Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women€¦ · Grameen Bank _____ 34 . Jenny Appel Alleviating...

University of St. Gallen

B.A. in International Affairs

Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women

The Role of Social Entrepreneurs

BACHELOR-THESIS

May 18, 2009

Author:

Jenny Appel

[email protected]

Supervisor:

Dr. Nicola Pless

Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women


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Table of content

Table of content ____________________________________________________________ 1

List of Figures _____________________________________________________________ 3

I INTRODUCTION ________________________________________________________ 4

1. Research Question and Relevance _________________________________________ 4

2. Outline of Thesis _______________________________________________________ 5

II CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ___________________________________________ 6

3. Poverty Alleviation and Women’s Empowerment ____________________________ 6

3.1. Poverty and Gender Inequality __________________________________________ 6

3.2. Emergence of the Concept of Empowerment ______________________________ 7

3.2.1. WID, WAD and GAD _____________________________________________ 7

3.2.2. Empowerment ___________________________________________________ 8

3.3. Linking Poverty Alleviation and Women‟s Empowerment ____________________ 9

3.4. International Consensus: UN Millennium Development Goal on Gender _______ 12

3.5. Main Challenges within Women‟s Empowerment _________________________ 13

4. Social Entrepreneurship ________________________________________________ 15

4.1. Emergence of Social Entrepreneurship __________________________________ 15

4.2. Defining Social Entrepreneurship, Social Entrepreneur and Social Enterprise ____ 17

4.2.1. Social Entrepreneurship __________________________________________ 17

4.2.2. Social Entrepreneur ______________________________________________ 23

4.2.3. Social Enterprise ________________________________________________ 24

4.3. Opportunities and Challenges _________________________________________ 25

5. Interim Conclusion Part II ______________________________________________ 27

III EMPIRICAL CASE STUDIES ___________________________________________ 28

6. Methodology _________________________________________________________ 28

7. Selected Cases ________________________________________________________ 29

7.1. Gram Vikas _______________________________________________________ 30

7.2. Hagar ____________________________________________________________ 32

7.3. Grameen Bank _____________________________________________________ 34



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IV ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS _________________________________ 38

8. Comparative Case Analysis _____________________________________________ 38

8.1. Organizational Context ______________________________________________ 38

8.2. Enhancing Access to Education, Training, and Capacity Building _____________ 41

8.3. Enhancing Access to Factors of Production as well as the Formal Labor Market __ 43

8.4. Promoting Women‟s Political Representation _____________________________ 46

8.5. Challenging Social Institutions and Cultural Practices ______________________ 47

8.6. Overview of the Recommendations to the Individual Organizations ___________ 49

9. Conclusion and Recommendations _______________________________________ 51

References _______________________________________________________________ 54

Declaration of Authorship __________________________________________________ 58



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List of Figures

Figure 1: Vicious Cycle ______________________________________________________ 11

Figure 2: Cycle with Women‟s Empowerment ____________________________________ 12

Figure 3: Citations and Items Published on Social Entrepreneurship ___________________ 16

Figure 4: Overview of Definitions of Social Entrepreneurship _______________________ 20

Figure 5: Dynamic Continuum of Financial Sustainability __________________________ 22

Figure 6: Comparison of Organizational Context __________________________________ 38

Figure 7: Cases Placed on Dynamic Continuum of Financial Sustainability _____________ 40

Figure 8: Good Practices and Recommendations to Individual Organizations ___________ 50



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I INTRODUCTION

1. Research Question and Relevance

Poverty is a striking reality in many parts of today‟s world. The situation is especially upset-

ting in developing countries. According to World Bank (2006) estimates, about 40% of the

world‟s population lives off less than two dollars a day. Globally, the cleavage between the

rich and poor is severely widening (Nicholls, 2006). Another phenomenon of inequality with

a global dimension is gender inequality. Gender inequalities persist - at least to some extent -

in literally all countries around the globe (World Bank, 2001). In developing countries dis-

crimination against women is especially devastating and often highest among the poor.

However, this is not a one-dimensional relationship. According to the World Bank (2001) “on

one level, poverty exacerbates gender disparities” but “on another level, gender inequality

hinders development” (p. xi). Since gender inequality and poverty are highly interlinked,

women‟s empowerment becomes a promising approach to poverty alleviation.

Despite the urgency of issues related to poverty and gender inequality, the progress

reached through interventions of governments and international organizations by using tradi-

tional top-down approaches has been limited (Dees, 2007). The failure of traditional

approaches creates fertile ground for the emergence of innovative public, private, and hybrid

bottom-up approaches to social value creation (Nicholls, 2006). One promising approach is

social entrepreneurship.

A pioneer in promoting the concept of social entrepreneurship is Bill Drayton and his

organization Ashoka. Founded in 1980, Ashoka works to identify and support outstanding

social entrepreneurs, as well as to promote the concept of social entrepreneurship in general

(Ashoka, 2009). Today, social entrepreneurship has become a global phenomenon and social

entrepreneurs worldwide come up with innovative solutions to pressing social ills (Bornstein,

2007; Nicholls, 2006). Lately, social entrepreneurship has increasingly received attention, not

least due to the recognition of two outstanding social entrepreneurs with the Nobel Peace

Prize - Wangari Maathai in 2004 and Muhammad Yunus in 2006.

Innovative approaches are indispensable in times of urgent challenges regarding po-

verty alleviation and women‟s empowerment, in order to enhance social impact and use scare

resources effectively. Social entrepreneurs play a key role in this environment. Therefore, this

paper analyzes the responses of three socially entrepreneurial organizations to the challenge

of women‟s empowerment and thus ultimately poverty alleviation. By using a qualitative



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case-oriented comparative method, it studies some strengths and weaknesses of the three ap-

proaches employed by the analyzed organizations. The objective is to identify potentials for

the organizations in the sample, to learn from one another, and derive recommendations for

similar organizations based on the insights gained.

2. Outline of Thesis

This paper begins with an introduction of the „problem‟ by defining poverty and gender in-

equality, as well as reviewing the theoretical developments that led to the concept of women‟s

empowerment (chapter 3). The third chapter carries on by explaining the relationship between

gender inequality and economic growth, and identifying international political developments

as well as main challenge clusters within this field. The fourth chapter continues with the po-

tential „solution‟ and presents social entrepreneurship along with its emergence and

accompanying opportunities and challenges. The theories developed in chapter three and four

are then drawn together in an interim conclusion (chapter 5). After explaining the chosen me-

thodology in the sixth chapter, case descriptions on three socially entrepreneurial

organizations that focus on women‟s empowerment are delivered in chapter seven. The ap-

proaches of these three organizations regarding four key challenges within women‟s

empowerment are then analyzed in a comparative perspective in the eighth chapter. Based on

the findings of the comparative analysis the ninth chapter concludes by deriving recommenda-

tions to socially entrepreneurial organizations that engage in women‟s empowerment.



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II CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

3. Poverty Alleviation and Women’s Empowerment

This chapter sets up a theoretical framework for analyzing poverty alleviation and women‟s

empowerment. It begins by introducing the notions of poverty and gender inequality. It then

proceeds with an overview of the development of theories regarding the relation between

women and development, which led to the emergence of the concept of empowerment. It con-

tinues by showing the interrelation between women‟s empowerment and poverty alleviation.

Further, the role of the third UN Millennium Development Goal is mentioned and four chal-

lenge clusters within the topic of women‟s empowerment are identified.

3.1. Poverty and Gender Inequality

Poverty is a contested, multi-dimensional concept with many different definitions. The quan-

titative definition of one dollar per day used to be a wide-spread poverty measure. However,

this definition is outdated as inflation and food price crises have influenced most developing

countries. Thus, 1.25 dollars a day and two dollars a day have become better quantitative

measures. On a global scale, people living off two dollars a day can be regarded as poor while

those living off 1.25 dollars a day can be categorized as very poor. National poverty lines

must be defined according to the specific conditions in each country. According to the World

Bank (2006) about 1.4 billion people lived off less than 1.25 dollars a day and 2.6 billion,

which equals about 40% of the world‟s population, lived off less than 2 dollars a day in 2005.

It is difficult to estimate, what fraction of the poor are women, and frequently cited estima-

tions of about 70% have proven to be scientifically falsifiable. Yet, it can be stated that poor

women are often more vulnerable to poverty than their male counterparts, since they carry the

double burden of their productive as well as reproductive role. Correspondingly, according to

the World Bank (2001) gender inequality is particularly high among poor households espe-

cially in the spheres of education and health, which are crucial in determining the ability to

participate in development. Further, certain groups of women such as elderly women or wi-

dows, and female-headed households are especially prone to poverty (Chant, 2004; World

Bank, 2001). Gender inequality in access to education, health, and productive resources mani-

fests itself in persistent poverty.

Gender roles are formed in a continuous process of social interaction, which leads to

their construction and perpetuation. According to the World Bank (2001): “Gender refers to



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socially constructed roles and socially learned behaviors and expectations associated with

females and males. Women and men are different biologically - but all cultures interpret and

elaborate these innate biological differences into a set of social expectations about what beha-

viors and activities are appropriate, and what rights, resources, and power they possess” (p. 2).

Gender equality is then defined as “equality under the law, equality of opportunity (including

equality of rewards for work and equality in access to human capital and other productive

resources that enable opportunity), and equality of voice (the ability to influence and contri-

bute to the development process)” (p. 2-3). Gender inequality is a phenomenon that exists

worldwide and even though gender inequality might be worse among the poor, it persists

among all classes, religions, and cultures.

3.2. Emergence of the Concept of Empowerment

In order to understand the concept of empowerment it is important to know the prior devel-

opments within the discipline as well as the discourse that led to its establishment. Thus, the

theories of Women in Development, Women and Development as well as Gender and Devel-

opment are introduced before the concept of empowerment will be treated.

3.2.1. WID, WAD and GAD

Recognizing the marginalization of women in development, Ester Boserup published her

book „Woman‟s Role in Economic Development‟ in 1970, which triggered the emergence of

the field of „Women in Development‟ (WID). In her book she was able to show that develop-

ment in its contemporary form was often harmful to women. The WID framework was rooted

in modernization theory, it analyzed why the benefits of development and modernization did

not reach women in developing countries or even undermined their existing positions, and it

called for strategies to better integrate women in the development process (Momsen, 2008).

Starting in the mid 1970s, critique on the WID framework arose and critics claimed that WID

theorists did not investigate the sources of women‟s oppression and had ignored women‟s

reproductive role by focusing on productive aspects (Visvanathan, 1997).

Out of this critique, a new framework „Women and Development‟ (WAD) emerged

that was grounded on dependency theory. It focused on relationships between development

processes and women, and analyzed the structures behind inequality. It therefore combined

structural and socio-economic factors. WAD was criticized for its strong macro-level ap-

proach, which failed to incorporate power relations and causes at the micro-level

(Visvanathan, 1997).



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A third competing approach emerged with the „Gender and Development‟ (GAD)

framework that presented itself as a more holistic approach by incorporating all aspects of

women‟s public and private lives, and aimed at challenging socially constructed gender roles

in general (Visvanathan, 1997). By addressing the origin of gender inequalities and striving to

redistribute power within gender relations, GAD advocates paved the way for participatory

approaches and the notion of empowerment (McIlwaine & Datta, 2003).

3.2.2. Empowerment

The three theories mentioned above have been broadly criticized for being ethnocentric and

dominated by white northern feminists, while women from the South were persistently stan-

dardized and victimized (McIlwaine & Datta, 2003). In 1987 Sen and Grown challenged the

universality of feminism and called upon the significance of race, class and nation. Their book

was very influential and promoted the concept of empowerment.

Empowerment aims at changing power relations. It includes an economic, political,

social and cultural dimension (Varma, 1993). According to Visvanathan (1997) empowerment

“addresses women‟s strategic need to transform laws and structures that oppress them through

a bottom-up process of organizing around practical needs” (p. 20). The concept focuses on

grass-root organizing instead of agency by broad women‟s organizations. Sen and Grown

(1987) emphasize popular education and political consciousness-raising as well as capacity

building for income-earning opportunities as key challenges within the process of empower-

ment.

For Kabeer (2005), empowerment refers to “the ability to make choices” and it “en-

tails change” (p. 13). She defines two conditions that have to be fulfilled so that the possibility

of real choice-making exists. Firstly, potential alternatives must exist. Secondly, these alterna-

tives must be visible, thus a basic consciousness of existing power relations must be present.

