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Drs 255 disability and livelihood notes on empowerment, etc
1. 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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2. 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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3. 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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4. 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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5. 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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6. 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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7. (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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8. 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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9. 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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10. 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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11. 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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12. 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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13. 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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14. 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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15. 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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16. 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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17. 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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18. 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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19. 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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20. 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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21. 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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22. 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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23. 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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24. 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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25. 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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26. 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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27. 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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28. 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.
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