Gender and capacity building: A multi-layered study of empowerment

• Published in: World development Vol. 106; pp. 207 - 219
• Main Authors: Eger, Claudia, Miller, Graham, Scarles, Caroline
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2018; Elsevier Science Publishers; Pergamon Press Inc
• Subjects: Aspiration; Berber communities; Capacity building; Capacity building approach; Capacity development; Cognition; Cognitive ability; Communities; Consciousness; Deprivation; Development; Education; Empowerment; Female-male relations; Females; Gender; Gender empowerment; Gender relations; Girls; Meaning; Mentors; Morocco; Mountains; Multilayers; Observational learning; Participant observation; Qualitative research; Role models; Rural areas; Rural communities; Social aspects; Social cognitive theory; Social discrimination learning; Social learning; Villages; Visual observation; Women; Women's education; Morocco; Development; Gender empowerment; Capacity building; Social cognitive theory; Morocco; Berber communities
• ISSN: 0305-750X; 1873-5991
• DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.01.024

•Develops a multidimensional empowerment model of capacity building.•Adopts a novel social cognitive perspective to study the interrelationship between culture and capacity building.•Contributes the view that empowerment and learning processes rely on social modeling, mentoring and peer networks. This study shifts the focus from building individual capacities to understanding the relational acts through which empowerment and education acquire their value and meaning. Conceptually, the paper employs social cognitive theory to explore the interplay between social learning, relational agency, and culture. This interplay builds the foundation for the development of an empowerment model of capacity building that proposes an interlinked system of community capacity and empowerment dimensions. The model is explored in the context of the Education for All project in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco. The research combines participant observation, qualitative interviews and visual methods to provide rich insights to situated knowledges of learning and empowerment. Findings reveal that the meaning of education equates to the capacity to aspire to a different life. This problematizes the way gender and gender relations are understood in the rural Berber villages. The girls’ education unsettles the repeating cycle of female educational deprivation, and leads them to become role models within their communities. This instills the image of educated women in community consciousness, leading to an incipient change in perceptions of what girls and women can be and do.