According to Kabeer (2005) empowerment entails three highly interrelated dimensions: agen-

cy, resources, and achievements. Agency has two sub-dimensions; a positive one, which

relates to the „power to‟ choose for oneself even in an opposing environment, and a negative

one that manifests in the „power over‟ other‟s agency and hence to override their choices. In

relation to empowerment agency always implies challenging power relations and it is a

process that often begins from within. An important step in empowering women is thus to

enhance women‟s sense of self-worth to start an inner process of empowerment. Further, “re-

sources are the medium through which agency is exercised” (Kabeer, 2005, p. 15) and their

distribution depends on institutions, rules, norms, conventions, and relationships in a society.



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Together agency and resources define the capability of a person to live a self-determined life.

Achievement then measures the outcome and thus the extent to which this potential to live a

self-determined life is realized. It is displayed in the process of exercising agency and its out-

come. Thus, empowerment becomes both the ideal solution to reach defined strategic

objectives and the ultimate goal.

3.3. Linking Poverty Alleviation and Women’s Empowerment

Since the mid-nineties the debate concerning gender inequality, poverty alleviation and de-

velopment has taken a new turn. Especially the World Bank has been emphasizing a positive

correlation between gender equality and economic growth and therefore calls promotion of

gender equality a development issue in itself (World Bank, 2001). Besides being a develop-

ment issue, gender equality is always a human rights issue. However, in this paper the human

rights dimension is put aside in order to focus on the issue of empowerment and development,

which is directly connected to the topic of poverty alleviation. While gender inequality has the

largest negative impact on the deprived women, societies as a whole also lose, which becomes

manifest in “more poverty, more malnutrition, more illness, and more deprivations of other

kinds” (World Bank, 2001, p. 73).

The work of analyzing the relationship between gender equality and economic growth

began in the nineties and a positive correlation between the two variables was expected to be

found. Nevertheless when Barro and Lee (1994) researched this relationship, they discovered

a negative one. Their paper was broadly recognized and triggered many other scientists to

investigate this relationship in the following years. Multiple studies, including Stokey (1994),

Lorgelly and Owen (1999), Dollar and Gatti (1999), or Knowles, Lorgelly, and Owen (2002),

analyzed the initial work. Their research affirmed that Barro and Lee‟s findings resulted from

falsely formulating the econometric model, and strong evidence for a positive relationship

between the two variables was found. However, this left open the important question of the

direction of the causality. Two studies are particularly influential in that regard. Dollar and

Gatti (1999) and Klasen (1999) could both show - while using different approaches - that

gender equality has a significant impact on growth. While some questions remain open, the

argument of a positive impact of gender equality on growth and ultimately poverty alleviation

becomes highly plausible.



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According to the World Bank (2001) a negative relationship1 between gender inequali-

ty and economic growth exists because of missed opportunities in human capital

development, lost earnings, and inefficient allocation of labor. These three issues impose di-

rect costs on an economy‟s productivity, efficiency, and economic progress. The World

Bank‟s arguments are now presented in more detail. Firstly, if a mother‟s education is low,

this has a direct negative impact on the children‟s educational performance and hence on an

economy‟s human resource development. Secondly, higher education enhances women‟s

productivity because of better use of new technologies and more efficient allocation of exist-

ing resources. The marginal rate of return of women‟s education is higher than for men, since

the average level of education among women is lower. Therefore, especially in agricultural

production, which is in female hands in many countries across Africa and Asia, yields and

thus food production could be increased by investing in female education and training. Final-

ly, due to the absence of a formal labor market on which females are broadly presented, the

market allocation of labor becomes inefficient. When female labor is missing in the formal

labor market, the artificial shortage of labor drives up the price for male labor and thus has a

negative impact on production. The efficient allocation is prevented by constraining gender-

related customs.

The negative relationship between gender inequality and economic growth leads to a

vicious cycle in which developing countries with high gender inequality might become en-

trapped. Since gender inequality has a negative effect on economic growth and development,

it ultimately has a negative effect on poverty alleviation. As indicated above poverty causes a

continuation or aggravation of gender inequality. Therefore, drawbacks in poverty alleviation

have negative effects on the reduction of gender inequalities. Both are thus reinforcing, which

leads to undesired effects: persistent poverty as well as gender inequality. Hence, the de-

scribed vicious cycle prevents a society from growing and improving its status quo. The

reality is clearly much more complex but this model, which is illustrated by the figure below,

depicts an underlying mechanism.

1 Since a positive relationship between gender equality and growth exists, a negative relationship between gender

INequality and growth exists vice versa.



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Figure 1: Vicious Cycle

An innovative approach is indispensible to overcome this vicious cycle. Women‟s empower-

ment must be introduced into the model. Empowering women and thus reducing gender

inequality has a positive effect on economic growth and development. Economic growth in a

pro-poor fashion is a key solution to alleviating poverty, since it brings about new opportuni-

ties to generate income for women and families. Further, it enables governments to increase

their spending in order to expand health and educational services within their countries. Since

gender inequality is often highest among the poor as stated above, reducing poverty reinforces

women‟s empowerment and the reduction of gender inequality. Empowering women can

therefore start a reinforcing process as illustrated by the following figure, which shows that

through empowering women and hence reducing gender inequality the variables now posi-

tively affect each other. It is important that economic growth develops in a pro-poor manner,

which it plausibly is within this process, since it is fuelled by a grass-root development result-

ing from women‟s empowerment.

Reducing Gender Inequality

(-)

Economic Growth/ Development

(-)

Poverty Alleviation

(-)



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Figure 2: Cycle with Women’s Empowerment

3.4. International Consensus: UN Millennium Development Goal on Gender

One of the eight UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which were agreed upon by the

international community of states at the Millennium Summit in 2000, specifically aims at

promoting gender equality and women‟s empowerment. This third MDG reads: “Promote

gender equality and empower women” (UN, 2000b). Other MDGs are also directly or indi-

rectly connected to women‟s rights. While MDG 5 concentrates on maternal health and thus

has a direct effect, MDG 2 on education or MDG 4 on child mortality have indirect connec-

tions to gender equality since girls receive less education and are more likely to die at an early

age due to neglect of females health. Moreover, targets and indicators to measure the imple-

mentation of each goal were defined. The target on gender equality aims at eliminating gender

disparity in primary and secondary education2 (UN, 2000b). This is the only target assigned to

MDG 3 and it exhibits a very narrow focus on education that has been the source of much

criticism among women‟s rights advocates. This criticism mainly focused on the lack of in-

corporating reproductive rights, a violence against women dimension, as well as rights

regarding decent work standards; beyond that the lack of an overall gender perspective in the

formulation of the MDGs was condemned (Heyzer, 2005). Yet, the indicators cover a broader

scope of issues. They measure the ratio of girls to boys at various levels of education, the ratio

of literate women to men within a certain age group, the share of women in wage employment

2 Target 4 reads: “Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all

levels of education no later than 2015” (UN, 2000).

Reducing Gender Inequality

(+)

(Pro-poor) Economic Growth/

Development

(+)

Poverty Alleviation

(+)

Empowering Women

(+)



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in the non-agricultural sector, and the proportion of seats held by women in national parlia-

ment (UN, 2000b). Thus, they cover education, formal labor market participation and political

representation.

The Millennium Declaration, which was also adopted at the Millennium Summit, fur-

ther recognizes the importance of gender equality not only as an intrinsic but as an

instrumental concern, it states: “promote gender equality and the empowerment of women as

effective ways to combat poverty, hunger, disease and to stimulate development that is truly

sustainable” (UN, 2000a, p. 5). Thus, consensus regarding the value of gender equality exists

among international organizations and within the international community of states in two

dimensions. Firstly, consensus was reached regarding the intrinsic value of gender equality, as

manifests by it being one of eight MDGs. Secondly, the instrumental role of gender equality

and women‟s empowerment in meeting the MDGs was valued in the Millennium Declaration.

However, not all of the parties that have agreed upon this consensus exhibit the political will

to establish substantial efforts in realizing these goals on a local, national, and global level.

Accordingly, the Millennium Development Goals Report 2008 by the UN notices considera-

ble improvements within primary education on the one hand, even though girls from poor

rural families are still worst off, but on the other hand the situation of women employed in

non-agricultural wage employment remains worrying and political representation improves

rather slowly. The timely realization of the goals remains a huge challenge for international

organizations, national political players, and other involved actors.

3.5. Main Challenges within Women’s Empowerment

Many challenges persist when it comes to women‟s empowerment. Thus, an extensive over-

view of all potential challenges would go beyond the scope of this paper. Instead, four central

challenge clusters that address the main strategic needs within women‟s empowerment are

identified. These four clusters will be important when analyzing and comparing the approach-

es regarding women‟s empowerment of three selected socially entrepreneurial organizations

in the analytical part of this paper. The challenges are: (1) enhancing access to education,

training, and capacity building, (2) enhancing access to factors of production as well as the

formal labor market, (3) promoting women‟s political representation, as well as (4) lobbying

for a change of social institutions and cultural practices. All these issues have a clear strategic

relevance for women‟s empowerment, are partially interrelated and to some extent reinforc-

ing.



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The first challenge „enhancing access to education, training, and capacity building‟ has

a clear strategic dimension within women‟s empowerment. According to Kabeer (2005)

strong evidence was found that education enhances “women‟s capacity to question, to reflect

on, and to act on the conditions of their lives and to gain access to knowledge, information,

and new ideas that will help them to do so” (p. 16), as well as it increases “women‟s capacity

to deal with the outside world” (p. 17). Education and capacity training enable women to enter

marketplaces, as well as to appeal to local authorities effectively. Further, “the exposure to

new ideas can translate into direct collective challenges to male prerogatives” (Kabeer, 2005,

p. 17) and Kabeer refers to other studies that have shown that education leads to changes of

power relations in the private and public sphere. Thus, education and capacity building have a

clear strategic dimension, which is further emphasized by their dominant role in MDG 3.

The second challenge „enhancing access to factors of production as well as the formal

labor market‟ also responds to strategic women‟s needs and is especially related to economic

empowerment as one aspect of women‟s empowerment. When women engage in paid work

and thus change a household‟s income pattern, this potentially shifts power relations within

the family. Studies from South America as well as from South Asia show that women who

contribute a considerable share of household income, are able to renegotiate decision-making

roles in the household (Kabeer, 2005). Further, this enhanced women‟s sense of self-worth

and achievement. Microcredit programs often organize borrowers in groups, both elements

combined have further positive effects on women such as: “higher levels of political participa-

tion, improved access to government programs, and practical skills, as well as knowledge of

the wider society, self-confidence in dealing with public officials, and the likelihood of partic-

ipating in protests and campaigns” (Kabeer, 2005, p. 18). Thus, the second challenge responds

to strategic needs and highlights the interdependence with other challenges. The MDG indica-

tor on the share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector measures

developments within this challenge cluster at least to some extent.

The third challenge „promoting women‟s political representation‟ has an obvious stra-

tegic dimension and aims at women‟s political empowerment, which would reinforce

women‟s empowerment in other dimensions and has great potential for transformation. In-

creased women‟s representation would change the political agenda, bring new perspectives

into the policy making process, and alter resource allocation. According to Kabeer (2005)

studies have shown that women set different priorities than men and thus allocate resources

differently. One of the MDG indicators measures the proportion of seats held by women in

national parliament; however, for poor women the local level is at least equally important and



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has direct impact on their life. Thus, political representation at all levels has a strong strategic

dimension within women‟s empowerment.

The fourth challenge „lobbying for a change of social institutions and cultural practic-

es‟ deals with the probably most fundamental source of gender inequality. Jütting and

Morrisson (2005) emphasize: “Within the overall institutional setting, social institutions and

cultural practices - i.e. laws, norms, traditions and codes of conduct - often are the main

sources of persisting discrimination against women in developing countries” (p. 5). Therefore,

changing or abolishing patriarchal institutions, challenging existing social power relations in

the private and public sphere, as well as establishing equal rights and opportunities, all re-

spond to obvious strategic women‟s needs. This challenge is highly interrelated with many

other challenges within women‟s empowerment, and is often seen as the most complex one.

Many different approaches are employed today to empower women while working on

one or multiple of the identified challenge clusters. The impact of the different approaches is

often not properly assessed. Yet, in times of aggravating resource scarcity it becomes increa-

singly important to measure the impact on women‟s empowerment to indentify best practices

and be able to use scarce resources in the most efficient and especially effective manner. This

remains a complex task since social value creation and impact on women‟s empowerment are

difficult if not in some dimensions impossible to quantify. In the analytical part, the ap-

proaches to women‟s empowerment of the three social entrepreneurial organizations are

examined by looking at their responses to the four challenge clusters. Analyzing those social-

ly entrepreneurial organizations‟ work entails introducing the concept of social

entrepreneurship. This will be done in the following chapter.

