EN
Basically, women’s empowerment is the process (and its outcomes) in which women – individually and collectively- become active, knowledgeable and goal-oriented actors who take and/ or support initiatives to overcoming gender inequalities. Hence, women’s empowerment refers to a strategy to achieve gender equality as well as to the inherent capacity building processes. Institutional capacity aimed at women’s empowerment is not a clearly defined concept. Yet, effective capacity building requires conceptual clarification and common understanding among institutional actors. Therefore the following questions need to be answered: what do I mean by institutional capacity? How can it be developed? More specifically, how can it contribute to rural women’s empowerment and gender equality?