People's empowerment from the people's perspective

Empowerment of poor people is the declared aim of many NGOs and official development agencies. However, the failure to recognise the culture of poor people, and to use their own forms of organisation as a point of departure, means that many such programmes are in fact counter-productive. This article argues that NGOs which wish to support people's empowerment need to demonstrate their faith in poor people by respecting and supporting their own decisions.