4. Social Entrepreneurship

In order to present the concept of social entrepreneurship in a holistic manner, this chapter

commences by presenting the emergence of the subject. It then defines social entrepreneur-

ship as well as important related terms in some depth, before concluding by identifying

current opportunities and challenges within the field.

4.1. Emergence of Social Entrepreneurship

Since the mid-nineties the concept of social entrepreneurship has been emerging within scien-

tific research as well as in the practice of the so-called citizen sector3. This may be illustrated

3 The term 'citizen sector' has emerged recently and come to replace notions as 'third sector' or 'non-profit sector'.



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by referring to the Social Science Citation Index and searching for the terms “social entrepre-

neur*” and “social enterprise*” which leads to the following results.

Figure 3: Citations and Items Published on Social Entrepreneurship

Source:

http://apps.isiknowledge.com/CitationReport.do?product=WOS&search_mode=CitationReport&SID=W12Nlicm2EOCGkfiJ

Bo&page=1&cr_pqid=17

The first figure above indicates how often articles on the topics “social entrepreneur*” and

“social enterprise*” have been cited in other articles, while the second specifies the absolute

number of published items in each year. It must be acknowledged that this database does not

access all relevant journals and sources, but it nevertheless exhibits the overall trend and

shows how the emergence of this topic within the scientific sphere has been accelerating in

the last years. This trend can also be observed by looking at the increasing number of univer-

sities offering courses in social entrepreneurship or even opening specifically dedicated

research centers (Bornstein, 2007; Nicholls, 2006). Further, in the praxis this trend becomes

manifest when looking at the growing number of Ashoka fellows and the election of Ashoka

fellows also in developed countries since 2006 (Ashoka, 2009). The OECD identifies social

entrepreneurship as “a consolidated, growing trend in most OECD member and non-member

countries” (OECD, 2009, p. 13). Moreover Bornstein (2007) mentions that media coverage on



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social entrepreneurship has been exploding in recent years and has hence introduced the con-

cept to a broad public.

This emergence of social entrepreneurship can be explained by growing concerns that

governments, traditional non-profit organizations, multilateral institutions and the business

sector have not been able to find and implement effective solutions to pressing social prob-

lems (Bornstein, 2007; Nicholls, 2006; Yunus, 2007). According to Nicholls (2006) two types

of drivers can be identified when analyzing the growth of social entrepreneurship, those aris-

ing from the supply side as well as those attributable to the demand side. He accounts the

following developments to the supply side type: increase in global per capita wealth and im-

proved social mobility, extended productive lifetime, increase in number of democratic

governments, increased power of multinational corporations, better education levels, as well

as improved communication. While the demand side includes: rising crises in environment

and health, rising economic inequality, government inefficiencies in public service delivery,

retreat of government in face of free market ideology, more developed roles for NGOs as well

as rising resource competition.

Bornstein (2007) emphasizes that socially entrepreneurial organizations are not an en-

tirely new concept, but their present emergence is qualitatively different in certain respects: an

unprecedented scale, greater diversity and global dispersion, better systemic approaches to

problem-solving, higher independency and ability to pressure government, engagement in

partnerships with multiple players and thereby capability enhancement, as well as a stimulat-

ing effect on the citizen sector by introducing new notions of entrepreneurialism, competition,

collaboration and performance.

4.2. Defining Social Entrepreneurship, Social Entrepreneur and Social En-

terprise

Since the research on social entrepreneurship is relatively recent, consensus has not yet been

reached on all the aspects of the definition of social entrepreneurship, the role of the social

entrepreneur and the characteristics of a social enterprise. Each of these three terms will now

be considered in turn.

4.2.1. Social Entrepreneurship

According to Tan, Williams and Tan (2005) three approaches to social entrepreneurship exist:

the first one views it as the act of combining commercial enterprises with social impacts, the

second as innovation for social impacts and the third understands it as medium for systemic



18

social transformation. So far consensus has been reached, that the primary goal of social en-

trepreneurship is social value creation (Light, 2008). Despite the many different definitions

Nicholls (2006) defines two common constituent elements: “a prime strategic focus on social

impact and an innovative approach to achieving its mission” (p. 13). This strategic focus dis-

tinguishes socially entrepreneurial organizations from other organizations in the not-for-profit

sector (Weerawardena & Sullivan Mort, 2006). A distinction between social entrepreneurship

and traditional entrepreneurship can be drawn regarding the primary aim for social value crea-

tion of socially entrepreneurial organizations, and thus public rather than private benefit.

Further, many authors agree that social entrepreneurship responds to opportunities

such as unmet or new social needs, and some authors consider these opportunities as arising

from social market failures. Beyond these rather narrow agreements on the goal of social en-

trepreneurship, its innovative character, and responsiveness to opportunities, much debate

regarding the actors and the actual process remains. Nicholls and Young (2008) emphasize

that the lack of a broad consensual definition of social entrepreneurship stems from its intrin-

sic nature as being dynamic and change-oriented, and thus warn that it would be dangerous to

mainstream the approaches.

The development of definitions on social entrepreneurship shall now be exemplified

by looking at four definitions. These definitions will be compared and analyzed regarding the

four components of social entrepreneurship as established by Light (2008), which are (1) en-

trepreneurs, (2) ideas, (3) opportunities, and (4) organizations. According to Light these

components can be used to classify the literature and are especially helpful to identify the

weight put on each component by the different authors. The analyzed definitions are from

Leadbeater, Dees, Weerawardena and Sullivan Mort, as well as Light himself. They can be

divided into an early group that includes the first two authors and a recent group including the

other two authors. This selection aims at showing the development of the term.

Leadbeater (1997), one of the early researchers on social entrepreneurship, investi-

gated how social entrepreneurs could provide services that the UK welfare state failed to

deliver. His definition is based on the cases that he analyzed (Leadbeater, 1997, p. 50):

(i) At the heart of all these projects stands a dynamic social entrepreneur, who

drives the project on. Without this central figure none of these projects would

have got started. However, the mere presence of a social entrepreneur will not

be enough to create an entrepreneurial social organization.

(ii) One of the main tasks of the founder in all these case studies has been to create

a wider organization, which is flexible and flat, with a strong culture of crea-



19

tivity and openness. However, even that is not enough to explain why these or-

ganizations are entrepreneurial. Plenty of voluntary organizations have strong

leaders and flexibility without being innovative. A third factor is involved.

(iii) All these organizations adopt a complex, open and dynamic relationship with

their users, partners and funders.

The analysis of this definition with regard to Lights‟ four components shows that Leadbeater

puts a strong emphasis on the individual entrepreneur, as the initiator of social entrepreneur-

ship. He further emphasizes the importance of creative and particularly innovative ideas and

refers to organizations. The notion of opportunity is not present in his definition.

Dees, who is one of the best-known researchers on social entrepreneurship, supplied a

well recognized definition (1998a, p. 4):

Social entrepreneurs play the role of change agents in the social sector, by:

Adopting a mission to create and sustain social value (not just private value),

Recognizing and relentlessly pursuing new opportunities to serve that mission,

Engaging in a process of continuous innovation, adaptation, and learning,

Acting boldly without being limited by resources currently in hand, and

Exhibiting a heightened sense of accountability to the constituencies served and

for the outcomes created.

In this definition he states the goal of social value creation, which was not yet present explicit-

ly in Leadbeater‟s definition. Further, he introduces the concept of a strong social mission

focus that many other authors then take up. He also emphasizes the role of the entrepreneur

and applies the concept of change agents, which comes from traditional entrepreneurial re-

search. The importance of ideas is implicitly present in his definition, found in the notion of

the mission and the process of continuous innovation. In contrast to Leadbeater he explicitly

mentions opportunities but does not refer to the role of organizations in social entrepreneur-

ship.

The definition of Weerawardena and Sullivan Mort is more recent than the two already

introduced definitions, and therefore includes some of the consensus reached in the meantime.

It reads as follows (2006, p. 32):

Social entrepreneurship strives to achieve social value creation and this requires the

display of innovativeness, proactiveness and risk management behavior. This behavior

is constrained by the desire to achieve the social mission and to maintain the sustai-

nability of the existing organization. In doing so they are responsive to and

constrained by environmental dynamics.



20

The authors also define social value creation as the objective of social entrepreneurship. Fur-

ther, just like Dees they stress the importance of the social mission. The innovation of this

definition lies in the fact that they draw attention to the importance of the environmental con-

text and thereby relate social entrepreneurship to the setting in which it takes place. Emphasis

is also put on active risk management. The two components, ideas and opportunities, can be

recognized implicitly in the notions of innovativeness and proactiveness. Moreover, this defi-

nition gives a prominent role to organizations, but says nothing in respect to the role of

entrepreneurs. In this regard, it strongly differs from Dees‟ definition. The novelty of this de-

finition is that it introduces parameters and restrictions that guide the process of social

entrepreneurship. It is hence process-oriented and no longer focused on the actions of an indi-

vidual change agent.

The last definition is from Light. After its publication in 2006 it was highly contested

and he has partially revised it, but it shall be used here to show a fundamentally different de-

finition (Light, 2008, p. 12):

Social entrepreneurship is an effort by an individual, group, network, organization, or

alliance of organizations that seeks sustainable, large-scale change through pattern-

breaking ideas in what governments, nonprofits, and businesses do to address signifi-

cant social problems.4

This definition is much more inclusive than the other three definitions and identifies a broad

category of possible actors as well as spheres for action. It differs from the prior definitions

since the objective is not simply defined as social value creation but must be pattern-breaking.

Furthermore, the importance of ideas is explicitly stated, while entrepreneurs or organization

could play a role but not necessarily do so. The significance of opportunities is not mentioned

in this definition. The figure below illustrates the different foci of all four definitions.

Figure 4: Overview of Definitions of Social Entrepreneurship

Author: Social entrepreneurship as: E I Op Org

Leadbeater

(1997)

presence of an ambitious leader

creative use of minimal resources

formation of inclusive organizations that

build long-term relationships with clients

X X X

4 The revised definition reads: social entrepreneurship are efforts to solve intractable social problems through

pattern-breaking change. Thus, the definition is shortened to leave open the actors and places of occurrences of

social entrepreneurship.



21

Dees (1998a) production of social value by individuals (change

agents) in the social sector, by:

adopting a mission to create and sustain so-

cial value (not just private value)

recognizing and relentlessly pursuing new

opportunities to serve that mission

engaging in a process of continuous innova-

tion, adaptation, and learning

acting boldly without being limited by re-

sources currently in hand

exhibiting a heightened sense of accountabili-

ty to the constituencies served and for the

outcomes created

X X X

Weerwawardena

and Sullivan

Mort (2006)

striving to achieve social value creation

requiring the display of innovativeness, proac-

tiveness and risk management behavior

responsive to and constrained by the desire to

achieve the social mission, maintaining the

sustainability of the existing organization, and

environmental dynamics

X X X

Light (2006) an effort by an individual, group, network,

organization, or alliance of organizations

seeking sustainable, large-scale change

through pattern-breaking ideas in what gov-

ernments, nonprofits, and businesses do to

address significant social problems

(X) X (X)

The four right columns indicate if the components entrepreneurs (E), ideas (I), opportunities (Op) and organizations (Org) are

present in the definition.

The only Lightian component present in all four definitions is the importance of innovative

ideas. Less consensus exists concerning the role of entrepreneurs and organizations, which

could be broadened to the question: Who are the actors and in what framework do they pro-

ceed? Furthermore, the role of opportunities within social entrepreneurship is also contested.

The definitions have become more process-oriented over time, but no broad consensus has yet

been reached concerning the parameters and restrictions of the socially entrepreneurial

process. This remains a contested question in the existing literature.

A common approach to categorizing different organizational forms is by their source

of funding or by the degree of market orientation, which are in fact highly related (Nicholls,



22

2006). Attracting resources is a key concern for socially entrepreneurial organizations. Ac-

cording to Nicholls one of the main reasons for the predominant resource shortage is that the

funds available do not develop at the same pace as the socially entrepreneurial organizations

themselves; this leads to a systematic funding shortage. Hence, socially entrepreneurial organ-

izations often engage with multiple potential sources of financing such as governments,

philanthropic institutions, the voluntary sector, banks and the commercial market (Defourny,

2004). Due to this resource shortage and the search for sustainability, a variety of different

organizational forms have developed, reaching from entirely not-for-profit and thus grant

funded organizations to partially or fully self-funding organizations (Bornstein, 2007). A dy-

namic continuum is helpful in order to categorize different approaches within social

entrepreneurship. Dees (1998b) distinguishes five pure types along this continuum, next to

which mixed types can also exist. The figure below illustrates the idea of a continuum, along

which the five types of Dees are placed.

