Shyam Prasad Mainali

The empowerment of women has been a cross-cutting issue. Various policies have been adopted and programmes are being continuously launched for the betterment of this large segment of the global population. Every society has local terms for autonomy, self-direction, self-confidence and self-worth. Problems that women face are diverse but economic problems are often regarded to be the most significant.
Women are voiceless and powerless because every aspect of their lives is heavily affected by being trapped in a vicious circle of poverty and isolated from different sorts of opportunities, women throughout the world are deprived of different opportunities and often lag. However, a few females belonging to well-off families and also the members of the elite circle have been enjoying ample opportunities in the name of empowering women. This has resulted in a negative effect as far as the overall development of the targeted group of population is concerned.

Bitter reality
A large number of the world's female population have remained unable to gain anything for their future prosperity. Efforts made so far have not significantly touched this vulnerable class of the population. This has been the subject of bitter reality for all developmentalists, and, especially for those who are genuinely committed to contributing as women activists.

Empowering this group of the population automatically strengthens good governance by enhancing economic growth, demanding accountability of the public sector, improving governance, controlling corruption, encouraging participation in every aspect of national affairs and creating a positive investment climate. Additionally, the empowerment of women can improve development effectiveness at the pro-poor level.
Time and again, the involvement of such class and community has proven to be a powerful tool for the production, monitoring and maintenance of local public goods and services ultimately resulting in the effectiveness of all sorts of development investment within the country. Through the identification and use of key elements like strengthening local organisational capacity, creating easy access to necessary information, addressing inclusion and participatory policies and promoting social accountability as well in a possible particular context can change power relations and its structure between poor people and powerful elites of society.
These phenomena heavily depend on the nature of the social and political structure, capabilities and assets of vulnerable poor people as well as on the very interaction between these two factors. On top of this agenda, women empowerment supports the effectiveness of development by policy intervention for promoting growth to address the pro-poor class of women, which requires meaningful investment in education, health access and financial capital, easy access to the market and income generation activities in a tangible pattern.

Elements needed to support such approaches vary from country to country depending on their differing political, social, economic as well as environmental circumstances. For the empowerment of its women, a few significant factors need to be considered. First, basic services must be provided with ease and without any delay with the view of improving their access and effective use by women belonging to poor classes. These services can be carried out through different central and local authorities and in a decentralised manner.

Second, the issue of empowerment is largely economic. Participation in all economic activities of the female gender contributes significantly to the stability of economic growth. The exclusion of this class from equal access to economic opportunities remains a major problem. Engagement in productive economic activities, creating an investment-friendly climate, promoting entrepreneurship, providing employment opportunities, furnishing easy access to information and the market are important remedies for the empowerment of women. Policymakers need to keep in mind that this vulnerable class of the world population is both a producer and a consumer.
Third, the practice of decentralisation, local governance and devolution should be strengthened and institutionalised so that women can have easy access to information, can be benefitted from the state policy of inclusion and can participate in every activity of governance. The creation of a favourable climate for government accountability, enhancing the capacity of local-level organisations and making weak women capable can be a catalyst to the improvement of the situation.

Fourth, actions need to be taken to keep the national government responsive and accountable by linking necessary information from such weak classes of targeted people to the process of policy formulation and the national budget. Last but not the least, these targeted women groups need legal protection. A functioning judicial system is a must. Psychologically, these women need to have confidence that their protection from the state is guaranteed.

For this purpose state needs to be concentrated on the improvement of administrative justice, maintaining administrative accountability, promoting judicial independence and accountability, providing legal education to the targeted group, expanding all sorts of access to women, promoting outreach and providing sufficient opportunities for their education. Global efforts made in this sector are found to be highly superficial. Opportunities and programmes designed to fulfil these objectives are entirely enjoyed by the member of upper and middle-class families. Specially targeted groups of the population have nothing to do with such public activities and programmes.

Linkages
Empowering women is an indispensable tool for the advancement of overall development and the reduction of poverty. So far, gender-based violence, lack of desirable access to the property, existing traditional ignorance practices remain the most persistent form of inequality between men and women. Despite the existence of several advocacy groups and organisations working on policy and legal reforms and numerous national policies, plans and programmes formulated for the elimination of discrepancy and several international agreements done to affirm their human rights progress are not satisfactory yet.
Key issues and linkages need to be identified. Along with this, understanding the relation of economic growth and women's work, generating a clear idea about the inter generation gender gaps, providing quality education to women, and providing access to female groups in all state activities including politics are highly essential to improve the miserable condition of the vulnerable class of women.

(Mainali is a former government secretary and freelance writer.)