________________ Most of the contemporary discussion of community empowerment straddles the consultation and formal involvement rungs of this ladder and there is a reluctance among policy makers to put foot on the fourth rung of a deciding power for communities. Informal empowerment depends on the capacity of a community to take action independently of the state. This power of independent action is usually demonstrated through organised voluntary action initiated and led from within the community. The actions taken in this dimension may overlap with the actions of the official decision taking bodies for the community. For example, local social enterprises may take job creation or vocational training initiatives, local social care organisations may provide support services for people who qualify for publicly funded services. While constitutionally independent, these community based organisations may be funded by the state: they then become accountable to the state for those funded activities. If they become too dependent they may be incorporated by the state and the community will lose a vehicle for independent action. Both formal and informal empowerment depend on the community having the capacity to organise itself, often called social capital.. The community will not be able to use whatever formal powers it possesses unless it is able to articulate its concerns and represent them in formal processes. Equally a community will not be able to build community organisations unless its population includes people with organisational skills and knowledge. Usually the more disadvantaged a community is in economic terms the greater its difficulty in articulating and representing its concerns and in building organisations through which to pursue its own objectives. Both government and non-government contributors to the community empowerment debate have therefore put a lot of emphasis on building disadvantaged communities' capacity to communicate and organise. Policies to empower communities may focus on the formal or informal dimensions. Most public policy is aimed at moving communities within the middle rungs of the ladder of empowerment and shies away from the top decision taking rung. The need for capacity building is common to both though the emphasis will differ with the focus. The interaction of formal and informal empowerment and capacity building has been relatively neglected. TART 451 37AGR-FHR, 2003 C 107 Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org
