As such, this desk study is also a test of the monitoring and reporting process, and how the project reports communicate progress with respect to a key aspect of their overarching goal. Power is the ability to negotiate and influence outcomes in a particular environment. Empowerment is gaining this ability. First of all, people must have the knowledge and skills to make their own informed decisions. It is a contradiction in terms to say that a project empowers people.
People empower themselves.
Projects can facilitate empowerment by making available information and skills that people want, and by helping communities to break through traditional stereotypes that prevent women from enjoying equity in decision-making and access to resources. Wonderful examples do exist, from ICDPs where even in highly traditional communities with severe gender inequity, men and women together have come to realize the benefits of extending the same human rights to all members of the community. Harmful gender taboos can be broken, but it requires skilled and dedicated project facilitators. Technically, gender is not synonymous with women. It encompasses the learned behavioural differences between men and women in a given community or household, and the roles which are expressed according to sex in women's and men's actions, tasks, and responsibilities.