer and employee.

Create autonomy through boundaries – this is the second key to empowerment which also

builds upon the previous one. By opening communication through sharing information, it opens

up the feedback about what is holding them back from being empowered.

Replace the old hierarchy with self-managed teams – this is the third and final key to

empowerment which ties them all together. By replacing the old hierarchy with self-managed

teams, more responsibility is placed upon unique and self-managed teams which create better

communication and productivity.

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These keys are hard to put into place and it is a journey to achieve empowerment in a workplace.

It is important to train employees and make sure they have trust in what empowerment will bring

to a company.

In economic development, the empowerment approach focuses on mobilizing the self-help

efforts of the poor, rather than providing them with social welfare. Economic empowerment is

also the empowering of previously disadvantaged sections of the population, for example, in

many previously colonized African countries.

THE GEOGRAPHY OF WEALTH AND POVERTY

Today poor people form a majority of the world’s population. This has always been the case. The

rich get richer; the poor get poorer and have more children. In the 21st century, however, a

number of countries are wealthy for the first time in history. The global disparity between the

rich and the poor is rapidly becoming the central issue of our time. The rich nations - those of the

Technological World - are interested in maintaining political stability, the present world

economic system, technological superiority, and high standards of living. For them, international

conferences, foreign aid, trade and political or military intervention in minor global disturbances

are primarily methods of maintaining the status quo. In each country, policies are forged to

sustain supplies of food, fuel, and income to provide citizens with levels of physical well-being

that were attained only by royalty in the past.

In the poorer nations - those of the Developing World - leaders strive to carve out a new place in

the world economic system and to acquire the technology and skills needed to raise standards of

living. Changing, not maintaining, the status quo is their central interest. In such countries,

progress is measured in increases in caloric consumption, lower infant mortality rates, miles of

roadway constructed, and gains in gross national product (GNP). Local policies of birth control,

land reform, agrarian change, and education engage virtually everyone on a personal and private

level. The scientific transformation has left only the most remote and isolated communities

unaffected.

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In every country in the world, policies and programs are designed to fit local value and ideology.

The Chinese, the Indians, the states of Africa the Middle East, and Latin America – all face

development and modernization within the context of their own histories, economies and

societies. Similarly, Western Europe, Japan, the USSR, and the United States-all integrate

science and technology differently within their own national systems. At a more general level,

however, the countries of the Developing World possess one set of characteristic; those of the

Technological World yet another.

The gap between these two worlds is awesome, and pressure is growing to distribute global

wealth in a more equitable way. The issues are poverty, hunger, transfer for technology, and

redistribution of wealth. Currently the United States consumes 60 percent of the world’s

resources and is by far the richest country on earth and overall has the World’s Technological

and industrial capacity. By contrast, Africa, Asia, and Latin America contain three quarters of the

world’s people but produce only 20 percent of its wealth. On these continents, raw materials

represent 85 percent of all exports. Given these figures, Robert McNamara, former president of

the World Bank, states that despite a quarter century of change and progress in the developing

world, some 800 million individuals continue to be trapped in absolute poverty “a condition of

life so characterize by malnutrition, illiteracy disease, squalid surroundings, high infant mortality

and low life expectancy as to be beneath any reasonable definition of human decency.”

THE RICH AND THE POOR

During the last thirty years or more, poverty and wealth have retained roughly the same world

distribution. In spite of intensive national programs of economic and social development and

substantial levels of international aid, the rich nations have grown progressively richer, the poor

relatively poorer. The income gap between the two worlds continues to widen.

The sources of poverty vary. In India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, population growth appears to

be the critical variable. In North Africa and parts of the Middle East, aridity retards the

development of resources. In central Africa, the legacy of colonialism weighs heavy. In South

America, control of the physical environment is inadequate. In many countries, political

leadership is corrupt and repressive. Whatever the specific cause, poverty is now a persistent and

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pervasive feature of human life in the Developing World. Few expects think this condition will

change soon. (What are the causes of poverty in West Africa and Ghana in Particular?)

WEALTH CREATION

Wealth is the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions. The word wealth is

derived from the old English word weal, which is from an Indo-European word stem. An

individual, community, region or country that possesses an abundance of such possessions or

resources is known as wealthy.

