Determinants of Empowerment in a Capability Based Poverty Approach: Evidence from The Gambia Sofia Karina Trommlerová, Graduate Institute Geneva, Stephan Klasen, University of Göttingen, Ortrud Leßmann, Helmut-Schmidt-University Hamburg 1Trommlerová, Klasen, LeßmannEADI Bonn

Empowerment in The Gambia The Story of this Paper 1.Measuring Empowerment 2.Context and Data 3.Econometric Methods and Results 4.Summary and Policy Recommendations 2Trommlerová, Klasen, LeßmannEADI Bonn

Empowerment in The Gambia Difficulties in measuring empowerment: Process vs. outcome Direct vs. indirect (resource-based) measures Many studies focus exclusively on women or the poor … evaluating policy measures for empowerment and … do not control for endogeneity. 3Trommlerová, Klasen, LeßmannEADI Bonn

Empowerment in The Gambia Our study measures empowerment as an outcome with direct measures concerning all (adult) people asking for the drivers of empowerment in general and using techniques to correct for endogeneity and sample selection problems 4Trommlerová, Klasen, LeßmannEADI Bonn

Empowerment in The Gambia 5Trommlerová, Klasen, LeßmannEADI Bonn Four concepts of power (Rowlands 1997) power over (‘controlling power’), power to (‘generative or productive power’), power with (collective power of a group), and power from within (strength based on self- acceptance)  focus on the latter two

Empowerment in The Gambia Empowerment in the community Do you feel that people like yourself can generally change things in their community if they want to? Yes, very easily Yes, fairly easily Yes, but with a little difficulty Yes, but with a great deal of difficulty No, not at all 6Trommlerová, Klasen, LeßmannEADI Bonn

Empowerment in The Gambia Empowerment as change in one’s own life Would you like to change anything in your life at this point in time? Yes No 7Trommlerová, Klasen, LeßmannEADI Bonn

Empowerment in The Gambia Empowerment as change in one’s own life Who do you think will contribute most to any change in your own life? Myself My family Village development committee Our community (village) The ward development committee The state government Don’t know Other 8Trommlerová, Klasen, LeßmannEADI Bonn

Empowerment in The Gambia Context and Data: The Gambia: smallest African country 48.4% of population in poverty 90 % Muslims High fertility (5.6), low life expectancy (f59, m56) Impact Evaluation Study on Community Driven Development for the Worldbank observations (83.9% household heads) 9Trommlerová, Klasen, LeßmannEADI Bonn

Empowerment in The Gambia average respondent: 47 years old, male, household head, Muslim, Gambian, with no education, illiterate, economically active, monogamously married, in rural area 10Trommlerová, Klasen, LeßmannEADI Bonn most respondents are: not limited at all by their health, feel happy, suitable accommodation, always treated with respect, never treated unfairly

Empowerment in The Gambia Communal empowerment 11Trommlerová, Klasen, LeßmannEADI Bonn

Empowerment in The Gambia Methods ordered logit model and 2SLS model Results Men (polygamously married), Gambians, older, economically active, educated people, people a lot limited in health or completely healthy feel that they are able to induce changes in the community 12Trommlerová, Klasen, LeßmannEADI Bonn

Empowerment in The Gambia Individual empowerment Methods Probit model (desire for change) Multinominal logit model and 2SLS (who?) Results 94% want change Those fully (dis-)empowered in the community do not want change. Happiness and good accommodation decrease desire for change 13Trommlerová, Klasen, LeßmannEADI Bonn

Empowerment in The Gambia 14Trommlerová, Klasen, LeßmannEADI Bonn Individual empowerment: Who will induce change?

Empowerment in The Gambia Individual empowerment: Who? 15Trommlerová, Klasen, LeßmannEADI Bonn

Summary Determinants of empowerment: age, gender, nationality, health, marital status, and economic activity – on communal level: education – on individual level: literacy and wealth Gender is not a determinant per se but in interaction with marital status Effects of complete limitation by health?! EADI Bonn Trommlerová, Klasen, Leßmann16 Empowerment in The Gambia

Policy recommendations Invest in education, especially of women to strengthen their position in the family. Rethink political representation concerning young people and women. Benefit from the empowerment of people limited completely by their health by giving them special roles. EADI Bonn Trommlerová, Klasen, Leßmann17 Empowerment in The Gambia

EADI Bonn Trommlerová, Klasen, Leßmann18 Empowerment at communal levelEmpowerment at individual level Ascending grade of easiness in inducing changes in one's community Actors expected to contribute most to any changes in one's life Correlates (generalized ordered logit) Determinants (2SLS) Correlates (multinomial logit) Determinants (2SLS) Myself vs. Family Myself vs. Governm. Family vs. Governm. MyselfFamilyGovernm. Age Age squared-- Female Not married Monogamous marriage * Polygamous marriageRC Not household head Not Muslim Foreigner Went to school Literate Economically inactive Log(expenditure)0 000 Expenditure missing0 000 Wealth percentile Health completely limiting RC Health a lot limiting Health somewhat limiting Health not limiting * Urban0 0++ Number of observations Note: The table shows whether the effect of the explanatory variable on the dependent variable is significantly positive (+), significantly negative (-) or whether it is insignificant (0) at 10% significance level. The reference categories (RC) are displayed for discrete variables with more than two categories; they are left out for binary variables. The mode categories are marked with an asterisk for discrete variables with more than two categories; they are left out for binary variables.