DVA1502 ASSIGNMENT 3 SEMESTER 2 2025 (Answer Guide) 737754 – Due 15 September 2025

DVA1502 ASSIGNMENT 3 SEMESTER 2 2025 (Answer Guide) 737754 – Due 15 September 2025 Title Participation, Empowerment and the Capability Approach: Strengthening Local Decision-Making in a Rural Village Introduction This assignment examines how meaningful participation and genuine empowerment interact to improve development outcomes in a rural village where residents have historically been excluded from decisions about water access, education and healthcare. Participation and empowerment are not just ethical goals; they are instrumental to development because they expand people’s ability to influence the institutions and policies that shape their lives (Sen, 1999). In contexts of chronic exclusion where local committees lack real authority, service delivery is poor and information flows are weak superficial forms of “participation” can entrench dependency rather than enable change (Arnstein, 1969; Cornwall, 2008). Using theoretical and practical lenses from participation studies, empowerment theory and the Capability Approach, this paper first defines the two core concepts and then analyses their interactive relationship. The objective is to show how the Capability Approach (Sen; Nussbaum) can be used as a normative and operational framework to design interventions that enlarge villagers’ real freedoms (capabilities) and thereby strengthen both participation and empowerment. Throughout, short examples tied to water, education and health will illustrate how different forms of participation produce different empowerment outcomes in the village setting (Buccus & Hicks, 2008). Section 1: Definitions: “Participation” and “Empowerment” What we mean by “Participation” Participation refers to the processes, spaces and practices through which people influence decisions that affect their lives. At the broadest level, participation is a relationship between people (citizens, community groups) and institutions (local government, service providers) that involves information exchange, consultation and decision-making (Cornwall, 2008). Classic work on citizen involvement emphasises that not all participation is equal: Sherry Arnstein’s influential “ladder of participation” distinguishes levels from non-participation