The concept of wealth is of significance in all areas of economics, and clearly so for growth

economics and development economics. Yet the meaning of wealth is context-dependent and

there is no universally agreed upon definition. At the most general level, economists may define

wealth as "anything of value" which captures both the subjective nature of the idea and the idea

that it is not a fixed or static concept. Various definitions and concepts of wealth have been

asserted by various individuals and in different contexts. Defining wealth can be a normative

process with various ethical implications, since often wealth maximization is seen as a goal.

The United Nations definition of inclusive wealth is a monetary measure which includes the sum

of natural, human and physical assets. Natural capital includes land, forests, fossil fuels, and

minerals. Human capital is the population's education and skills. Physical (or "manufactured")

capital includes such things as machinery, buildings, and infrastructure.

According to Adam Smith, in his seminal work The Wealth of Nations, he described wealth as

"the annual produce of the land and labour of the society". This "produce" is, at its simplest, that

which satisfies human needs and wants of utility. In popular usage, wealth can be described as an

abundance of items of economic value, or the state of controlling or possessing such items,

usually in the form of money, real estate and personal property. An individual who is considered

wealthy, affluent, or rich is someone who has accumulated substantial wealth relative to others in

their society or reference group.

In economics, net wealth refers to the value of assets owned minus the value of liabilities owed

at a point in time. Wealth can be categorized into three principal categories: personal property,

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including homes or automobiles; monetary savings, such as the accumulation of past income;

and the capital wealth of income producing assets, including real estate, stocks, bonds, and

businesses. All these delineations make wealth an especially important part of social

stratification. Wealth provides a type of social safety net of protection against an unforeseen

decline in one’s living standard in the event of job loss or other emergency and can be

transformed into home ownership, business ownership, or even a college education.

'Wealth' refers to some accumulation of resources (net asset value), whether abundant or not.

'Richness' refers to an abundance of such resources (income or flow). A wealthy individual,

community, or nation thus has more accumulated resources (capital) than a poor one. The

opposite of wealth is destitution. The opposite of richness is poverty. The term implies a social

contract on establishing and maintaining ownership in relation to such items which can be

invoked with little or no effort and expense on the part of the owner. The concept of wealth is

relative and not only varies between societies, but varies between different sections or regions in

the same society. A personal net worth of US $10,000 in most parts of the United States would

certainly not place a person among the wealthiest citizens of that locale. However, such an

amount would constitute an extraordinary amount of wealth in impoverished developing

countries.

Concepts of wealth also vary across time. Modern labor-saving inventions and the development

of the sciences have enabled the poorest sectors of today's society to enjoy a standard of living

equivalent if not superior to the wealthy of the not-too-distant past. This comparative wealth

across time is also applicable to the future; given this trend of human advancement, it is likely

that the standard of living that the wealthiest enjoy today will be considered impoverished by

future generations.

Industrialization emphasized the role of technology. Many jobs were automated. Machines

replaced some workers while other workers became more specialized. Labour specialization

became critical to economic success. However, physical capital, as it came to be known,

consisting of both the natural capital and the infrastructural capital, became the focus of the

analysis of wealth.

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Adam Smith saw wealth creation as the combination of materials, labour, land, and technology

in such a way as to capture a profit (excess above the cost of production). The theories of David

Ricardo, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, in the 18th century and 19th century built on these views

of wealth that we now call classical economics.

WEALTH AND SOCIAL CLASS

Social class is not identical to wealth, but the two concepts are related (particularly in Marxist

theory), leading to the combined concept of Socioeconomic status. Partly as a result of different

economic conditions of life, members of different social classes often have different value

systems and view the world in different ways. As such, there exist different "conceptions of

social reality, different aspirations and hopes and fears, different conceptions of the desirable."

The way the various social classes in society view wealth vary and these diverse characteristics

are a fundamental dividing line among the classes. According to Richard H Ropers, the

concentration of wealth in the United States is inequitably distributed. In 1996, the United States

federal government reported that the net worth of the top 1 percent of people in the United States

was approximately equal to that of the bottom 90 percent.

The Upper Class

Upper class values include higher education, and the wealthiest people the accumulation and

maintenance of wealth, the maintenance of social networks and the power that accompanies such

networks. Children of the upper class are typically schooled on how to manage this power and

channel this privilege in different forms. It is in large part by accessing various edifices of

information associates, procedures and auspices that the upper class is able to maintain their

wealth and pass it to future generations.

The Middle Class

The middle class places a greater emphasis on income. The middle class views wealth as

something for emergencies and it is seen as more of a cushion. This class comprises people that

were raised with families that typically owned their own home, planned ahead and stressed the

importance of education and achievement. They earn a significant amount of income and also

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have significant amounts of consumption. However there is very limited savings (deferred

consumption) or investments, besides retirement pensions and homeownership. They have been

socialized to accumulate wealth through structured, institutionalized arrangements. Without this

set structure, asset accumulation would likely not occur.

