The policy approaches adopted for Third World Countries were informed by changing perceptions about women and their relationship with development, and stemmed from their place in the poverty line. These approaches and their program focus, as well as the extent to which they met practical and strategic gender needs of women are discussed below.
This approach dates back to the colonial period when women were perceived as recipients of aid and beneficiaries of development, the rationale being that their role as mothers and home makers was their only important role in, and contribution to society. Welfare services were confined to food aid, maternal health services, child care and training in home-making. Organization of mothers' clubs, establishment of girls' schools and home economics training were the main activities, aimed at supporting girls' and women's traditional sex-stereotyped roles as wives and mothers.
The underlying assumption for the approach is that enhancement of women's domestic role and status ensures family stability which is essential for productivity of the producers (spouses and male children) as well as ensuring the production of a healthy labour force. Among the primary concerns of charitable organizations and philanthropic individuals of the colonial and post-colonial periods were upholding the institution of marriage and ensuring stable marital and familial relationships. A high morality tone was struck through religious teaching and the stress placed on instilling domestic skills into girls and young mothers. One can note that as poor women's problems and solutions to them were identified by others in a top-down manner, the Welfare Approach did not concern itself with either participation or gender equity. The Welfare Approach is still prevalent and popular among certain relief and emergency agencies.
While circumstances of drought, conflict and famine have changed the traditional status quo resulting in women taking sole responsibility for family welfare, the norm for relief and rehabilitation agencies in the Horn of Africa has been to continue targeting males (spouses, sons or male relatives) as sole representatives of families and recipients of aid. Support services for reconstruction of the livelihood of internally displaced families and returning refugees through skills training, credit for livestock, seeds, etc. also seem to be informed by both the traditional and western patterns of families and gender relations.8
By the 1970s, the development discourse which emanated from disgruntlement with the conventional development paradigm and the concern with equity was also fuelled by research findings on the special situation of women. It was recognized that women did contribute to the development process and were productive forces. However, their contributions were not included in the national accounts (Gross National Product - GNP or Gross Domestic Product - GDP) and they had been marginalized by modernization. It was also found that technology and new patterns of production relations affected woman's lives negatively since they lost control of their traditional incomes, and thus lost status and power within the household and society. The realization that women did not benefit from development led to the equity approach advocating a fair share for women.
However, the equity approach was in general doomed from the start. Redistribution of benefits (wealth and power) was, and still is, a thorny issue which has proved to be more rhetorical than practical. Equity in access to means of production, property inheritance such as land, capital, etc. have remained sensitive issues involving the distribution of power. Among the various constraints to the success of the equity approach were the lack of a single unified indicator of social status or progress of women, and of data about their socio-economic and political status which could be used to measure success. Hesitant and sporadic attempts at implementing the Equity Approach thus suffered from lack of funding, gradually slipping back to the much more comfortable and more easily managed welfare services provisioning.
Programs seeking to increase household productivity have in many cases targeted males as recipients of material and technical support, on the assumption that there is equity in the household, i.e, that there would be equitable intra-household resource distribution and consumption.9
Attention to economic inequality between men and women also led to the belief that inequalities could to a large extent be attributed to poverty resulting in women's dependency. It was considered that resource provisions and skills would enhance women's opportunities for income generation and would thus alleviate poverty. This perception lead to an image of women as productive forces whose efforts should be enhanced through support for income-generating activities. Access to private ownership of land, capital, technical skills and the job market were emphasized through the Anti-Poverty Approach. As a consequence, the 70s and mid-80s registered increases in women's employment in both the formal and informal sectors and the burgeoning of projects with credit components for women.
A significant difference between the Equity and Anti-Poverty Approaches is that while the former could meet strategic gender interests, the latter was concerned only with practical gender needs. Increasing women's income through income-generation without alleviating the burden of household chores and without addressing other gender-related issues, such as lack of autonomy and control over women's productive and reproductive resources has been known to have had a negative impact.
This approach emanated from the recognition that 50% of human resources in developing countries were being either "under" utilized and/or "wasted". Attention to these was seen as assurance of a more efficient and effective utilization of resources. This shift in perception and approach assumed that women, as an underutilized labour force, have free time which is being wasted for lack of efficient utilization. Emphasis shifted from the paid (formally employed) to the unpaid (family labour and/or those in the informal sector employment) economy, and thus government costs fell.
The assumption that women have no time constraints, and can `participate' in the development process if they are just given access to capital and skills was found to have led to longer working hours for women as well as having a negative impact on their wellbeing. The approach, therefore, failed to address the strategic gender needs and interests of women. While the recognition that women were essential for development was a marked shift, it did not necessarily follow that development improved their condition. Furthermore, with cuts in resources for essential services as has been the case under the structural adjustment and economic reform programs, even their practical needs have failed to be met through this approach.
