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.