The Lower Class

Those with the least amount of wealth are the poor. Wealth accumulation for this class is to some

extent prohibited. People that receive AFDC transfers cannot own more than a trivial amount of

assets, in order to be eligible and remain qualified for income transfers. Most of the institutions

that the poor encounter discourage any accumulation of assets.

THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY

Industrialization emphasized the role of technology. Many jobs were automated. Machines

replaced some workers while other workers became more specialized. Labour specialization

became critical to economic success. However, physical capital, as it came to be known,

consisting of both the natural capital (raw materials from nature) and the infrastructural capital

(facilitating technology), became the focus of the analysis of wealth.

ASSIGNMENT: Discuss your understanding of the role of Technology in Wealth Creation

in the contemporary world.

SETTING UP A SELF-HELP GROUP

There are many different reasons why a group can be started, and many different legal structures for you

to choose from. It's worth thinking about what kind of group you want to have, as this may affect the

order in which you do things. For example: Prof. Mohammad Yunus’s story on Micro Finance/Micro

Credit

There may be a proposed development in your neighbourhood which many people feel

strongly about

You may have had a good idea and need some more people to help make it happen

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You may want to meet up with other people who have had similar experiences to yours,

so that you can offer each other friendship, support and advice

You may want to give an existing group a recognized structure in order to attract funding

What's the first step?

Just as there are many different reasons to form a group, there are many different types of groups

you could set up. It's worth thinking about what kind of group you imagine it will be, as this may

affect the order you do things in.

For example, if you are planning to set up a charitable trust to run an Arts projects in the

community, you will want to give some thought to the aims and structure of the group before you

invite others to join you, so that you can be clear about what you are asking them to do.

Though you may do these things in a different order depending on the type of group you are

setting up, most new groups will need to:

Hold an initial meeting

Agree the aims of the group

Write a constitution

Open a bank account

Decide who will do what

Each of these things involves several decisions and activities - here are some ideas and tips to get

you started.

Hold an initial meeting

Here are a few ideas for making your first meeting attractive and interesting:

Publicize it well

The design of your publicity material is important. You need to think about who you are hoping

to attract to the meeting, and make sure your poster or leaflet will catch their eye and give them a

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reason to come along to your meeting. Make sure the date, time and place of the meeting are

clearly shown on the leaflet and that it's very clear what the meeting is about.

If your meeting is going to be a large one, with as many people involved as possible, you will

need to do as much publicity as you can. You could use:

flyers through letterboxes

posters in shop windows or on community noticeboards

leaflets in places where the people you want to reach are likely to go

a letter or advert in a community newsletter

a piece in the local paper

an announcement on the local radio

If your group is going to be quite small, for example a residents' association for a single block of

flats or street, it is worth investing the time to call on people to invite them to the meeting

personally. Even if they don't come, this will give you useful information about whether they

think the group is a good idea and what they want it to do.

Offer an incentive

Not many people enjoy meetings, and for some it is a big effort to arrange childcare or transport,

so it's a good idea to offer an extra attraction. This could simply be free refreshments, or perhaps

a video or speaker about something to do with the group's aims or activity.

Think about the venue and facilities

Is it accessible to everyone? Are there steps or other barriers you should warn people about on

the publicity leaflet? Will you need to put up signs to direct people as they arrive? Would it make

things easier if you had a PA system? Will you need to organize a crèche or offer help with

childcare costs? Might you need a sign language interpreter? If you have a speaker, will they

need a data projector?

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Think about the agenda

The amount of preparation you need to do before the meeting will depend on the type of group it

is, but it's always good to have some idea of what needs to be covered in the meeting.

A typical agenda for an initial meeting would include:

I. Welcome and introductions

II. Aims of the group

III. Name of the group

IV. Plans and ideas (and who will carry them out)

V. Who will do what (responsibilities in general)

VI. Finances

VII. Date and time of the next meeting

If you have called the meeting, people will be expecting you to act as chair. If it's going to be a

large meeting and you are not confident in this role, it may be worth asking someone else to

chair the meeting - perhaps a local councillor, teacher, religious leader or well-known

community figure. But be careful that your choice of chair is not going to cause controversy in

the meeting.

