<p>The vulnerable social situation of the indigenous women in Bolivia is often on the agenda</p><p>of many organisations (CSOs and NGOs). Especially, the deep rooted socio-political</p><p>discrimination of this group has been addressed in several researches and during various</p><p>international development forums. However, few of these investigations have tried to</p><p>understand in what ways the Aymara women themselves want to be supported by</p><p>organisations in order to become socially empowered. In regard to this, the contemplation</p><p>of this Master Thesis has been to, in an inductive manner, increase the understanding of</p><p>the concept of social empowerment from the perspectives of Aymara women and</p><p>NGOs/CSOs. To do so a qualitative field based study, aimed at letting Aymara women</p><p>themselves explain the social situation, was conducted in Bolivia during the spring 2007.</p><p>The outcome of this research has also served as a foundation to a discussion, with special</p><p>references to the Swedish aid-agency Svalorna Latinamerika, concerning what NGOs and</p><p>CSOs ought to consider when working with social empowerment of Aymara women.</p><p>The overarching methodological approach of the study has been that of a bottom-up</p><p>implementation analysis. In order to retrieve information from the field techniques such as</p><p>socio-anthropological studies, observations, interactions and interviews have been applied.</p><p>Several interesting insights and conclusions have been retrieved from the investigation. The</p><p>primarily conclusion drawn is that empowerment can neither be received nor given as it has</p><p>the features of a learning process. Accordingly, in regard to this organisations must adopt</p><p>the role of 'supporters' rather than 'suppliers'. Secondly, it has been reasoned that any</p><p>undertaking aimed at supporting social empowerment for and of Aymara women must be</p><p>synchronised with the progression of the women's learning processes. This specifically</p><p>suggests that organisations must adopt long-run as well as holistic programmes rather than</p><p>ad hoc activities. The overall conclusion drawn is that if the social empowerment for and of</p><p>Aymara women is to benefit from the undertakings of organisations the planning,</p><p>implementation and evaluation of the activities must primarily be based on terms given by</p><p>the women.</p><p>4</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA/oai:DiVA.org:hj-1218 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Tanghöj, Erike |
| Publisher | Jönköping University, JIBS, Political Science |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, text |
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