Empowerment and Poverty Reduction

Poverty will not be reduced on a large scale, without tapping into the energy, skills, and motivation of the millions of poor people around the world. This book offers a framework for empowerment, that focuses on increasing poor people's freedom of choice, and action to shape their own lives. This approach requires three societal changes: a change in the mindset, from viewing poor people as the problem to viewing them as essential partners in reducing poverty; a change in the relationship between poor people, and formal systems, enabling them to participate in decisions that affect their lives; and, a change in formal, and informal institutions to make them more responsive to the needs, and realities of poor…