Evaluating Legal Empowerment: Problems of Analysis and Measurement

Abstract

This paper reflects on questions as to whether legal empowerment projects have been able to strike a balance between competing aspects of rights and social justice and change prevalent structural inequalities and power relations that essentially perpetuate disempowerment of the poor and disadvantaged groups in the first place. In other words, do the strategies simply provide ‘quick-fix’ solutions and promote a politically disengaged model of empowerment or do they assist beneficiaries in developing an intrinsic understanding of the issues at hand and the capacity to deal with them in effective ways? Additionally, the paper addresses the problem of impact assessment and sustainability of legal empowerment strategies.