Figure 5: Dynamic Continuum of Financial Sustainability

Source: Adapted from Dees (1998b)

Further, because of heightened competition and the complexity of the social problems various

hybrid forms emerge. Nicholls states that socially entrepreneurial organizations “defy the tra-

ditional isomorphic forces that often constrain and categorize organizational innovation (…),

preferring instead constantly to challenge the status quo by reconfiguring accepted value crea-

tion boundaries (public/ private, for-profit/ not-for-profit and economic/ social)” (p. 11).

Social entrepreneurship occurs at the point of convergence of the public, private, and

citizen sector and exploits opportunities to respond to pressing social needs with innovative

solutions to maximize social value creation. Organizations that engage in social entrepreneur-

ship will be called socially entrepreneurial organizations in this paper.

full phi-

lanthropic

support

partial self-

sufficiency

cash flow

self-

sufficiency

support

cash flow

self-

sufficiency

full-scale

commercia-

lization

operating

expenses

self-

partial self-

sufficiency

sufficiency

operating ex-

penses self-

sufficiency

full-scale

commercia-

lization



23

4.2.2. Social Entrepreneur

Bornstein (2007) characterizes social entrepreneurs as “transformational forces: people with

new ideas to address major problems who are relentless in the pursuit of their visions, people

who simply will not take „no‟ for an answer, who will not give up until they have spread their

ideas as far as they possibly can” (p. 1). Ashoka selects its social entrepreneurs according to

four criteria that each successful candidate must fulfill jointly. These are (Bornstein, 2007):

goal-setting as well as problem-solving creativity,

entrepreneurial quality,

social impact of the idea, and

ethical fiber.

With exception of the third criteria, these focus on the individual social entrepreneur and em-

phasize the qualities that a social entrepreneur must combine.

Similar to Ashoka‟s practically employed selection criteria; early research in the field

of social entrepreneurship has been highly focused on social entrepreneurs. These were then

characterized as having special traits such as a strong passion to realize their personal vision,

special leadership abilities, and strong ethical fiber (Mair & Martí, 2006). However, Nicholls

(2006) states that there is a growing understanding within contemporary academic research

that the innovativeness and effectiveness of social entrepreneurship are mostly the result of

groups, networks and formal or informal organizations and not solely of individuals. Still,

social entrepreneurs play key roles in creating and maintaining socially entrepreneurial ven-

tures. Furthermore, this concept links traditional theories of entrepreneurship to the concept of

social entrepreneurship, and Dees (1998a) claims that social and business entrepreneurs both

share certain traits. A review of the notion of social entrepreneur is thus important for the sake

of completeness of this paper.

Dees (1998a) based his definition of social entrepreneurship (introduced above) on the

importance of social entrepreneurs as change agents. He reached this definition by reviewing

some key definitions of traditional business entrepreneurs by Say, Schumpeter, Drucker, and

Stevenson. Two of these will be reviewed in order to illustrate the influence of research on

traditional entrepreneurs on theories of social entrepreneurs. Schumpeter (1984) defines en-

trepreneurs as innovators that pursue creative destruction by reforming and revolutionizing

the production process but not necessarily by creating a new venture. Social entrepreneurs

also aim for creative destruction and substantively change the process of delivery of goods

and services within their market. This is also inherent in Dees (1998a) definition of social

entrepreneurs as change agents.



24

Drucker (1993) emphasizes the importance of opportunities for entrepreneurs that

Dees incorporates in his definition. He defines opportunities as possibilities to create value,

and for social entrepreneurs this means social value creation. According to Drucker, a profit

motive is not a prerequisite for being an entrepreneur and similarly Dees (1998a) states: “so-

cial entrepreneurs are one species in the genus entrepreneur” (p. 3). They are “innovative,

opportunity-oriented, resourceful, value-creating change agents” (Dees, Emerson & Econo-

my, 2001, p. 4). Nevertheless social entrepreneurs can be distinguished from traditional

entrepreneurs by their social mission focus, which makes it their ultimate objective to dispose

the social need that constitutes their starting point and thereby remove the need for their own

existence (Nicholls, 2006).

4.2.3. Social Enterprise

The term social enterprise is used in contradictory ways within the field of social entrepre-

neurship. It has often been used as a synonym for social entrepreneurship, even though it is

rather a sub-category of it (Young, 2006). The inclusive definitions perceive all socially en-

trepreneurial organizations as social enterprises, while exclusive definitions make full cost

recovery and thus self-funding a prerequisite for the existence of a social enterprise or social

business. According to Mulgan (2006) social enterprises are “social ventures that have inde-

pendent revenue streams” and they “compete either directly or indirectly with private firms

and state agencies” (p. 79). Light (2008) also identified a slight difference regarding the scal-

ing-up objectives of social enterprises: “whereas social entrepreneurship seeks tipping points

for innovation and change, social enterprise seeks profits for reinvestment and growth” (p. 5).

Yunus (2007) defines social enterprise, or social business as he calls it, as follows (p. 21-22):

In its organizational structure, this new business is basically the same as the existing

profit-maximizing businesses. But it differs in its objectives. Like other businesses, it

employs workers, creates goods or services, and provides these to customers for a

price consistent with its objective. But its underlying objective (…) is to create social

benefits for those whose lives it touches. The company itself may earn a profit, but the

investors who support it do not take any profits out of the company except recouping

an amount equivalent to original investment over a period of time. A social business is

a company that is cause-driven rather than profit-driven, with the potential to act as a

change agent for the world.



25

The advantage of this specific sub-category of social entrepreneurship is, according to Yunus

(2007), that this organizational form is self-sustaining, self-propelling, self-perpetuating, and

self-expanding.

Since many organizations strive for the “holy grail of financial sustainability” (Dees,

1998b, p. 56), becoming a social enterprise might be their ultimate goal. But this is not and

should not be the goal for all socially entrepreneurial organizations, since each organization

must find the right mix of market orientation and funding sources, as well as an appropriate

organizational model to fulfill its specific mission. This paper will use the exclusive definition

of social enterprises as a sub-category of socially entrepreneurial organizations.

4.3. Opportunities and Challenges

Opportunities and challenges can be identified in two dimensions: first, those opportunities

and challenges that arise when newly engaging in social entrepreneurship; second, novel op-

portunities and challenges to existing socially entrepreneurial organizations. This section will

concentrate on the latter dimension since it is more relevant for the case analysis. According

to Nicholls (2006) four key challenges exist today: “foundation support, creating a social

finance marketplace, developing strategic competencies around sustainability, and pursuing a

blended value approach to measure success” (p. 24). This paper identifies three clusters of

challenges, which incorporate Nicholls findings.

The first cluster arises around questions of resource allocation and performance mea-

surement and thus includes the first two as well as the last of the challenges identified by

Nicholls. As mentioned above, resource attraction is the major challenge for numerous social-

ly entrepreneurial organizations (Bornstein, 2007). Thus, innovative finance mechanisms and

pioneering resource strategies have to be invented; this requires multiple stakeholders such as

governments, banks, donors, clients and socially entrepreneurial organizations to work closely

together. However, within these problems there also lies great potential to seize arising oppor-

tunities. In this context the OECD (2009) is advising national governments to adjust public

policy frameworks to facilitate social entrepreneurship. Their policy recommendations to

governments include: fiscal incentives to investors, credit enhancement, public procurement,

legislative innovations, network creation, support services provision, offering training oppor-

tunities and spearheading innovative institutional arrangements.

Some new opportunities in the sphere of financing are already emerging. Venture phi-

lanthropy serves as a new funding source to social entrepreneurs. Foundations act increasingly

strategically, and create funds that invest into socially entrepreneurial organizations over a



26

certain period of time, during which they provide support services such as networking or

management consulting (Nicholls, 2006). This develops a new promising form of foundation

support. Furthermore, a group of authors including Nicholls (2006) and Yunus (2008) calls

for the creation of a social stock market to allocate resources more efficiently. Creating a suit-

able arrangement to make such a stock market workable and efficient is a major challenge for

theorists. Such a project would require that performance can be measured and different or-

ganizations can be compared. While it is easy to measure the performance of a profit oriented

enterprise by evaluating its profit, social value creation by socially entrepreneurial organiza-

tions is hard to measure (Dees, 1998a). It then follows that resources are not efficiently

allocated among socially entrepreneurial organizations and inefficient organizations are not

necessarily pushed out of the market. Bornstein (2007) states “the best way to improve per-

formance in the citizen sector is to improve the capital allocation” (p. 278). Thus, finding

appropriate tools to assess social impact poses a major challenge. However, evaluating organ-

izations only according to quantitative measures could create unintentional results and

threaten the core of social entrepreneurship. This question is therefore highly complex.

The second cluster of challenges incorporates the third challenge identified by Ni-

cholls, which called for developing strategic competencies around sustainability. This is

related to the challenges of replicability and scaling up. Creating sustainable organizations,

replicating successful approaches in other locations and scaling up successful processes are

major challenges in the practice of social entrepreneurship. They are very important in order

to increase the global impact of social entrepreneurship effectively. Regional, national and

global networks and alliances with various stakeholders play a key role in responding to this

challenge cluster (Nicholls, 2006).

The third challenge cluster is rather new and arises from the current financial and eco-

nomic crisis. On the one hand new opportunities to social entrepreneurship arise as the free

market ideology has shown weaknesses and there are dominant calls for more integral think-

ing and actions. However, on the other hand the funding shortage could be aggravated as

major donors such as governments have to cut back expenditures. These new opportunities

and challenges need to be researched in depth and suitable responses need to be defined.

The opportunities and challenges discussed above are general and hence potentially af-

fect socially entrepreneurial organizations. In the analytical part, specific challenges

encountered by the three chosen social entrepreneurial organizations will be examined. After

a brief interims conclusion, the next part commences by explaining the chosen methodology

and then proceeds by introducing the three selected cases.



27

5. Interim Conclusion Part II

Socially entrepreneurial organizations with their innovative approaches play a key role in em-

powering women, thereby realizing MDG 3, and finally contribute to poverty alleviation.

These organizations are indispensable in empowering women, since they respond to the main

challenges with bottom-up approaches, which stand at the core of women‟s empowerment. By

commencing with grass-root organizing of women around basic needs, they aim at ultimately

promoting women‟s strategic needs. By helping women to gain more self-esteem and confi-

dence, socially entrepreneurial organizations facilitate women‟s empowerment from within.

Rather different approaches are employed by the multiple socially entrepreneurial organiza-

tions active within this field, but in the end their common objective is to advance women‟s

agency, resources, and achievements with innovative and effective solutions. Their advantage

over other actors is that they are highly responsive, flexible and not afraid to revise their in-

terventions.

Their approaches are often a reaction to the failure of traditional approaches to devel-

opment, poverty alleviation and promotion of gender equality in particular, which were

traditionally mainly conducted as top-down. However, it would be unrealistic to perceive so-

cially entrepreneurial organizations as the ultimate solution that is going to fix all the

problems. These organizations also work under resource constraints and some issues are

beyond their direct influence. Nevertheless, socially entrepreneurial organizations with their

bottom-up approaches are a highly effective actor within women‟s empowerment especially

in developing countries. They have the capacity to reverse the vicious cycle of persistent

gender inequality and poverty; by promoting women‟s empowerment they ultimately facili-

tate poverty alleviation. Three such socially entrepreneurial organizations engaged in

women‟s empowerment will be introduced in Part III and then comparatively analyzed in Part

IV.



28

III EMPIRICAL CASE STUDIES

6. Methodology

This paper qualitatively compares three cases. When using a case-oriented comparative me-

thodology it is essential to choose the level and unit of analysis carefully (Hantrais, 2009).

This paper chooses a level of analysis in between the traditional levels of analysis „state‟ and

„individual‟, and the chosen level lies at the melting point of the public, the private and the

citizen sector. Further, three socially entrepreneurial organizations constitute the units of

analysis. These organizations have been selected as they are all engaged in social entrepre-

neurship and target women‟s empowerment. However, they use three rather different

approaches. In fact, that these organizations are located at different points along the dynamic

continuum regarding their financial model and degree of market orientation, is another reason

for this case selection. Thus, it is a non-random sample.

