The Dangers, Risks and Unintended Consequences of Empowerment

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is considered a major success for the empowerment of African Americans in the United States.

However, despite being a considerable achievement, the path to this legislation was far from smooth. During the summer of '64, numerous black homes were fire-bombed or burned, both black and white volunteers were arrested and beaten, and in the most publicized case of the summer, three civil rights workers were found murdered and badly decomposed after they had made inquiries into the bombing of a black church.

In this situation, empowerment was the result of intense struggle and its path was fraught with risk.

To many, the virtues of empowerment may seem self-evident. A number of development organizations, including the World Bank, have begun to see the value in a) establishing environments where poor people can flourish, and b) equipping them with the capabilities to do so. However, such endeavors can be very complicated as they are often complex, multi-faceted, and involve a shift in resource or power allocation which can be perceived as threatening.

Thus, efforts which World Bank staff or others may employ to empower poor or marginalized people should be recognized as involving risk; however, awareness of potential backlash and preparatory work can help to mitigate that risk.

The enactment of a relatively recent law in India provides a good example in the developing world of the unintended consequences which can occur with attempts to advance people's empowerment through legislation. In 1993, an amendment to the Indian constitution called for 33% of seats in village level governing bodies to be reserved for women; as well it called for scheduled castes/tribes to be represented in proportion to their populations. For the most part, the law has had a positive impact and opened up new space for marginalized groups in a community to take positions of power. For example, some states such as Karnataka report even larger strides than mandated by law. Women hold 43% of seats in village councils statewide and in some districts, their representation is as high as 50%.

However, as a law implemented in a country of one billion people in 28 different states, inevitably along with the promising developments there have also been some cases of backlash or unintended consequences. Media reports provide stories of women or lower caste members who have been attacked, raped, or threatened for carrying out their roles as leaders. NGO workers, who train village councils, similarly report stories of sexual harassment and character assassination of newly elected women or low-caste leaders. Additionally, they tell stories of women who are specifically chosen to fill a reserved seat because higher caste members thought they would be easy to manipulate. Once these women begin their term, they are then barred from village meetings or forced to perform menial tasks such as serving tea to other members. Another commonly occurring inadvertent outcome of the law is that many men coerce their wives to run for office and then take over responsibility once she wins. The women merely serve the purpose of signing their names while their husbands usurp the power.

In China, the Marriage Law of 1950 demonstrates a further example of how empowerment can have unintended consequences. This law was designed to bridge gaping inequality of the sexes by letting women choose their partners, demand a divorce, and inherit property and child custody. It also terminated arranged marriages, brideprice, child marriage, polygamy, the sale of women into prostitution and the killing of unwanted female babies. In a paper led by Monica Das Gupta, called State Policies and Women's Autonomy in China, the Republic of Korea, and India 1950-2000: Lessons from contrasting experiences, the authors report that although the legislation was well-intentioned it had severe unintended consequences. For example, while the number of arranged marriages were reduced and young women became more independent, the law gave way to enormous social pressures and deep resentment among men and older women such as mother-in-laws. According to the paper, the law contributed to 70,000 to 80,000 cases of murder and suicide of women in the following three years.

Minimizing Backlash

These cases are not presented to discourage efforts to empower marginalized people, but rather to recognize that the process of bringing about empowerment can include risks and must be designed and implemented with careful consideration. As empowerment necessitates a change in power dynamics, it can be perceived as a zero-sum game: while some are seen to gain power, others may feel they lose it. Although the end result may be desirable, the process is not failsafe nor is the path to achievement always smooth. However, despite the fact that difficulties may arise, efforts can be employed to counter the risks involved.