Involve everyone in the discussion

While it's important to appear well-organized, you also want to let people know that their

contribution is needed and valuable, so make sure you don't close off discussion too quickly. The

people who have come along to the meeting are the future members of the group, and you need

to make sure the atmosphere of this meeting is as welcoming and open as possible.

Take minutes

The minutes of your meeting don't have to be very detailed, but they should include a clear note

of any decisions made at the meeting, and in particular who has agreed to take on which jobs. It's

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not easy to chair a meeting and take minutes at the same time, so ask for a volunteer to take notes

at the start of the meeting.

Gather names and addresses

Make sure you take contact details from everyone who wants to be kept in touch with the group -

prepare a sheet in advance which you can pass round the meeting or have on a table at the door.

Set a date for the next meeting

It's worth allowing this sometime in the meeting, so that you can discuss how often you want the

group to meet, whether daytime or evening meetings are best suited to the members of your

group, whether you need to offer childcare or transport to enable people to attend meetings, and

so on.

It's not always possible to agree a meeting date that everyone can make, but it's important to

make sure you aren't always excluding the same people just because you haven't thought about

their needs.

Agree the aims of the group

It's a good idea to talk about the aims of the group at this first meeting, so that everyone is clear

from the start about what the group is for. Make sure someone writes down what the meeting has

agreed and check that everyone is happy with the wording.

Write a constitution

You may want to include your aims in a written constitution, and it's worth inviting a few people

to volunteer to work on this and bring a draft back to the group.

If you are going to apply for grant funding, you will probably need a written constitution, to

show funders that you are an organized group. Unless you are going to be a registered charity or

a limited company, there are no legal rules about what your constitution should say.

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Once you have written and agreed the constitution, however, it becomes the 'governing

document' of your group, and it should set out clearly how you intend to run your group. A good

constitution can help to resolve disputes and enable new members to participate fully in the

running of the group.

Open a bank account

Running any group costs money and it's a good idea to start thinking at the beginning about

where to get it from and how to look after it. As soon as your group has some money, you will

want to give one person responsibility for keeping track of it (the Treasurer).

Having a group bank account is the best way to make sure the group's money is kept safely. All

banks offer special accounts for community groups. You will need to have at least two members

of the group willing to act as signatories. Funders usually require (and it's a sensible precaution

in any case) that you have a bank account where each cheque has to be signed by two people.

Decide who will do what

You may want to elect a committee with named officers (Chair, Secretary, etc), or just share out

the work that needs doing immediately. Either way, everyone needs to know who is doing what,

and when they will report back to the whole group.

How formal?

There is no right or wrong way to run a group - how formal your group will be depends on the

wishes of the people involved and the aims and function of the group. Many groups change their

structure as they develop, so there's no need to get bogged down in legal documents before

you've even got off the ground.

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On the other hand, it's worth giving the structure of your group some thought every now and

then, to make sure you still have a set up that meets the needs of your group.

SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOOD

Introduction

The concept of Sustainable Livelihood (SL) is an attempt to go beyond the conventional

definitions and approaches to poverty eradication. These had been found to be too narrow

because they focused only on certain aspects or manifestations of poverty, such as low income,

or did not consider other vital aspects of poverty such as vulnerability and social exclusion. It is

now recognized that more attention must be paid to the various factors and processes which

either constrain or enhance poor people’s ability to make a living in an economically,

ecologically, and socially sustainable manner. The SL concept offers a more coherent and

integrated approach to poverty.

The sustainable livelihoods idea was first introduced by the Brundtland Commission on

Environment and Development, and the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and

Development expanded the concept, advocating for the achievement of sustainable livelihoods as

a broad goal for poverty eradication.

In 1992 Robert Chambers and Gordon Conway proposed the following composite definition of a

sustainable rural livelihood, which is applied most commonly at the household level:

A livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets (stores, resources, claims and access) and

activities required for a means of living: a livelihood is sustainable which can cope with and

recover from stress and shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, and provide

sustainable livelihood opportunities for the next generation; and which contributes net

benefits to other livelihoods at the local and global levels and in the short and long term.

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Another most important Scholar who contributed immensely to the development of the field of

Sustainable Livelihoods was Dr. Naresh Singh. It is a field in which Dr. Singh became

recognized over the years as a global leader. Early in his work in this field he defined livelihoods

as the activities, assets and entitlements through which people make their living, and he

considered livelihoods as sustainable when they were economically effective, socially

equitable, ecologically sound and resilient i.e. had the capacity to cope with and recover from

shocks and stresses.