In order to undertake a qualitative case-oriented approach to the comparative method,

each case has to be presented in-depth separately first, to allow for a holistic understanding of

the case‟s uniqueness; only then an analysis focusing on similarities and differences is carried

out in order to identify patterns and factors for success (Patton, 1990). The advantage of con-

ducting a qualitative case-oriented comparison is that it is a very holistic approach to a

research question and it embraces the complexity of the subject (Hantrais, 2009). Focusing on

the case study aspect Patton (1990) emphasizes: “Case studies are particularly valuable when

the evaluation aims to capture individual differences or unique variations from one program

setting to another or from one program experience to another. A case can be (…) an organiza-

tion (…). Regardless of the unit of analysis, a qualitative case study seeks to describe that unit

in depth and detail, in context, and holistically.” (p. 54). Similarly, Ragin (1987) states while

focusing more on the comparative aspect: “qualitative comparison allows examination of con-

stellations, configurations, and conjunctures. It is especially well suited for addressing

questions about outcomes resulting from multiple and conjunctural causes” (p. x). Thus, a

qualitative case-oriented comparative method is well suited for analyzing and comparing the

three different approaches towards empowering women. By focusing on similarities and dif-

ferences between the three cases, advantages, disadvantages and omissions of the approaches

are studied. This allows the paper to identify good practices5 and recommend their implemen-

tation by the analyzed organizations and beyond those.

5 In order to identify not only good but best practices in the field, the sample would need to be larger.



29

The usual drawback of qualitative research, that one cannot derive general relation-

ships, is not relevant for this paper, since its sole objective is to identify good practices from

the sample. The derived recommendations could be relevant for similar organizations and

other actors in the field, but the paper does not aim at formulating general causal relation-

ships. A small number of cases and a non-random selection always reduce the significance of

a study, but due to the research objective the chosen approach seems reasonable.

The case studies are conducted as desk research by analyzing various publicly availa-

ble materials, including films, recorded interviews, websites of the organizations as well as of

donors, existing scientific research on the organizations and other accessible documents and

data. The extensive data is analyzed with particular regard to the organizational model, the

distinctive features of the approach to women‟s empowerment, and the advantages and omis-

sions of their particular interventions. It must be mentioned that the author of this paper has a

more thorough understanding of one of the three organizations (Gram Vikas) due to a project

conducted on-site. However, the paper strives to be objective and all approaches are analyzed

and interpreted in the same manner; the reliability should not be reduced because of this. In

the end, it seems to be an advantage for the understanding of the topic.

7. Selected Cases

This paper will ignore any differences between the three countries, in which the chosen so-

cially entrepreneurial organizations operate. When introducing the cases it will also refrain

from introducing this background at all. This reduction of complexity seems reasonable since

this paper aims at researching the solutions rather than the problems. Further, it is regarded as

even more legitimate, since the conditions in the three countries resemble each other to some

extent; they are all located in South or South-East Asia, and have devastating poverty rates, as

well as a predominant patriarchal systems and strong discrimination of women. Each case will

now be individually presented, focusing on the approach of the organization to women‟s em-

powerment, but also considering its origin, objectives and mission.6

6 The following case descriptions are based primarily on the websites of each organization (which are cited in the

reference list). Therefore, only information based on sources other than the particular website are provided with

a reference in the text. All other information can be found on the organizations‟ websites and for reasons of clari-

ty these sources are not stated as reference within the text repeatedly.



30

7.1. Gram Vikas

Gram Vikas is a rural development organization that was founded by a group of students

around Joe Madiath in the East Indian state of Orissa in 1979. The socially entrepreneurial

organization works with marginalized rural communities in poor isolated parts of Orissa and

brings to them a holistic approach of rural development including the installation of water and

sanitation facilities, as well as the strengthening of basic democratic institutions. Gram Vikas

is led by its vision to create “an equitable and sustainable society where people live in peace

with dignity”7. Great focus is put on the enhancement of people‟s dignity, since many of the

people living in the targeted communities have lost their sense of dignity and self-worth after

years of marginalization and life in poverty. Gram Vikas' mission is “to promote processes

which are sustainable, socially inclusive and gender equitable to enable critical masses of

poor and marginalized rural people or communities to achieve a dignified quality of life”8.

Gram Vikas is aiming at achieving its mission with a multi-faceted approach that is embed-

ding practical as well as strategic women‟s needs within the framework of overall community

development (Jayapadma, 2009). As of March 2007 Gram Vikas has reached more than

47,885 households9, of which 38% were scheduled tribes and 13% were Untouchables. By

2010 it aims at covering 100,000 households in Orissa, while enforcing collaboration with

other NGOs.

Gram Vikas uses water and sanitation as an entry point into new communities. The in-

novation of Gram Vikas‟ approach to rural development lies in the principles of 100%

inclusion and cost sharing. Gram Vikas only conducts a project with a village if all adult

women and men agree to it. First of all, this is necessary to ensure that no one is defecating

outside and thereby contaminating the drinking water of all. Yet secondly, it also ensures that

all work together to achieve their development, thereby enhancing the sustainability of the

program. It also emphasizes that women should have an active role in decision-making. Fur-

ther, women participate equally in all steps of the construction process and are also trained as

masons and plumbers, to challenge traditional gender roles. Gram Vikas‟ second innovation is

that it makes the beneficiaries pay for their own development. Each household has to contri-

bute according to its capacity. The fee is not only a token fee, but a considerable contribution.

Beneficiaries donate financial resources, local materials, as well as in-kind labor. Gram Vikas

acts as a facilitator that supplies external materials and training. This cost sharing creates a

7 http://www.gramvikas.org/ ( see: Who we are => Vision and Mission)

8 http://www.gramvikas.org/ ( see: Who we are => Vision and Mission)

9 In developing countries a household includes 5 members on average. Thus, this would translate into reaching

about 240,000 individuals.



31

sense of ownership, makes the beneficiaries a partner rather than a receiver, and thus en-

hances people‟s dignity.

Gram Vikas‟ approach is complex and multifaceted. The paper will focus on introduc-

ing the parts that serve women‟s strategic needs in some way, and thus have an effect on

empowerment. Building infrastructure such as piped water supply and sanitation facilities in

each household serves practical as well as strategic gender needs. Practical needs are served

as women no longer endure the drudgery of having to spend long hours a day fetching water

for the family. Furthermore, proper sanitation enables women, who formerly had to search for

private and possibly unsafe places to defecate during dusk or dawn, to do so in private, and to

properly clean themselves. The Water and Sanitation Program has reduced water-borne as

well as gynecological diseases considerably. Beyond that, strategic needs are served, as wom-

en may use the freed time to engage in income-generating activities, and thus can contribute

to the household‟s income, which potentially changes power relations within the household.

Gram Vikas further facilitates women‟s empowerment through the promotion of Self-

Help Groups (SHG). These groups typically consist of 10-15 members that meet regularly and

serve as a forum for discussion of women‟s, health or educational issues, but beyond that they

are also saving and credit groups. Members pay an agreed amount to the group‟s saving fund

each month and the group then grants micro loans to members. With the aid of Gram Vikas

many groups have also managed to access loans from local banks at prime rates, from which

the group supplies micro loans to its members at a slightly higher rate. Gram Vikas trains

these women in different income-generating activities and offers courses to enhance numeri-

cal and book-keeping skills. In the patriarchal communities of Orissa, where women were

often not even allowed to leave the house without the husband‟s permission, these groups

allow women from different households to meet and discuss various issues among themselves

for the first time. These groups play a key role in empowering women in the villages. They

give women a heightened sense of power and of self-worth.

Further, Gram Vikas promotes basic democratic institutions within the villages, in

which it operates. One executive committee as well as about four sub-committees are formed.

Gender parity is strived for in all these committees. According to the individual situation in

each village, women are first organized in separate committees if necessary, until they gain

enough confidence to speak up for their own views in a mixed committee. Special leadership

training and coaching is given to women. In the village‟s general body meeting, at least one

female and one male from every household must be present, to ensure that both genders par-

ticipate in all decision-making. The women that are organized in SHGs often have the most



32

self-esteem and continuously speak up more loudly, and demand that their voices be heard -

they serve as role models for other women. In some villages, with time the males accept the

women‟s new role and even value their participation (Jayapadma, 2009). The degree to which

women‟s participation has changed public decision-making is different in the villages, reach-

ing from equal participation to mere tokenism (Zweifel, 2001). Moreover, it is difficult to

measure the impact on bargaining power within the household. Nevertheless, Gram Vikas has

reached considerable success in bringing females and males together to make public deci-

sions, which is an important step in promoting political empowerment of women at village

level and beyond. Gram Vikas encourages women to run for local political offices.

Further, Gram Vikas actively promotes education and targets girls in particular. It has

built day cares, village level schools, as well as four residential schools for secondary educa-

tion. Improved infrastructure and day cares enhance the probability of female attendance,

since they disburden female children from chores in the household. Furthermore, village level

schools are beneficial, because girls are more likely to be sent to school when it is close by.

Regarding primary education in Gram Vikas‟ villages girls‟ attendance rates are quite high,

but they quickly drop when it comes to secondary education, since in remote areas of Orissa

this normally means having to attend a residential school. That girls and boys learn together in

school is important in teaching them gender equality and enhances the self-esteem of girls.

Furthermore, adult literacy classes are offered. Gram Vikas‟ work in enhancing education has

a positive impact on empowering women, since education always has a practical as well as

strategic dimension within women‟s empowerment.

7.2. Hagar

Hagar Project was founded by the Swiss nationals Simonetta and Pierre Tami in Cambodia in

1994. The organization targets severely disadvantaged women that have been victims of traf-

ficking, sexual exploitation, or domestic violence, as well as their children. It aims at

rehabilitating these vulnerable women, facilitating their social and economic empowerment,

and giving them back their sense of dignity. Hagar‟s Vision is that “the women and children

Hagar serves will enjoy a life of dignity, equipped to nurture their families, sustain employ-

ment and contribute meaningfully to communities”10

. Hagar commenced as a shelter for

women, but it has grown quickly and successfully and now proceeds with a holistic approach

by offering not only social services but also economic opportunities to women. Accordingly,

10 http://www.hagarproject.org/vision.php



33

Hagar‟s mission reads: “Restoring abused, exploited, and abandoned women and children to

life in all its fullness through quality holistic healing, community reintegration and social en-

trepreneurship”11

. Hagar Project is now called Hagar Cambodia12

and Hagar International was

created in 2006 to promote the replication of Hagar‟s approach within other countries in co-

operation with local NGOs. In 2008 the first Hagar project outside Cambodia was launched in

Afghanistan. According to the Schwab Foundation (2009) Hagar has improved the lives of

over 100,000 people since its formation.

Hagar‟s approach is centered on four R‟s: (1) risk reduction, (2) recovery, (3) reinte-

gration, and (4) resilience. „Risk reduction‟ aims at preventing women and children from

becoming the victims of abuse or trafficking. It consists of two programs: the Nourish to

Learn Program as well as the Access to Clean Water Program. The former includes construct-

ing and supporting schools, through practical incentives to teachers, parents and children, as

well as establishing community education and literacy training, to promote adult education.

Under the Clean Water Program bio-sand filters are constructed with the assistance of the

beneficiary and against a minimal fee. This responds to a practical women‟s need rather than

a strategic one.

The second element „recovery‟ focuses on giving immediate relief to victims through

psychological support as well as vocational and life skill training while living at the shelter.

Hagar begins helping the women to overcome their traumata. The women‟s children are being

cared for in day-cares or education centers offered by the shelter. Besides the recovery pro-

gram for women a recovery program for children exists. It includes foster homes that identify

foster families, the House of Smiles, which supports disabled children, as well as an Aftercare

Program that helps children that have been long term victims of commercial sexual exploita-

tion. The recovery program focuses on the immediate and practical needs of women and

children.

The third program element is „reintegration‟. After a first stage that lasts mostly about

one month and includes getting used to the new environment at the shelter as well as regain-

ing a sense of stability and self-worth, women start with literacy classes as well as vocational

skill training. Vocational training courses run for six month and apprenticeship opportunities

are offered at the end. Women can specialize in hair and beauty, sewing, or cooking. After

finishing their vocational training women can work with one of the Hagar social enterprises,

which will be introduced below. Hagar also works with the women to develop their soft skills,

11 http://www.hagarproject.org/vision.php

12 When referring to „Hagar‟ in this paper „Hagar Cambodia‟ is meant, since the Hagar approach was developed

in Cambodia and has matured there.



34

since due to the lack of formal work experience and the harsh past; these skills are often not

fully developed. The reintegration stage is further used to facilitate the transition to indepen-

dent living, as women move into community-based group homes. This stage has a practical

and a clear strategic dimension in women‟s empowerment, since it aids the women to reinte-

grate into the community as independent individuals as well as facilitating their economic

independence.

