A MODEL OF EMPOWERMENT

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A MODEL OF EMPOWERMENT

• KHALID EL HARIZI

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Overview

• Background
• Research Objectives
• Model
• Discussion Part 1
• Applications
• Synthesis
• Discussion Part 2

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Background

• Failure of Policy Reforms
• Volatility
• Institutions Matter
• Political Processes and Economic Performance

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What Do We Need to Know?

• Central Question What Policy and Institutional
  Environment Would Empower the Rural Poor to Get
  out of Poverty?
• Application Devolution of Natural Resource
  Management to Territorial Communities
• 3 Case Studies Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia

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Dealing with Complexity

• Change challenges States, Private Sector and
  Civil Society capacities to redefine or reinvent
  their respective roles and vision of the future.
• Volatility could be understood as a pattern of
  change in Transition Developing Countries
• Empowerment as an emerging quality of an
  Inclusive Development Process

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From Participation to Empowerment

• State-driven versus participatory development
• Slow adoption and institutionalization of
  participatory approaches
• World Bank Formula of Empowerment
• E Participation Improved Governance

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A MODEL OF EMPOWERMENT

• Agency
• Definition of Empowerment
• Proposed Model
• Levels of Analysis
• Devolution

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Agency

• Agent as an open system of decision-making
• Capability to pursue self-defined objectives
  according to upheld values
• Concept of Capability a measure of freedom of
  choice

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Alternative Definition of Empowerment

• Empowerment is the capacity of an entity, be it
  an individual or a group, to act as an agent of
  change.
• Empowerment involves an expansion in an agents
  capabilities

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How are agent empowered ?

• Main hypothesis Gap between expected and actual
  achievements or outcomes is the trigger of
  processes of empowerment and disempowerment

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Levels of Analysis (Examples)

• Agents Individual Farming Households
• Community-based Organization State
• Capabilities Set of feasible activities
  institutional options policy options
• Outcomes Living Standards Local and National or
  Global Public Goods
• Framing Perception Attitudes Policy Agenda
  Development Narratives

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Devolution of Government Power

• Delegation of Central Government Executive and
  Legislative Powers to a Subordinate Territorial
  Unit
• Criteria
• Delegation of both legislative/executive powers
  of substantial size/magnitude
• Devolved unit must be representative/elected body
• Substantial Autonomy both political and financial
  from central government interference

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Devolution and Empowerment

• Political Systems
• Federalism
• Unitary States
• Local Government
• Forms of Decentralization
• Devolution
• Deconcentration
• Devolution and Empowerment

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Devolution of NRM (1)

• Complexity due to Multiple Stakeholders
• NRM is a source of income
• Uncertainty (ecological, Knowledge)
• Historical legacy impinge on feasible options for
  reforms
• From Management to Governance of Natural
  Resources

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Devolution of NRM (2)

• Pre-requisites of improved NR Governance
• Political Commitment to Democratic Governance at
  Local Level
• Downward Accountability
• Application of the Subsidiarity Principle
• Secure Property Rights
• Long-term Financial support to local
  administration capacity development

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Devolution of NRM (3)

• Right-based Access to NR
• Informal Mechanisms of Access
• Bundles of powers technology capital market
  knowledge labor authority social identity
• Actual Access versus Rights of Access
• Inequality of Agency

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Provision of Public Goods (1)

• Public Goods Are Those that Would Not Be Provided
  in a Pure Free-Market
• Non-Rivalry and Non-Excludability
• Typology of Operators (Service Suppliers)
• State
• Public Corporations
• Private Firms
• Non-Profit Civil Society Organizations

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Options for Supply of P. Goods

• Criteria of Choice of Operator
• Technology involved
• Transaction Costs
• Incentives of the Agents
• Inequality, Heterogeneity of Stakeholders
• Ownership, Property Rights
• Partnerships and Coalitions for PG Provision

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Partnerships and Coalitions for Public Goods
Supply

• Coalitions are formed of agents that decide to
  coordinate their actions towards common
  objectives and against other groups objectives
• Multi-Stakeholders Intervention Requires a
  Process, Not Predetermined Solutions
• Enabling Policy Environments Will Not Generate
  Change Unless Enabling Mechanisms Are Also
  Established

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Change and Vulnerability (1)

• Change from the Agents Perspective
• Operational Changes Affect Agents Capabilities
• Network Changes Affect Agents Status (position
  within a network)
• Constitutional Changes Affect Agents Vision
  Expectations

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Change and Vulnerability (2)

• Time Patterns of change
• Trends
• Shocks and Shifts
• Evolutionary Change
• Volatility or Chaotic Change
• Vulnerability to Change Patterns
• Agents Responses
• Adapt, Learn, Cope, Cooperate Network, Exit.
• Vulnerability and Empowerment

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Synthesis What Have We Got Here?

• How Change Occurs?
• Enabling Institutional Environments
• Determinants of Policy Outcomes
• Multi-Level Framework
• Let Us Brainstorm

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How Change Occurs?

• Empowerment Model
• Gap between aspirations and achievements
• Patterns of Change
• Operational, Network Constitutional
• Time Patterns Trend, Shocks, Evolutions, Chaos
• Patterns of Change Provoke Corresponding
  Responses from Agents

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Enabling Institutional Environments

• Good Governance, a means to Empowerment
• Democratic Local Governance Multiple
  Stakeholders
• Principle of Subsidiarity
• Vision and Commitment Matter

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Determinants of Policy Outcomes

• Using the Empowerment Model to Analyze the Policy
  Environment
• Policies as Long-Term Commitments
• Political Capital
• Development Narratives
• Choice of Policy Options

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MULTI-LEVEL FRAMEWORK
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Conceptual Framework

• Human Civilization Requires Political Leadership
  for its Organization
• Ibn Khaldoun The Muqaddimah,
• 13 th Century

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Let Us Brainstorm

• Revisiting Research Questions in the Light of
  Proposed Framework
• What are our Priorities? Vast Research Domain
  Calls for Focus
• Whats Next?

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THANK YOU