He elaborated the assets approach to building more sustainable livelihoods for the poor by

showing that when the design of poverty reduction strategies started with a focus on the assets of

the poor rather than on their needs, the stage can better be set for, self-empowering processes and

more meaningful partnerships. Starting with a needs analysis in the first step, as is the norm, is

more likely to be dis-empowering and to reinforce dependency and donor - recipient

relationships rather than partnerships.

He led the team at UNDP which then elaborated a range of analytic tools and approaches to SL

interventions including in governance, macro-micro linkages in economic investment,

appropriate technology, gender equality, participatory approaches to assets analysis and self -

empowerment etc.

More recently the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) and the British Department for

International Development (DFID) have been putting into operation the SL concept and

approach. Leading proponent Ian Scoones of IDS proposed a modified definition of SL:

A livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets (including both material and social resources)

and activities required for a means of living. A livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with

and recover from stresses and shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, while

not undermining the natural resource base.

This new definition does not include the requirement that for livelihoods to be considered

sustainable they should also ‘…contribute net benefits to other livelihoods’. With some minor

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changes this is also the definition adopted by DFID. The IDS team also outlined a tentative

framework to analyze sustainable rural livelihoods. It has three elements: Livelihood resources,

Livelihood strategies, and Institutional processes and organizational structures. To understand

the complex and differentiated processes through which livelihoods are constructed, Scoones

points out, it is insufficient just to analyze the different aspects; one must also analyze the

institutional processes and organizational structures that link these various elements together. To

do this, it is essential that SL analyses fully involve the local people to let their knowledge,

perceptions, and interests be heard.

THE SL APPROACH TO POVERTY

The various interpretations and elaborations of the SL concept have, in one way or another

inspired a number of development agencies to apply what is now becoming known as an SL

approach to poverty reduction. This has emerged in response to negative experiences with

conventional approaches to poverty reduction, but also as a result of recent findings regarding

the nature and understanding of poverty. Three factors shed light on why the SL approach has

been applied to poverty reduction. The first is the realization that while economic growth may be

essential for poverty reduction, there is no automatic relationship between the two since it all

depends on the capabilities of the poor to take advantage of expanding economic opportunities.

Thus, it is important to find out what precisely it is that prevents or constrains the poor from

improving their lot in a given situation, so that support activities could be designed accordingly.

Secondly, there is the realization that poverty — as conceived by the poor themselves — is not

just a question of low income, but also includes other dimensions such as bad health, illiteracy,

lack of social services, etc., as well as a state of vulnerability and feelings of powerlessness in

general. Moreover, it is now realized that there are important links between different dimensions

of poverty such that improvements in one have positive effects on another. Raising people’s

educational level may have positive effects on their health standards, which in turn may improve

their production capacity. Reducing poor people’s vulnerability in terms of exposure to risk may

increase their propensity to engage in previously untested but more productive economic

activities, and so on.

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Finally, it is now recognized that the poor themselves often know their situation and needs best

and must therefore be involved in the design of policies and projects intended to better their lot.

Given a say in design, they are usually more committed to implementation. Thus, participation

by the poor improves project performance.

There are three insights into poverty which underpin this new approach. The first is the

realization that while economic growth may be essential for poverty reduction, there is not an

automatic relationship between the two since it all depends on the capabilities of the poor to take

advantage of expanding economic opportunities. Secondly, there is the realization that poverty

— as conceived by the poor themselves — is not just a question of low income, but also includes

other dimensions such as bad health, illiteracy, lack of social services, etc., as well as a state of

vulnerability and feelings of powerlessness in general. Finally, it is now recognized that the poor

themselves often know their situation and needs best and must therefore be involved in the

design of policies and project intended to better their lot.

There is no unified approach to applying the SL concept. Depending on the agency it can be used

primarily as an analytical framework (or tool) for programme planning and assessment or as a

programme in itself. There are, however, three basic features common to most approaches. The

first is that the focus is on the livelihoods of the poor. The second is that the approach rejects the

standard procedure of conventional approaches of taking as an entry point a specific sector such

as agriculture, water, or health. And finally, the SL approach places great emphasis on involving

people in both the identification and the implementation of activities where appropriate.

In many ways the SL approach is similar to the old Integrated Rural Development approach. The

crucial difference is that the SL approach does not necessarily aim to address all aspects of the

livelihoods of the poor. The intention is rather to employ a holistic perspective in the analysis of

livelihoods to identify those issues of subject areas where an intervention could be strategically

important for effective poverty reduction, either at the local level or at the policy level.

