Empowering Communities

This casebook examines the way in which a participative approach to development can result in empowerment for communities. The Kebkabiya project in the west of Sudan began as an attempt to improve food security in the wake of a major famine. Over the years Oxfam, who initiated the project, handed over responsibility to a community-based organization. The account of the increasing involvment of the community provides the reader with an insight into the process of empowerment. The approach to the problem of women's impoverishment and disempowerment within a strongly patriarchal society is also examined.