Introduction of irrigated agriculture often takes for granted women's labour inputs and elasticity of their time. The assumptions about availability of women's labour as given factors continue to inform the planning of small-scale irrigation projects in Africa. Development and adaptation of technologies have also been either `gender-neutral' or gender-biased as they target men's `productive' activities. Women's labour and time inputs to food crop or livestock production have so far failed to attract technological development or dissemination in most African countries. Lack of socio-economic studies and unrealistic analyses of women's labour in rural households has resulted in distorted planning, contributing to unfulfilled expectations from projects.10
The Empowerment concept is being tossed around, often with the discussions of and prescriptions for `peoples' participation' through the people-centred approach. It entails power-sharing and enabling women to free themselves from the socio-cultural shackles of their dependency and subordinate position. The strategic needs and interests of women dictate their empowerment which should be grounded in their personal situation in the context of their practical gender needs within their life cycle and their socio-cultural and economic milieu. The women themselves need to be aware of their position. They have to feel the need for change and commit themselves to making decisions and taking action to realize the desired changes.
Awareness raising and conscientization activities with respect to strategic gender needs and interests have to be followed by collective networks (organizations). These should build self-confidence, strength and collective power to take action towards the required socio-cultural changes, for power sharing, mutual respect and personal autonomy. As poor women are often preoccupied with meeting their practical gender needs (day-to-day survival within their ascribed gender roles), strategic gender needs and interests are bound to be seen as secondary by both the women themselves and the development interventionists. Furthermore, drought, famine, war and conflict have not only derailed the `empowerment' issue; they have been the perpetrators of gender-related atrocities in the form of defloration of girl children, mass rape, disfiguration of women, `ethnic cleansing', etc.. This is a global issue presenting a real challenge to democracy and basic human rights.
As poor women are often pre-occupied with meeting their practical gender needs (day-to-day survival within their ascribed gender roles), strategic gender needs and interests are bound to be seen as secondary.
The Empowerment Approach is generally perceived as `western feminist advocacy' and has remained rather unpopular in Third World Countries. Despite the current wave of democratization and the move towards the development of civil society in the African continent, women's empowerment as a human rights issue may be derailed and endangered. Uninformed and gender-biased individuals and parties, by branding such empowerment as `eurocentricity', use it as a pretext for denying women fair political participation in the democratization process. Although empowerment is essentially an equity and human rights issue and is at the root of the civil society movement aimed at enabling people to have a say in what happens to their lives, these concepts become suspect when applied to women. It has been noted that, in many countries, those in a position to promote women's empowerment have evoked culture, religion and western manipulation as reasons for rejection of, and resistance to women's empowerment, despite the existence of international instruments guaranteeing women human rights.11
Perceptions about democracy and its application to women's situation present both a dilemma and a constraint to the attainment of equality, development and peace, themes originally at the forefront of the women's movement. Empowerment has rarely been included in the objectives of projects. Where it is mentioned, there seems to be neither the commitment nor the know-how, and mechanism for incorporating the empowerment concept in practice.
Is democracy a luxury for poor countries or are the countries poor because of lack of democracy? Is this a case of the chicken or the egg dilemma?
One of the most important factors to be emphasized here is that the socio-cultural, economic and political contexts of a country and the particular life cycle and individual situation of women determine what women may consider to be their empowerment needs. That women are not a homogenous group, are situated differently from each other in a family, community, society and country needs to be well recognized and used as a guide in development interventions. Nevertheless, based on the rich experience gained from over two decades of research, the following have been identified as women's strategic needs which seem to cut across socio-economic, political, racial, religious and race boundaries:
· Freedom from oppression, which involves not only equity, but also freedom of choice;
· Power to have control over their lives within and outside the home;
· Removal of all forms of inequality and subordination;
· Creation of a more just social and economic order.
Equity, power, choice and control are key concepts that need to be seen from women's perspective. Although each individual woman should articulate her perception of self-empowerment, the following have been put forward to include what is normally involved when women are empowered or in control:
· Internal strength and confidence to face life;
· The right to determine their choices in life;
· Ability to influence the social processes, i.e., the direction of social change that affect their lives; etc.12
The Empowerment Approach, therefore, emphasizes the importance of women's say at the personal level and gender relations at the family, household, community and societal levels. It entails their direct participation in events that shape their lives and in determining the kind of change required for a more equitable, sustainable and satisfying socio-economic and political order.
Because of its potentially challenging nature, the Empowerment Approach remains suspect, mentioned, but not financially supported by national resources. In most African countries this approach relies on external assistance. Self-help, volunteer work by women lobbyists has thus far been the alternative; however, such engagement suffers from lack of time and resource constraints. The vehicles for empowerment have all the same remained women's own energy, and cooption of gender-aware and sensitive men, particularly journalists and lawyers. There is an increasing challenge for educated and gender aware women and men in developing countries to work towards the creation of an appropriate environment. Support for women's own informal and formal organizations, building their institutional, communication and lobbying capacities is expected to create the necessary environment.
The Empowerment Approach, therefore, emphasizes the importance of women's say at the personal level, and gender relations at the family, household, community and societal levels. It entails their direct participation in events that shape their lives and in determining the kind of change required for a more equitable, sustainable and satisfying socio-economic and political order.