Resilience is the fourth element of Hagar‟s approach and its aim is to empower women

by not only reintegrating them socially, but also economically. Hagar has opened three social

enterprises: Hagar Catering, Hagar Soya, and Hagar On Time. Hagar Catering provides high-

quality meal catering services to cafeterias of hotels or factories. Hagar Soya is a fully com-

mercialized, innovative soya milk production factory. It produces long-lasting soya milk in

Tetrapak containers, as well as inexpensive fortified soya milk for school children. Hagar On

Time manufactures apparel and accessories for local sales as well as export purposes. All

three social enterprises offer long-term employment opportunities and thus economic empo-

werment to the women. The newly trained women are greatly motivated to work for these

enterprises and have finally found their spot in the formal labor market. The three social en-

terprises are highly market-orientated. Profits earned by these businesses flow back to support

the social work of Hagar. Thus, synergies exist between non- and for-profit activities of Ha-

gar. Further, Hagar continues to deliver social work services to the women living at

community level. Thus, the circle closes and connects to the services provided under the pro-

gram element risk reduction.

Through this holistic approach of social rehabilitation and economic empowerment,

Hagar aims at achieving successful community reintegration and facilitates a self-sustaining

livelihood for women. Even though much of its work responds to the urgent practical needs of

the targeted women, Hagar‟s work goes beyond that and facilitates women‟s empowerment

through education, training, and formal labor market entry as well as community integration.

It assists the women to regain their dignity and sense of self-esteem, so that they are equipped

to empower themselves.

7.3. Grameen Bank

The Grameen Bank Project was started by a group around Muhammad Yunus in 1976 in Ban-

gladesh. Grameen Bank was institutionalized as a formal bank in 1983. What started as a

small project giving few microcredits to rural poor in Bangladesh has turned into a major so-

cial enterprise that now serves more than 7.8 million people of which 97% are women in



35

about 84,096 villages across Bangladesh13

. Grameen Bank supplies microcredits primarily to

women, because it was discovered that women are more reliable and pay back their credits on

time. Further, income in the hands of women has higher benefits for the whole family (Yunus,

2007), which is supported by scientific research (for example: Blumberg, 1991). Grameen

Bank‟s objective is to make credit and banking services available to the poorest members of

the Bangladeshi society by inverting traditional rules of banking. Yunus (2007) believes that

microcredit is an effective tool to fight poverty - not only in Bangladesh but globally. Gra-

meen Bank‟s microcredit approach has been copied many times around the globe in

developing as well as developed countries.

The innovation of Grameen Bank is that it supplies microcredits to the poorest persons

of a community without receiving any collateral, guarantee or formal legal instrument. This

enables poor women without anything to offer as collateral to access financial resources.

However, whether a subsequent loan is granted depends on the repayment of the prior loan,

which creates a high incentive for poor people to pay back their loan. Further, each borrower

must be part of a five-member group that is assigned to a center located in the village. At the

weekly center meetings, where a local Grameen staff member is always present, repayments

are collected, new applications are processed, and practical, instructional, as well as inspira-

tional activities are undertaken. The meetings are also a platform for women to widen their

social network and discuss various issues. That the bank comes to its customers is crucial,

since the poor women are not very mobile due to poor infrastructure as well as cultural re-

strictions. Further, Grameen borrowers must also agree to follow a set of social and personal

commitments regarding family planning, children‟s education, or family‟s nutrition among

others, which is part of Grameen Bank‟s social development agenda.

Grameen offers four kinds of loan products with different interests. Grameen‟s interest

rates lie below those offered in the governmental microcredit program. The first product is a

basic loan, with an individually agreed duration, repayment schedule, and amount according

to the individual loan ceiling of the borrower. These loans are used to start or increase in-

come-generating activities. Grameen Bank does not influence borrowers in what business to

undertake and does not conduct any kind of training for the borrowers. Yunus (2007) believes

that every person can be an entrepreneur and should develop her or his own creativity and

skills. However, the center meetings serve as a platform were women talk about different in-

come-generating opportunities or exchange experiences. The loans offer women the strategic

13 In developing countries a household consist on average of 5 people. So by giving microcredit to about 7.8

millions Grameen Bank is affecting the lives of about 39 million people.



36

opportunity to access financial resources and become economically empowered, which poten-

tially enables them to challenge traditional power relations.

The second product is a housing loan that enables borrowers to improve or rebuild

their housing. An important women‟s interest is served since the legal ownership of houses

constructed with these loans lies with the women. This is a novelty in the patriarchal society

of Bangladesh where the males are traditionally the owners of all property. It promotes wom-

en‟s rights and power, and thus has a strategic dimension. The third loan product is a higher

education loan that is given to students and is free of interest payments during the time of

study. These loans together with performance-based scholarships to schoolchildren of bor-

rowers are effective ways of promoting education. The last loan product gives loans with

special rules to beggars. These are mainly used to serve practical needs. Additionally, Gra-

meen Bank has introduced a loan insurance, which amortizes the loan when the borrower dies

so that no one inherits debt, a life insurance scheme, and a pension fund. The pension fund

creates a secure future for the mostly female customers that would otherwise be dependent on

the support by their sons at old age. This is one source of favoring boy children when it comes

to nutrition and health provision in the first place. Further, each borrower has a savings ac-

count and those participating in the pension fund program have a pension deposit account.

Thus, Grameen Bank is offering holistic banking services to poor women; this enhances their

self-esteem as well as it empowers them economically. Furthermore, 95% of Grameen Bank

belongs to the poor women themselves14

. Many women have acquired shares with their sav-

ings. They now own Grameen Bank and participate in its earnings. This further promotes their

self-esteem and is another source of income.

While Grameen‟s microcredits have clearly empowered women economically, it re-

mains more difficult to analyze how they have affected bargaining power and power relations

within the household. Through the microcredits women have engaged in multiple income-

generating activities, and thereby often contribute a considerable proportion of the house-

hold‟s income. How has this change in earning patterns affected power relations in the private

sphere? Many scientific studies have investigated this topic and found a positive effect of mi-

crocredit on women‟s bargaining power (such as: Osmani, 2007; Pitt, Khandker &

Cartwright, 2006). Thus, Grameen Bank‟s microcredit approach has a strategic dimension in

women‟s empowerment.

14 Thanks to the high deposits of its borrowers, Grameen Bank has not been taking any donor money or external

loans to finance itself since 1998.



37

Moreover, Grameen Bank informs its borrowers about their legally granted rights and

the local election processes. Women are routinely elected to become the chairperson or secre-

tary of their borrowers‟ group or center at the village level. In these positions they can

develop leadership and management skills that prepare and encourage them to run for a politi-

cal position at the local level. In the 2003 local elections 7,442 women, who were Grameen

borrowers, contested for the seats reserved for women and 3,059 of these women were

elected. Thus, Grameen Bank‟s female borrowers constitute 24% of the women elected. Gra-

meen Bank contributes successfully to empowering women politically.



38

IV ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

8. Comparative Case Analysis

The case analysis focuses on analyzing the similarities and differences among the three social-

ly entrepreneurial organizations regarding the advantages and omissions of their approaches

to women‟s empowerment. A short comparison of some organizational features will be fol-

lowed by an examination of each organization‟s responses to the four main challenge clusters

within women‟s empowerment that were identified above.

8.1. Organizational Context

The following figure provides a clear overview of some organizational features of the three

cases. The organizational context is relevant for the interventions by determining the organi-

zation‟s frame of action. Thus, these features influence the approaches of each organization.

Figure 6: Comparison of Organizational Context

Criterion Gram Vikas Hagar Grameen Bank

mission

of the

organiza-

tion

Promote processes which

are sustainable, socially

inclusive and gender

equitable to enable criti-

cal masses of poor and

marginalized rural people

or communities to

achieve a dignified quali-

ty of life.

Restoring abused, ex-

ploited, and abandoned

women and children to

life in all its fullness

through quality holistic

healing, community rein-

tegration and social

entrepreneurship.

At GB, credit is a cost

effective weapon to

fight poverty and it

serves as a catalyst in

the overall develop-

ment of socio-economic

conditions of the poor

who have been kept

outside the banking or-

bit on the ground that

they are poor and hence

not bankable.15

innova-

tion

100% inclusion, cost

sharing

holistic approach to so-

cial reintegration and

economic empowerment

microcredits to poor

women without colla-

teral or legal instrument

15 Extract from website, since no explicit mission exists. Found at: http://www.grameen-

info.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16&Itemid=112



39

focus of

approach

to wom-

en’s

empo-

werment

building infrastructure

(water, sanitation); self-

help groups and capacity

training; basic democrat-

ic institutions; education

(women‟s empowerment

within a holistic ap-

proach to rural

development)

risk reduction/ preven-

tion (clean water,

education); recovery

(psychological support,

vocational and life skill

training, education); rein-

tegration (adult

education, capacity

building); resilience

(formal labor market

integration)

microcredit; formation

of borrower‟s groups;

access to resources/

income-generating ac-

tivities; housing;

education

target

group

marginalized rural poor

in Orissa, India

women and children that

were victims of traffick-

ing, sexual exploitation,

or domestic violence, in

Cambodia

the poorest of the poor

in Bangladesh, 97%

women

number

of benefi-

ciaries

~240,000 (more than

47,885 households)

~100,000 ~7,800,000 borrowers

(including families: ~39

m.)

revenue

source

(finance

model)

community contribu-

tions; government

schemes to communities;

loans from the govern-

ment, private financial

institutions, and donor

agencies; grants and do-

nations (hybrid non-

profit)

profit from social enter-

prises; grants from

international NGOs, in-

stitutional donors,

foundations, and gov-

ernments; donations from

individuals, NGOs, and

foundations

(hybrid non-profit com-

bined with social

enterprise)

fully self-financing;

deposits from savers

supply enough re-

sources for credit

growth

(social enterprise)

replica-

bility

implementation of the

approach in collaboration

with other NGOs in India

specialized organization

(Hagar International)

established to promote

replication; first project

of replication outside

Cambodia launched in

Afghanistan in 2008

widely copied in all

parts of the world (de-

veloping and

developed)

The individual mission statements show that the three organizations follow different ap-

proaches to women‟s empowerment. While Gram Vikas treats women‟s strategic needs as one



40

challenge within rural development and emphasizes the importance of sustainability as well as

promotion of dignity, Hagar lays a focus on community reintegration and explicitly empha-

sizes social entrepreneurship as the solution to integrating women into the marketplace and

society. Finally, Grameen Bank emphasizes the importance of access to resources and eco-

nomic empowerment to empower women and alleviate poverty. However, all three

organizations share that they respond to the challenges within women‟s empowerment with

very innovative approaches. The figure above gives an overview of the respective innovation

and focus of each organization. These will be further evaluated in the following sub-sections.

The three socially entrepreneurial organizations are located at different points of the

dynamic continuum of financial sustainability. Gram Vikas is located in between full phi-

lanthropic support and partial self-sufficiency, as its projects are partially self-funding, due to

community contributions and accessed government schemes, yet, the organization itself is

dependent on external contributions. Thus, Gram Vikas is a hybrid non-profit. Hagar is posi-

tioned slightly right of partial self-sufficiency towards cash-flow self-sufficiency as the

revenues from the fully commercialized social enterprises flow back to Hagar to cover some

of the organization‟s expenses, but contributions are still also needed. Accordingly, Hagar is

hybrid non-profit combined with social enterprise elements. Finally, Grameen Bank lies on

the right end of the spectrum, since it is a fully commercialized social enterprise. The follow-

ing figure visualizes this.

Figure 7: Cases Placed on Dynamic Continuum of Financial Sustainability

Source: Adapted from Dees (1998b)

When considering the number of beneficiaries, Grameen Bank‟s balance differs strongly from

that of the other two organizations. A relationship can be drawn between Grameen Bank‟s

finance model and the higher number of beneficiaries. Being fully-commercialized has al-

full phi-

lanthropic

support

partial self-

sufficiency

cash flow

self-

sufficiency

support

cash flow

self-

sufficiency

full-scale

commercia-

lization

operating

expenses

self-

partial self-

sufficiency

sufficiency

operating ex-

penses self-

sufficiency

full-scale

commercia-

lization

H GV G

B



41

lowed Grameen Bank to grow very quickly, while Gram Vikas‟ and Hagar‟s scaling up are

confined by the scarcity of funding available to socially entrepreneurial organizations.

