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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
Supervisor:
Dr. Nicola Pless
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
1
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
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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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
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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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
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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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
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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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.
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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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
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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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).
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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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.
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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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.
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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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.
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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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
(-)
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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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
(+)
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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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.
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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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
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
15
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'.
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
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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
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
17
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
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
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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-
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
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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.
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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.
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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,
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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
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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.
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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.
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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
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
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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.
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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.
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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.
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
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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.
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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.
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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.
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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.
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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.
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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.
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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 over- all 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
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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).
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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-
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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-
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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.
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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-
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
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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?)
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
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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
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
The Role of Social Entrepreneurs
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.
Jenny Appel Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women
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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."