One of the main concern shared by the participants was that feminist thinking has been appropriated by the global process, its meaning transformed wrongly along the way. Concepts like 'empowerment', 'agency' and 'good governance' are being disconnected from reality and used to further the neo-liberal agenda. Kalpana Wilson underlined that recenly the notion of women's agency has been elaborated within the framework of a neo-liberal model of development, which does not address women's needs and does not recognise the multiplicity of feminisms across borders and countries.
In light of this, many of the concepts become buzzwords being used to accept and validate forms of imperialism such as the global War on Terror.
Cecilia Sardenberg also talked about the contested notions of empowerment and agency, pointing out that the word "empowerment' did not exist in Brazil: it is therefore troublesome to describe it. The word is often misused, meaning all things to all people: a framework is needed.
Cecilia is worried about the neo-liberal approach of women's issues currently used to spread "democracy" as Bush understands it (one wouldn't have to remind readers how vocal Bush was about women's rights in Afghanistan after the Taliban regime was overthrown. Sadly, women in this country are suffering more than ever). These techniques are based on individual actors and depoliticise the process of empowerment.
A need to look at power from a bottom-up perspective was made very clear: 'agency' should mean giving a voice back to the women concerned. When big agencies see the concept of 'agency' as an instrument to control the potential of change to make proposals, it doesn't give room for change between power relations, and doesn't look at exclusions. The 'NGOised' notion of agency comes down to promoting empowerment without conflict, as if it was something governments and NGOs can give as a self-help kit, something which can be peacefully taught and not gained the hard way. Sadly, this is impossible.
Related - If you have a taste for irony, you could play the development lotto (see picture above). Here is the main rule: 'At the start of each telephone call, meeting, or video conference take out your DLotto board and as the buzzwords are mentioned tick them off with your DLotto pen'.
