# 3. Summary

The framework proposed for measuring empowerment is a simple one. It comprises three core concepts: agency, opportunity structure, and degree of empowerment. These are further refined into clusters of indicators. A broad range of assets are used as indicators of agency. Measurement of the presence and operation of formal and informal institutions provides indicators of opportunity structure. The existence of choice, the use of choice, and the effectiveness of choice are used as indicators of the degree of empowerment a person or group experiences. For ease of data collection and analysis, three domains (state, market, and society) are identified and divided into a number of sub-domains, or stages in or upon which actors live out their lives. These sub-domains are differentiated according to the level at which actors operate—the macro, intermediary, and local levels.

Using this framework, empowerment can be measured within projects or interventions. It can also be used as the basis for in-depth research, for national-level monitoring, and, with certain caveats, for comparing the status of and changes in empowerment across countries. While the framework is simple and easily applied, it is also comprehensive in that it enables an assessment of a person’s or group’s empowerment across the different domains in which they act. In how many different domains and at how many different levels empowerment is assessed depends on the nature of the intervention and the scope of the measurement exercise. As demonstrated in the Ethiopia WDIP indicators (annex 2, table 1), empowerment is measured in five of the eight sub-domains, but in the Honduras Community-Based Education Project (annex 2, table 3), empowerment is measured in only two sub-domains. How many domains an in-depth research exercise focuses on depends on the purpose of the study and the specific country context. As outlined in section 2.3, national-level monitoring is recommended for all sub-domains.

This paper also introduces indicators and a preliminary household survey instrument that can be used to measure and track empowerment within countries. In contrast to the five ME studies, national-level tracking is not used for measuring the processes and impacts of a specific intervention. Rather, targeting a much wider group of stakeholders, it can be used to measure the empowerment status of a country’s population. The national-level module, once refined, can stand alone or can be modified to work with other poverty or governance monitoring tools. The module will be piloted and amended over the next year.

Six key findings that have emerged during the development and preliminary effort to test the ME framework include: First, is the ME framework’s value for both analytic and applied purposes. Operationally, the framework has informed both the conceptualization and the activities of two empowerment projects currently under preparation.<sup>30</sup> In addition to using the framework to measure empowerment in six countries (the five-country study plus Mexico), it has also structured three country case studies on power, equality, and poverty (Ethiopia,

> 30 The Tamil Nadu Empowerment and Poverty Reduction Project, and the Ethiopia Civil Society Capacity Building Project.

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