Furthermore, replication of a successful approach through third parties is an important

strategy to enhance the impact of an innovative approach beyond the outreach of the originat-

ing social entrepreneurial organization. In this respect Grameen Bank‟s approach has been

most successful. It has been replicated multiple times around the globe - with varying success

and often without any involvement of Grameen Bank itself (Yunus, 2007). Gram Vikas has

also been successful in instructing other Indian NGOs in replicating their innovative approach

(Gram Vikas, 2009). Moreover, Hagar has even created a specialized organization that will

focus entirely on replicating Hagar‟s approach in other countries together with other NGOs

(Hagar International, 2009), which is currently undertaken in Afghanistan. Thus, all three

socially entrepreneurial organizations have developed ways to fulfill the important growth

criteria „replicability‟ and their approaches have the potential to successfully impact women‟s

empowerment. In the following sections, the actual interventions regarding the four main

challenge clusters are evaluated in-depth.

8.2. Enhancing Access to Education, Training, and Capacity Building

As shown above education, training, as well as capacity building activities play an important

strategic role within women‟s empowerment. They also take a dominant place within most

strategies to poverty alleviation. Accordingly, all three socially entrepreneurial organizations

respond to this challenge to some extent.

Grameen Bank responds to the challenge of promoting education with performance-

based scholarships to students in primary and secondary education, which create an incentive

to perform well in school. It further offers educational loans to students for tertiary education,

which has been successful in enabling some children of Grameen borrowers to continue their

education (Grameen Bank, 2009). Grameen Bank is the only one of the three organizations

that actively promotes tertiary education. However, this approach assumes that non-

participation in education is solely a resource problem and ignores structural and cultural fac-

tors that hinder education. Further, Grameen‟s approach to education is not very gender-

sensitive and thus fails to challenge the gender imbalances in attendance. Nevertheless, Gra-

meen Bank is trying to raise awareness and promote overall education by making it one of the

commitments that Grameen borrowers agree to follow. Furthermore, an incentive has been

created to encourage Grameen Bank‟s staff to advance the compliance with this commitment

(Yunus, 2007).



42

Hagar‟s Nourish to Learn program also works with incentives. However, these do not

only work to appeal students but also parents and teachers (Hagar, 2009). This is important,

since parents mostly decide about a child‟s attendance and since the absence of a badly paid

government teacher prevents children from learning. Hagar also responds to structural prob-

lems by building and supporting schools directly, to enable children to have access to

functioning educational facilities. Moreover, Hagar‟s approach goes beyond Grameen‟s by

also offering adult education at community level. Still, as Grameen‟s approach Hagar‟s edu-

cational approach is not very gender-sensitive.

In contrast to Grameen Bank and Hagar, Gram Vikas follows a very gender-sensitive

approach to promoting education. Besides advancing overall awareness regarding the impor-

tance of education, it has created special incentives for the parents of female children, to

increase girl‟s attendance (Gram Vikas, 2009). Gram Vikas has further removed structural

hindrances to education holistically by building village level schools as well as residential

schools, and at the same time constructing infrastructure that frees children from chores in the

household. Furthermore, similarly to Hagar‟s approach adult education is promoted.

All three organizations promote and positively affect education by creating incentives

and enhancing awareness, but only Hagar and Gram Vikas work against structural hindrances

other than resource scarcity. Furthermore, Gram Vikas is the only organization in the sample

that uses a gender sensitive approach that specifically targets girl‟s participation, which is a

good practice. Thus, the other two organizations should adapt their approaches to enhance

girls‟ attendance in particular, promote gender equality at an early age, and contribute to the

realization of MDG 3. However, all three organizations seem to omit monitoring if education

is provided in a gender sensitive manner. Kabeer (2005) points out that education can perpe-

tuate gender inequality because of gender stereotypes in the curriculum, preferential

treatments of male students by predominantly male teachers that do not see a need for female

education, or other gender biases within the educational system. There seems to be little sensi-

tivity to these issues. Therefore, this aspect might need to be incorporated within the three

organizations‟ approaches.

Vocational training and capacity building is only undertaken by Hagar and Gram Vi-

kas, while Grameen Bank acts according to the belief that training in income-generating

activities just hinders the innate creativity of individuals. Hagar trains women extensively, as

they receive six month training as well as an apprenticeship opportunity at the end. Most of

Gram Vikas‟ trainings in income-generating activities are short trainings, mainly conducted as

workshops (Gram Vikas, 2009). Still, some programs such as the six-month „barefoot engi-



43

neer program‟ also run longer. While this program challenges the traditional gender division

of labor by training men and women in masonry or plumbing, Hagar trains women in income-

generating activities that are traditionally regarded as female activities. Thus, Hagar misses

the chance to challenge gender roles in this respect. This should be corrected. However, it has

to be admitted that challenging these traditional roles is not easy for Gram Vikas and only

10% of the participants in the trainings in masonry and plumbing have been female since its

inception (Gram Vikas, 2009). Gram Vikas also teaches women numerical skills and book-

keeping, which is important in order to enhance the independence of SHGs. Sometimes these

groups have to rely on educated males for their administration; this reduces their capacity to

act as catalyst for women‟s empowerment (Zweifel, 2001). In the end, both Hagar and Gram

Vikas successfully train women, thus enhancing their cognitive abilities, their self-esteem, as

well as their prospects to get economically empowered. Hagar might need to intensify its ef-

forts to challenge gender roles by training women in male dominated professions, and thereby

challenge social and cultural institutions.

Educating and training women has an important strategic dimension within women‟s

empowerment as it enables women to confront socially constructed power relations and cul-

tural norms, the marketplace, as well as the political sphere in a more effective and efficient

way. Thus, it has an impact on social, economic, and political empowerment and is highly

interrelated with the other three challenge clusters. Gram Vikas‟ approach to this challenge

cluster is the most holistic one, thus it is the good practice regarding this cluster. Grameen‟s

approach is the narrowest, which derives from its predominant focus on promoting access to

financial resources.

8.3. Enhancing Access to Factors of Production as well as the Formal Labor

Market

Cultural and social restrictions as well as structural obstacles must be overcome to enhance

women‟s access to resources and markets. In terms of this challenge Hagar uses an approach

that is very different from the one followed by Gram Vikas and Grameen Bank. While Hagar

facilitates formal labor market entry, Gram Vikas and Grameen Bank focus on enhancement

of access to factors of production. Hagar enables women an entry into the formal labor mar-

ket, as women may start working for one of Hagar‟s social enterprises after conclusion of

their training. However, one has to admit that it is an especially protected and limited labor

market, and that there might be limits to how many women Hagar‟s social enterprises can

employ. Hagar has found some partner businesses that employ the women and follow high



44

labor standards (Hagar, 2009), but these efforts need to be intensified to enlarge the employ-

ment opportunities for women in Hagar programs. Nevertheless, by offering long-term

employment opportunities and facilitating an entry into the formal labor market, Hagar assists

women to become independent and economically empowered.

Gram Vikas and Grameen Bank enhance access to resources and facilitate self-

employment of women. By constructing infrastructure Gram Vikas enlarges the time re-

sources that women have to engage in income-generating activities. Further, by promoting

SHGs Gram Vikas enables women to access loans so that they may undertake investments to

start income-generating activities. Thus, women are the ones in the remote villages where

Gram Vikas operates that have access to financial resources, which enhances their self-esteem

as well as it changes the perception of women within the village (Zweifel, 2001). While Gram

Vikas only facilitates access to financial resources, Grameen Bank, according to its mission,

directly supplies these to poor women. Grameen Bank offers a variety of different banking

services to the women, which leads to women‟s self-employment, economic empowerment,

and ultimately challenges power relations.

Gram Vikas and Grameen Bank enable women to become self-employed, contribute to

the household‟s income, and thus also increase their bargaining power within the household.

As mentioned above studies have shown that microcredit and resulting contributions to

household‟s income by women have enhanced women‟s bargaining power in decision-

making. Accordingly, Pitt, Khandker and Cartwright (2006) state: “The results are consistent

with the view that women‟s participation in micro credit programs helps to increase women‟s

empowerment. Credit programs lead to women taking a greater role in household decision-

making, having greater access to financial and economic resources, having greater social net-

works, having greater bargaining power vis-à-vis their husbands, and having greater freedom

of mobility.” (p. 817). Thus, the availability of financial resources to women not only im-

proves women‟s access to the marketplace but furthermore challenges power relations within

the household. However, women often use loans to start income-generating activities in areas

that are traditionally regarded as female activities, thus perpetuating traditional gender roles

(Bernasek, 2003). Moreover, due to their lower mobility and cultural norms that restrain fe-

male behavior, women are often dependent on their husbands or other male relatives, to buy

raw materials, or to sell the produced goods on local markets (Bernasek, 2003; Zweifel,

2001). Therefore, both Gram Vikas and Grameen Bank might need to take steps to react to

this problem and actively challenge gender roles and cultural constraints to women‟s presence

in the marketplace to further facilitate women‟s economic empowerment. This issue is strong-



45

ly related to the challenge cluster „challenging social institutions and cultural practices‟ and

depicts a high complexity that has to be met with great caution in order not to cause any ad-

verse effects. Nevertheless, studies have shown that even female borrowers that handed over

their entire loan to their husbands still profited from increased bargaining power in household

decision-making (Bernasek, 2003).

In relation to Gram Vikas and Grameen Bank, Hagar‟s approach might be perceived as

having the advantage that it facilitates women‟s entry to the formal economy. Some feminist

authors have strongly criticized microcredit approaches that facilitate women‟s self-

employment, with the argument that these would keep women in the informal sector and even

further marginalize them by confirming the traditional gender division of labor (Bernasek,

2003). However, enhanced access to financial resources and self-employment are relatively

quick and easy tools to respond to practical and strategic needs of women by enabling them to

access the marketplace and giving them greater power and self-determination within the pri-

vate sphere. Todd (1996) was able to show that the poverty rate among Grameen borrowers

was considerably lower than in the control group. While almost 60% of Grameen Bank‟s bor-

rowers could exit poverty within a fixed time period, it were less than 20% in the control

group. Microcredit is a realistic and effective low-cost solution that enables women‟s empo-

werment and economic development.

Hagar is successful in enabling women to access the formal labor market, but its

growth is proceeding rather slowly, since creating new employment opportunities by setting

up new or scaling up existing social enterprises is time and capital intensive. Facilitating

access to financial resources as Gram Vikas is doing it is considerably less resource intensive,

and self-employment is often the only realistic income opportunity in the remote rural areas in

which Gram Vikas operates. Grameen Bank that has the largest impact on women‟s economic

empowerment within the sample has proven that microcredit is an effective solution that con-

tains considerable growth potential. It reaches many beneficiaries and has a considerable

impact.

Even though all three analyzed socially entrepreneurial organizations successfully re-

spond to enhancing access to factors of production and the formal labor market according to

their respective focus, they should also revise their approaches to react to criticism and poten-

tial problems. A single good practice cannot be identified regarding this challenge cluster, but

opportunities for improvement of the three approaches are found. Hagar needs to intensify its

search for partner businesses to enlarge employment opportunities for its beneficiaries and to

be able to scale up its outreach. Gram Vikas and Grameen Bank need to challenge social and



46

cultural restrictions that prevent microcredit from developing its full potential within women‟s

economic empowerment and thus poverty alleviation.

Beyond that, all three organizations need to consider the double burden of women and

be careful not to create adverse effects for women through their interventions. Sen (1999)

warns: “Anti-poverty strategies that focus ostensibly on women may be ineffective if they do

not take the labor and resource needs of the „care economy‟ sufficiently into account. Or they

may place unconscionable burdens on the already stretched time and health of poor women.”

(p. 689). This danger persists, as even when women‟s contribution to the income of the

household increases, a renegotiation of labor division within the household seldom takes place

(Kabeer, 2005). All three organizations need to take this into account. They should therefore

consider expanding their approaches to raise awareness among males regarding women‟s

double burden and proactively challenging division of labor traditions within the household.

8.4. Promoting Women’s Political Representation

While Hagar does not respond to the challenge of promoting women‟s political representa-

tion, Gram Vikas and Grameen Bank are active in this field. As described above Gram Vikas

promotes the formation of basic democratic institutions within the villages, and gender parity

is maintained within all these bodies. The imposed gender parity in these committees along

with active information campaigns regarding constitutionally granted rights and the function-

ing of election processes raise awareness about people‟s rights and the importance of gender

equality in political bodies. Women elected to these bodies are trained and coached in leader-

ship and management skills. The village level committees give women the possibility to

develop and practice their leadership skills, and be prepared and encouraged to run for politi-

cal offices at local level. Within Grameen Bank‟s approach this element also exists, as women

are elected to lead or assist the borrower‟s groups or centers and gain leadership experience

there. Grameen Bank also informs its borrowers about electoral rights and procedures (Gra-

meen Bank, 2009). Thus, the approaches of the two organizations in encouraging more

women to actively participate in local political institutions are very similar. However, Gram

Vikas‟ approach is more holistic since it makes gender equality in decision-making and ulti-

mately within political representation a reality at village level, which is a good practice.

