In 1999, the World Bank undertook an effort to collect the voices of more than 60,000 women and men, from 60 countries, in an unprecedented effort to understand poverty from the perspective of the true experts: poor people themselves.
The immediate impetus for this study, titled Voices of the Poor, was to assist in the preparation of the World Development Report 2000/2001 on "Attacking Poverty," in which the World Bank sought to make sure the voices of the poor - their experiences, priorities, and recommendations - would be taken into account. That document identified security, empowerment, and opportunity as critical to the design and execution of successful poverty reduction strategies.
The publication of WDR 2000/2001 gave organizational recognition to the critical role empowerment plays in poverty reduction. That document marked the beginning of serious consideration within the Bank of how to conceptualize and operationalize empowerment. Responding to management requests, Deepa Narayan, Senior Advisor, PREM, led a consultation and drafting process which culminated in the Empowerment Sourcebook. The Sourcebook was published in January 2002 and acts as a guide for operationalizing empowerment in the Bank's work. The framework outlined in the book highlights poor people's voicelessness and powerlessness. Its aim is to build on the poor's agency in initiating and bringing about change.
Shortly thereafter, with the publication of the Sourcebook, PRMPR's work on empowerment began to take shape and Senior Social Scientist, Ruth Alsop joined the team. The work porgram goals currently focus on better understanding the links between poverty and empowerment and helping Bank staff to practically incorporate empowerment in their lending work. (For more information see our Current Initiatives.)
As Bank staff became aware that empowerment related activities were already being practiced widely throughout the Bank, the need for a Community of Practice emerged. A Secretariat for the Community of Practice was established so that knowledge could be generated and exchanged and task managers could draw on the experiences of their colleagues. It was instituted with joint management by PRMPR and SDV.
The Empowerment Team, along with a number of other departments such as Community Driven Development, Social Capital and the Committee on Civic Engagement, Empowerment and Respect for Diversity are collectively working to move the empowerment agenda forward within the World Bank.
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