For example, the Aga Khan Rural Support Project, which has been supported by the World Bank in the past, has employed various methods to alleviate potential tension among Muslim sects in Northern Pakistan. The project is noted for successfully scaling up decentralization efforts by putting power in the hands of village-level organizations. However, as the scaling up process began and the project moved away from working only with Ismaili Muslims (who are led by Aga Khan) to working with Sunni and Shia Muslims, instances of tension were noted as the non-Ismaili sects felt the foundation to be biased toward Ismailis. For example, one Sunni leader refused to accept electrical power provided by the project. He encouraged his Sunni community not to accept power as well and while half the community received power in their homes and was lit, the other half remained dark. Although in select cases as this one initiatives can cause or heighten strain, mitigation efforts can be useful. Ridley Nelson, a consultant who evaluated the project, suggests as a preventive measure talking to mullahs about the project as well as finding someone in the community who has the respect of different factions and working with that person to create project buy-in. He also says, "you have to push, but not too hard" and if, for example, a community is not responding initially, "maybe you have to leave and try again in six months." Additionally Nelson noted that the Aga Khan Rural Support Project board of directors helped to ensure friction was minimized by balancing distribution of funding to all sects.

There are numerous other examples where approaching empowerment inclusively is shown to be important, particularly when one party may feel that they are losing power. There is often a need to focus long-term benefits of projects on entire communities as opposed to specific groups. For example, including men in empowerment efforts is an issue in a country like Afghanistan, where decades of war have disempowered men and efforts to empower women are perceived as deeply threatening. Backlash often includes intimidating teachers and burning down schools.

A similar learning was uncovered in the Women Empowerment: Socioeconomic Development in Postconflict Tajikistan Project, as Hermine De Soto, task manager, and Andrea Burniske, local manager, discovered that the success of their project needed the buy-in of the entire community. Although the first iteration of this project was designed to empower single women, the second iteration will expand membership of the women's organization to include married women. Additionally, Andrea Burniske who worked on the project with Counterpart International, noted in a seminar that women involved in the first iteration of the project wanted to share their acquired skills with men in the community. Burniske commented that, "In a community, where… no other organizations are working, it's important not to raise one component of society and ignore the rest."

Additionally, understanding the cultural and social context within which one is working and the determining factors that may affect outcomes is recognized as a crucial element. In a paper which takes a critical look at community driven development (CDD) approaches, called Evaluating Community-Based and Community-Driven Development: A Critical Review of the Evidence, Ghazala Mansuri and Vijayendra Rao discuss CDD as an "empowering" approach which should be scaled up only after careful consideration of the contextual background. They say "…it appears that the mechanical application of 'Best Practice' guidelines obtained from project handbooks could easily result in very poor CBD/CDD projects. This is particularly a concern when CBD/CDD projects are done hastily, without adequate attention to local context, and with poor monitoring. At the same time, there are general lessons that can be learned from the successes and failures of CDD projects in other countries, but these lessons need to be adapted to fit the historical, political and social environment where the proposed project is going to be implemented." As an example of a type of potential backlash which could arise, the authors cite tension which may result with local authorities when communities become strengthened.

According to a paper called a Study on Effective Empowerment of Citizens in Ethiopia, by Brian Pratt and Lucy Earle, a situation precisely of this nature occurred in Ethiopia when a women's group was given control of a water association in Dalocha. The water project was constructed by an NGO; and management was handed over to a women's group for reasons such as: a) women carry the main burden of supplying water to families; and b) giving women responsibility for the scheme may influence stereotypes about women in the community. Tension formed between the women's association and the local government as typically water schemes are run by local governments, and at least to some degree there was resentment that assets and revenues bypassed the government and went directly to the women. Initial attempts made to establish cooperation with the local government were met with frustration, but later attempts were more successful. After the groups received attention from international visitors and the affiliated NGO helped to play an intermediary role, women are now participating in local councils on water.

The situations mentioned above are just some examples of how empowerment efforts can have a backlash effect. Some of these examples are quite severe, others less so, but each provides insight into how a change in the power status quo incited a threat and reaction. Thus, it is important to remember that empowerment is about changing power dynamics and such a task may not be accepted without some degree of resentment and/or struggle. For those working on empowerment-type interventions, there are methods which can mitigate risks involved: a) considering cultural and historical context; b) approaching a community in an inclusive fashion and seeking a long-term solution which benefits everyone; and c) identifying leaders and/or intermediaries who can cross boundaries to garner support.

If you have an example of backlash resulting from empowerment or tools used to combat this backlash, we invite you to please send them to empowerment@worldbank.org. They will be used for information sharing in an upcoming issue.

Back to Empowerment Community of Practice Newsletter (Aug./Sept. 2004)