The limitations of market-based approaches to empowerment: lessons from a case study in Northern Ghana

ABSTRACT

The international development community is focusing on women’s empowerment as a key means of achieving high-level development goals. In this context, many development programmes, such as Feed the Future, take a market-based approach to empowerment focusing on access to and control over resources as the primary drivers of change. This kind of empowerment programming, however, often loses sight of power relations which structure access to resources and opportunities. This article, therefore, explores the limitations of economic-based approaches to empowerment that permeate the international development space, and provides strong evidence that a broader multi-dimensional approach is needed to support women’s empowerment.

KEYWORDS:

• Aid – Monitoring and Evaluation
• Environment (built and natural) – Agriculture
• Gender and diversity
• Labour and livelihoods
• Sub-Saharan Africa

Acknowledgments

We thank the people in the communities in northern Ghana, where we did research, for thoughtfully exploring the concept of empowerment with us. Thank you to Peter Kpodo and Mary Crave for their work as part of the research team. The authors acknowledge Lori DiPrete Brown and Janet Hyde for reviewing and improving the manuscript. We also thank the Centre for Research on Gender and Women at the University of Wisconsin–Madison for logistical and administrative support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Sophia Friedson-Ridenour is a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Research on Gender and Women, University of Wisconsin–Madison, United States.

Molly Clark-Barol is a member of the 4W Initiative – Women and Wellbeing in Wisconsin and the World, and the School of Human Ecology, University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Kurt Wilson is President of Effect X, LLC, Denver, Colorado, United States.

Sweta Shrestha is a member of the Global Health Institute, University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Cassandra Mercy Ofori is an independent scholar from Accra, Ghana.

Notes

1 Plots were described in acres, but the size of an acre appeared smaller than a standard acre measure.

Additional information

Funding

This research was made possible by financial support through a Seed Grant from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Global Health Institute. The 4W Initiative: Women & Wellbeing in Wisconsin & the World provided financial support for the writing of this manuscript. All opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not represent official positions of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.