ABSTRACT
The previous chapters looked at the situation of rural NGOs in two districts of Karnataka, and an urban NGO in Pune; and the rapid changes they had to manage in the early 2000s. This chapter will now look at how these and other NGOs are involved in empowerment programmes with self-help groups and the contributing factors in their effectiveness. It will examine, first how empowerment might be measured when it comes to NGO self-help group work, and then the factors that influence empowerment outcomes, especially for the poorer and more marginalized groups. Quantitative and qualitative analyses are both necessary if meaningful insights are to be gained: a qualitative analysis can identify the key factors in, and indicators of empowerment, given its rather nebulous nature and largely cognitive meanings; while a quantitative analysis can provide some indication of the extent of any change and enable comparisons to be made. This mixed method approach is preferable to attempting to identify empirical proxies, which may or may not be valid in a particular context.