Grameen Bank might need to revise its approach to reach similar results. This allows males to

get used to the idea of women‟s representation at the local political level and to potentially

even start valuing female contribution.



47

The second key element of women‟s political empowerment is their attitude towards

the government. Gram Vikas and Grameen Bank also employ rather similar approaches in this

regard. In their approaches to enhancing access to financial resources for women, both have

organized women in group structures. These groups then also became platforms to address

and discuss other issues, and they have become a strong force within all dimensions of wom-

en‟s empowerment. The self-esteem of women is strongly promoted through these groups and

they have started to address local government confidently to demand the realization of their

rights. Some groups have also started to openly demonstrate or campaign for changes in the

political practices of local governments (Bernasek, 2003; Jayapadma, 2009). The members of

these groups often become role models for other women and play a key role in strengthening

women‟s rights. This grass-root organizing of women is very effective.

The common approach of Gram Vikas and Grameen Bank is a good practice and has

successfully increased the number of women that run for the legally reserved seats for wom-

en, as well as it has altered their behavior towards government. Thus, it has facilitated

important steps within women‟s political empowerment. However, both organizations have to

monitor carefully that no illegitimate pressure is exercised on women in political offices, and

that women are not merely elected as tokens or proxies of their husbands.

8.5. Challenging Social Institutions and Cultural Practices

Challenging and changing social institutions and cultural practices have a key dimension

within women‟s empowerment, since those are often the source of gender discrimination in

the first place. While Hagar‟s approach omits this challenge cluster, Gram Vikas and Gra-

meen Bank actively respond to it. Gram Vikas challenges socially and culturally constructed

power relations in the public sphere as well as traditional roles and perceptions of women

with its 100% inclusion approach. Through this approach it creates a room for women in pub-

lic decision-making and increases their public visibility in general. The afore-mentioned

training of women as masons and plumbers challenge traditional ideas regarding male profes-

sions. Moreover, Gram Vikas‟ SHGs and Grameen Bank‟s borrowers‟ groups and centers

have become vanguards of change that work to further challenge social institutions such as

power relations within the community and the household, and demand improvements for

women. Furthermore, the effect of access to financial resources on power relations within the

household, women‟s perception in the community, as well as economic empowerment has

already been explained above. These changes in women‟s economic roles challenge their tra-



48

ditional role in society. This displays the interdependence of different aspects of

ment - in this case of the economic and the socio-cultural dimension.

When analyzing the effects of Gram Vikas‟ interventions, Jayapadma (2009) notices

changes in social interaction, he states that women and men now sit on the same mats and

discuss public issues together, while in many communities this would have been unthinkable

before. He further comments: “From the villagers‟ perspective, the most important and most

visible transformation in gender relations in the settlements where Gram Vikas intervenes is

that after four-five years there are changes in the interaction between women and men at

community level with women proactively participating in village meetings and community

development” (p. 152). Furthermore, the second major change lies in the increased interaction

of women with outsiders and their enlarged mobility, which further expands their horizon and

self-esteem (Zweifel, 2001). Thus, women‟s roles within the targeted communities are chang-

ing; social institutions and cultural practices that discriminate women are starting to be

transformed. According to Jayapadma (2009) Gram Vikas is very successful in transforming

social and cultural structures since it proceeds very carefully by increasing women‟s presence

in uncontested spaces first. This means for instance that Gram Vikas commences by promot-

ing women‟s equal participation in the general body that is tightly bound to the Water and

Sanitation Program. It is thus a new and uncontested space, especially since the implementa-

tion of the Water and Sanitation program will improve the life of all. After the males through

this interaction have got used to and may even become supportive of women‟s role in public

decision-making, Gram Vikas then gradually insist on equal participation in other decisions in

the public and private sphere, as well as it facilitates women‟s economic empowerment at the

same time. The structures and mechanisms that are created, then sustain women‟s empower-

ment and ensure that the gradual process is kept going (Jayapadma, 2009). In the end,

participation in community decision-making leads to challenged power relations in highly

contested spaces such as the household, thereby venturing further into men‟s domain. The

success in changing the pattern of social interaction makes Gram Vikas‟ approach of 100%

inclusion a good practice.

Grameen has often been criticized for not challenging social institutions and cultural

practices effectively, and thus not making best use of its powerful role in Bangladesh (Osma-

ni, 2007). However, besides the above mentioned impact of the borrowers‟ groups and

centers, two other important contributions by Grameen Bank in responding to this challenge

must be acknowledged. Firstly, Grameen Bank‟s borrowers have to agree to follow certain

commitments as introduced above. These include a commitment on ending the practice of



49

dowry giving as well as child marriage (Grameen Bank, 2009). While this has led to a consi-

derable reduction in child marriage, the impact on dowry is mixed and only a tendency to

define dowry more flexibly can be scored (Bernasek, 2003). Therefore, Grameen Bank‟s suc-

cess in challenging cultural practices is mixed in this regard, but has some positive impact.

Grameen Bank should try to identify strategies to promote the compliance of its borrowers

with this commitment. However, Grameen Bank has been quite successful in changing social

institutions and cultural practices concerning the right of ownership. Houses that are built

with housing loans given to women are registered in the women‟s or both spouses‟ names.

Furthermore, women have used microcredit to buy land, and then register it in their own name

(Bernasek, 2003). These developments challenge the practice that men have the legal owner-

ship of a household‟s property. This approach to challenging ownership rights is a good

practice.

Gram Vikas as well as Grameen Bank have successfully challenged social and cultural

norms and practices. While both approaches to this challenge cluster share common elements,

such as the organizing of women in groups, they also differ considerably. Grameen Bank is

especially successful in challenging traditional ownership rights, while Gram Vikas succeeds

in considerably changing the structures of social interaction and power relations within com-

munities. Both organizations could learn from each other by implementing elements from the

other organization‟s approach. So far, Gram Vikas fails to challenge traditional ownership

rights that have an important dimension within women‟s empowerment. This needs to be ad-

justed. Further, even though Grameen Bank makes women more visible within their

communities, it fails to go a step further and actively promote their equal participation in

those communities. Grameen Bank thus misses this opportunity to enhance its impact on

women‟s social empowerment in this regard. Finally, Hagar might need to consider incorpo-

rating elements into its approach to respond to this challenge cluster, in order to fight not only

the symptoms but also the sources of the problems it targets. Thereby, it could significantly

increase facilitating women‟s empowerment in a more holistic manner. In the end, changing

social institutions and cultural practices is a rather slow process and this challenge cluster

remains the most complex one within women‟s empowerment.

8.6. Overview of the Recommendations to the Individual Organizations

The recommendations that were given in the last four sections are summarized here in a tabu-

lar oversight. They indicate how the three socially entrepreneurial organizations could learn

from each other or where they all omit an important issue. A check in a field indicates that a



50

good practice was identified in this particular organization‟s approach in this specific regard.

The good practices identified are the source for the different recommendations to the other

organizations.

Figure 8: Good Practices and Recommendations to Individual Organizations

Gram Vikas Grameen Bank Hagar

Education, Train-

ing, and Capacity

Building

work against struc-

tural obstacles;

support schools di-

rectly

make own approach more gender sensitive;

promote girl‟s education in particular

monitor that education is conducted in a equal and gender sensitive

manner; sensitize teachers, educate and support more female teachers

use trainings and

capacity building to

challenge traditional

ideas regarding male

vs. female activities

Formal Labor

Market and Factors

of Production

intensify efforts to

identify partner busi-

nesses with high

labor standards

challenge gender roles and cultural con-

straints that restrict women‟s presence in the

marketplace

consider women‟s double burden and be careful not to create any

adverse effects on women

Political Represen-

tation

promote women‟s

equal participation in

village level deci-

sion-making

(start getting active?)

monitor carefully that no illegitimate pres-

sure is exercised on women within political

offices, and that women are not merely token

Social Institutions

and Cultural Prac-

tices

enhance compliance

with the commit-

ments (especially

concerning dowry)

(start getting active?)



51

promote women‟s

ownership rights by

registering property

in women‟s name

actively promote

visibility and equal

participation of

women at all levels

within their com-

munities

9. Conclusion and Recommendations

The comparative analysis has shown that all three selected socially entrepreneurial organiza-

tions respond to women‟s empowerment successfully to some extent. However, their

approaches vary and focus on different challenge clusters. Hagar concentrates on practical

women‟s needs as well as on strategic women‟s needs regarding education, capacity building,

and formal labor market entry. Gram Vikas‟ and Grameen Bank‟s approaches resemble each

other slightly more and both organizations have interventions responding to all of the four

main challenge clusters identified in this paper. Yet, Gram Vikas puts a stronger emphasis on

changing patterns of social interaction, while Grameen Bank has a stronger focus on enhanc-

ing access to factors of production. In the end, both are highly successful in organizing

women at grass-root level. However, while Gram Vikas and Grameen Bank focus more on

development, according to its mission Hagar starts by giving first aid and facilitating recovery

since it works with traumatized victims. This explains why Hagar responds to only two of the

four strategic challenge clusters. Therefore, the selected case sample caused some difficulties

in the process of comparison.

In the previous chapter the three selected approaches were compared and recommen-

dations given on how the organizations could learn from each other. Based on these

individualized recommendations, more general recommendations are derived for socially en-

trepreneurial organizations that target women‟s empowerment. Even though not all

recommendations will be relevant for all actors in the field and organizations have to evaluate

the recommendation‟s relevance for their own work, they clearly give implications of poten-

tial problems and good practices, and allow learning from the experience of the three analyzed

socially entrepreneurial organizations. Due to the sample size this paper cannot identify best



52

practices in the field; it can only identify good practices. Nevertheless, the derived recom-

mendations should be useful for socially entrepreneurial organizations active in women‟s

empowerment to critically review their own approaches and interventions.

The derived recommendations are:

reduce structural obstacles to education; by supporting schools directly, creating in-

centives to various stakeholders, through measures to reduce the household‟s need for

girl‟s labor etc.

revise and carefully monitor the gender sensitivity of own approach to facilitating

education; by raising awareness about the value of female education, and creating in-

centives to the parents of girl children

monitor that education in the targeted communities is conducted in a gender sen-

sitive manner; by sensitizing teachers regarding this issue (curriculum, teaching

materials, attitude towards and treatment of female/male students), and encouraging/

training more women to become teachers in order to reach higher representation of

women within the teaching staff

use capacity building and training to challenge traditional gender roles; train

women in professions, that are traditionally regarded as male activities

identify business partners, and build a network of organizations that engage in

decent work standards (important when facilitating women‟s entry into the formal

labor market)

actively challenge social and cultural constraints against women in the market-

place (necessary when facilitating women‟s access to financial resources and self-

employment); identify innovative interventions to enable women to buy and sell prod-

ucts themselves

assess own interventions regarding labor market entry and self-employment in

order to not create any adverse effects on women due to their double burden; by

raising awareness among males regarding women‟s double burden and challenging the

traditional division of labor within the household

promote women’s equal participation in village level decision-making in order to

promote political representation at local level and to challenge social and cultural in-

stitutions; by creating village-level institutions that are committed to gender parity, the

village level serves as a training arena for the local level, combine this with informa-

tion campaigns on people‟s electoral rights



53

monitor carefully that no illegitimate pressure is exercised on women within po-

litical offices, and that women are not merely tokens; local staff should develop a

monitoring system and potentially coach elected women

challenge social institutions and cultural practices by proactively promoting

women’s ownership rights; by registering property (house, land, etc.) in women‟s

name

Finally, further research is needed to qualitatively and more importantly quantitatively

assess the impact of the organizations. While Grameen Bank has already received much atten-

tion by researchers, and its approach and impact have been broadly assessed, few external

evaluations exist regarding Gram Vikas and Hagar. These two organizations need to attract

scientific coverage of their work, since external evaluations are helpful in increasing the ef-

fectiveness of the organization, and are even more important in attracting resources, in an

environment of accelerating competition for these. Further, comparative studies with larger

samples would be necessary to identify best practices within the field of women‟s empower-

ment.



54

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Declaration of Authorship

“I hereby declare

o that I have written this thesis without any help from others and without the use of doc-

uments and aids other than those stated above,

o that I have mentioned all used sources and that I have cited them correctly according

to established academic citation rules."

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