ABSTRACT
Nonformal Education is increasingly seen by both government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as a critical resource that will allow marginal and destitute populations to acquire skills and knowledge to become more effective members of their societies. Although knowledge can have a social and political empowering function, the type of knowledge most low-income women receive through international cooperation cannot be said to be conducive to their empowerment and emancipation. Women-only projects have been found to produce benefits for women to become active participants, to find support in persons with similar experiences, and to develop basic skills usually already mastered by men, such as expressing opinions in public and addressing a group. The basic differences between the State and NGOs are in their legitimacy, size, amount of resource, personnel, objectives, and proximity to the target population.
