Abstract
It is challenging to employ quantitative data to evaluate people's empowerment since the criteria for “richness” and “happiness” of people in the area where development practice is undertaken can differ between individuals/groups and can also differ from the criteria of the evaluators. It is yet more difficult for outsiders to evaluat whether gender relationships have or have not changed in people and society as a result of the developmental project.
The aim of this paper is to visualize the phenomena of people's empowerment through the construction of an empowerment evaluation model known as the “Fujikake Model”. First, this paper summarizes some of the current trends in qualitative evaluation and empowerment evaluation. Second, it illustrates qualitative changes regarded as empowerment by the target people who participated in the “Improving Living Standards Project”, and visualizes the process of the Fujikake Model which is derived from the narratives and daily practices of rural women in Paraguay. Third, this paper studies the application of this model to the “Micro-Business Promotion Project” of the rural women in Honduras, and examines the model's obstacles and possibilities.