SL APPROACHES COMPARED: UNDP, CARE, DFID

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These three agencies use the SL approach slightly differently.

UNDP

For UNDP the SL approach serves primarily as a programming framework to devise a set of

integrated support activities to improve the sustainability of livelihoods among poor and

vulnerable groups by strengthening the resilience of their coping and adaptive strategies.

Although this is in principle an open-ended process, certain emphasis is given to the introduction

of improved technologies as well as social and economic investments. Policy and governance

issues as they impinge on people’s livelihoods are addressed. The various support activities are

organized as specific SL programmes, usually implemented at a district level with ramifications

at the community and household level.

CARE

CARE’s organizational mandate as an international NGO is to focus its programmes on helping

the poorest and most vulnerable, either through regular development programmes or through

relief work. Since 1994 CARE has used Household Livelihood Security (HLS) as a framework

for programme analysis, design, monitoring, and evaluation. The concept of HLS derives from

the classic definition of livelihoods developed by Chambers and Conway (1992), which

embodies three fundamental attributes: the possession of human capabilities (such as education,

skills, health, psychological orientation); access to tangible and intangible assets; and the

existence of economic activities. The interaction between these three attributes defines what

livelihood strategy a household will pursue. CARE puts particular emphasis on strengthening the

capability of poor people to enable them to take initiatives to secure their own livelihoods. It

therefore stresses empowerment as a fundamental dimension of its approach.

DFID

In 1997 DFID affirmed its overriding aim of ‘eradicating poverty’.

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One of the three specific objectives designed to achieve this aim is a commitment to ‘policies

and actions that promote sustainable livelihoods’ (Carney et al., 1999). DFID’s definition

follows the one developed by IDS and which in turn is a modified version of the original

definition elaborated by Chambers and Conway.

DFID’s SL approach aims to increase the agency’s effectiveness in poverty reduction in two

main ways: the first is by mainstreaming a set of core principles which determine that poverty-

focused development activity should be people-centred, responsive and participatory, multi-

level, conducted in partnership, sustainable, and dynamic. The second is by applying a holistic

perspective in the programming of support activities, to ensure that these correspond to issues or

areas of direct relevance for improving poor people’s livelihoods. A central element of DFID’s

approach is the SL Framework, an analytical structure to facilitate a broad and systematic

understanding of the various factors that constrain or enhance livelihood opportunities, and to

show how they relate to each other.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF THE SL APPROACH

By drawing attention to the multiplicity of assets that people make use of when constructing their

livelihoods, the SL Approach produces a more holistic view on what resources, or combination

of resources, are important to the poor, including not only physical and natural resources, but

also their social and human capital. The approach also facilitates an understanding of the

underlying causes of poverty by focusing on the variety of factors, at different levels, that

directly or indirectly determine or constrain poor people’s access to resources/assets of different

kinds, and thus their livelihoods.

Finally, it provides a more realistic framework for assessing the direct and indirect effects on

people’s living conditions than, for example, one dimensional productivity or income criteria.

THERE ARE ALSO SOME WEAKNESSES.

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None of the SL Approaches discussed here really deal with the issue of how to identify the poor

that you are trying to assist. Also, the way resources and other livelihood opportunities are

distributed locally are often influenced by informal structures of social dominance and power

within the communities themselves. UNDP and CARE do not address this issue, but DFID

includes power relations as one aspect of ‘transforming processes’ to be examined. Gender is an

aspect of social relations and to the extent that relations between men and women are

characterized by marked inequality and social domination, they obviously form part of the

problem. All three agencies give at least some consideration to gender, but the difficulties of

genuinely giving the appropriate time and space to women is not really addressed.

The basic idea of the SL approach is to start with a broad and open-ended analysis, but this

requires a highly flexible planning situation which rarely exists. The best hope is to ensure that

already identified/decided sector development initiatives fit with people’s livelihood strategies

and make them better at responding to the constraints and opportunities affecting the poor.

The SL approach, or elements of it, could usefully be employed to that end.

Finally, the SL approach, if applied consistently, might be beyond the practical realities of many

local development administrations, with the risk that this approach remains an initiative of

donors and their consultants. One measure to counteract this would be to ensure that counterpart

staff are involved from the beginning when discussing how and if such a strategy should be

applied, and to train them to use the approach, and/or start with a simplified version of the

approach.