Empowerment
Empowerment is a concept in which individual competencies and proactive
behaviour are linked to social change processes (Perkins & Zimmerman,
1995; Rappaport, 1981). Empowerment theory stresses the need to increase
personal, interpersonal and political power of communities, as to foster
collective action to improve their environments (Lee, 2011) At the
individual level, empowerment concerns a process in which people gain
control over their lives, develop a sense of self-determination, and
eventually believe in their capability to change their own realities
(Fetterman, 2017; Gutierrez, 1990; Rappaport, 1981). Furthermore, for
actors going through the empowerment process, it entails making
decisions themselves rather than embracing externally raised
recommendations (Friis-Hansen & Duveskog, 2012). At the collective
level, empowerment means that collaborating with others enables
achieving goals faster.
Empowerment in the PIP approach is therefore related to the concept of
“conscientization” (Freire, 1972), which is the process of people
becoming aware about their ability to transform reality by conscious
collective action. This is crucial, because creating a vision and a
plan, combined with the on-demand trainings and group dynamics, empowers
farmers to act. Empowerment as a guiding principle in the PIP approach
implies that it is a core attitude of all staff to devolve power to
local actors and enhance their ownership. Hence, PIP staff should always
work on empowering local actors to do it themselves . Furthermore,
by empowering local actors, the PIP approach constantly strengthens the
foundation for sustainable action, and builds an ever-growing movement
of actors of change who believe in their ability to improve their life
and the environment; first of all land.