Empowerment is a construct shared in many disciplines and fields: community development, psychology, education, economics, and studies of social movements and organisations, plus others. How we define empowerment depends on the context and the situation.
Capacity building is empowering others
Empowering others is accepted as a basic tenet of building capacity.
People can be empowered once they have the knowledge and skills to perform their role. However they also need to accept the responsibility and be accountable for their actions.
Empowerment is a multi-dimensional social process
Empowerment is a process that fosters the giving of power to people, to make and act on decisions that they define as important in their own lives, their communities, and in their society. Once empowered, people are able to take control over their own lives, demonstrate responsibility and accept decision outcomes.
Preparing for empowerment changes
For effective capacity building and empowerment to occur, people need to be given full understanding of what is to change, where they fit in the plan, how their roles will be effected and what benefits the change will provide. Once people are prepared for change, successful and sustainable empowerment can take place.