Empowering women in rural northern Nigeria : towards a framework for feminist participatory development practice

Abstract

This practicum report and resource kit addresses the relevance of feminist popular education, gender and development and participatory development approaches to the empowerment of rural women, particularly in the context of northern Nigeria. It is based on a staff and program development project conducted at the Development Exchange Centre (DEC), a local non governmental organization which works with rural women's groups in Bauchi state. The primary aim of the project was to enable DEC staff to enhance their work through the collective application of the concepts and principles of these three approaches to their own reality, program and methods.

The project was grounded in the self-expressed interests of the staff members. It employed a participatory methodology and emergent design, incorporating additional topics as the need arose. A total of seven staff workshops were held over a eighteen month period. These workshops were integrated into the ongoing cycle of program planning and delivery and were fed by organizational and field experiences.

This practicum report and resource kit elaborates on the theory which gave rise to this project, documents the project activities and outcomes and, reflects on the implications of this for theory development. It concludes by confirming the merits of feminist popular education, gender and development and participatory development, in combination, for the empowerment of rural women but also points to a number of gaps illustrated by the project and field experiences. It calls for the articulation of framework for feminist participatory development practice which additionally addresses the totality of women's oppression, the personal and interpersonal dimensions of development, and the potentials of women's groups. Such an approach would also redefine the role of the external intervener and foster in them sensitivity to difference, skills in participatory planning and facilitation, and a spirit of common struggle.