Indonesia, and Uganda), and the analysis of empowerment for one country poverty assessment (Ethiopia).

Second, while providing very broad boundaries, the concepts of domains, sub-domains, and levels provide a pragmatic solution to the fact that degrees of empowerment vary according to what people are engaged in and where the activity occurs.

Third, the conceptualizations of assets and opportunity structure are useful for understanding the underlying reasons and dynamics that shape the degrees of empowerment of different actors, and for identifying activities and strategies for improving people’s empowerment. Changes in assets or the opportunity structure are likely to precede changes in degrees of empowerment. Identifying asset and opportunity structure indicators is therefore also useful for evaluating intermediate impacts of investments in empowerment. This appears to be the case in Mexico, for example, where investments in education enhance a series of student assets (skills, self-confidence and information) prior to contributing to improved degree of empowerment outcomes. Depending on the nature and components of the intervention, monitoring and evaluation teams have to decide whether they want to focus their studies on assets, opportunity structure, degrees of empowerment, or any combination thereof.

Fourth, distinguishing between different degrees of empowerment is important for two reasons. One, it helps to identify indicators that adequately reflect an empowerment outcome. For example, “voting in the last local elections” is not an adequate empowerment indicator for the political sub-domain at the local level, if, for whatever reason, local elections do not take place in the community where data are collected (the choice does not exist) or if respondents had the choice and knowledge to vote but, due to personal preferences, decided against voting (the respondents decided not to implement the choice). Two, the distinction between different degrees of empowerment makes it possible to capture gradual advancements in the empowerment status of respondents. Before a woman can take effective action against an abusive husband, for example, by getting help from the local police (achievement of choice), she first needs to be aware of her rights and have access to authorities that will accommodate her complaints (existence of choice). Then she must make use of her right and file a complaint with them (use of choice).

Fifth, context-specific variables and values are important. Empowerment implies changing power relations among people or groups. As such, it is a relational concept, and neither the actors nor the relationships are likely to be the same in any two countries. While domains, levels, and the three degrees of empowerment may be generic, within those, any measurement has to be based on locally defined variables and values.

Finally, local definition of variables and values generates analysis that is of primary use within a single country. However, this does not mean that certain generalizations cannot be made about differences in degrees of empowerment among countries. Using the concepts of domains and levels, useful cross-country commentary is possible on the relative degree of empowerment of different groups, such as women or those traditionally 30