EMPOWERMENT

WORKING WITH LOCAL
STAKEHOLDERS
“Working with stakeholders of the community is an important
and sensitive phase of activation. It can also be one of the
longest phases of the project as it takes time and perseverance
to know, understand, interact and convince communities to
adopt new ways of thinking and living. For successful activation
of women empowerment, three groups are critical, women
themselves, as we saw in the previous part, men, of course, but
also various sub groups and other influential stakeholders within
the community.” In this section, we share our field experiences
as to how these interactions can be made productive for the
project’s societal impact.
Also it’s important to think about our partners as well when
we plan stakeholder management. As Muriel Penicaud rightly
explains “We often assume that all the social partners we work
with and other stakeholders like the government authorities
and local social institutions must already understand women
issues. But our learning was that this is not the case. Like all
other stakeholders, we must work with our partners as well
to sensitize them to the issues of gender equality, especially
helping them understand how empowering women leads to
economic growth, social development, and sustainability of
initiatives for all.”