Local Participation within Water Projects: Empowering the Rural Poor?

Abstract: The current development approach to reduce poverty is through participation which is thought to lead to empowerment. Empowerment is a state where people actively make informed choices that benefits them. The Kenya Water for Heath Organization (KWAHO) has been working extensively with participatory water management projects together with capacity building in Kenya, with the aim of empowering its participants. After investigating the KWAHO Kombewa project, it is evident that empowerment is a visible effect. The results have been compared with investigations in Kampi ya Moto, an area where no mobilization or capacity building have taken place. This implies that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can have a positive impact and change the poverty landscape and that empowerment can be a real outcome from participatory development interventions, which has been debated and questioned from several directions. However, it is not participation per se that empowers people, instead it has been the long-term capacity building and awareness creation that has helped the members of the KWAHO women groups become empowered, which is the result of this thesis. This realization is important since capacity building is not prominent in the current development literature which, based on these results, needs to change in order to create empowerment and sustainable development.