Contribution short abstract:

This presentation demonstrates how perceptions of empowerment, mediation styles and power dynamics among actors within craft-based WEE programmes in Egypt, affect women's agency or 'kayan'.

Contribution long abstract:

This presentation is based on ongoing research being conducted as part of the author’s PhD studies at IDS. The research seeks to explore the varying perceptions of empowerment among three participant groups involved in one NGO’s handicraft-based Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) programme (the women beneficiaries of the programme; the supervisors that mediate this programme; and the NGO that implements it) being implemented across three workshop locations and the mechanisms through which these programmes are delivered that have acted as either an aid or hindrance to women's agency or 'kayan'. The research took place in 2022 across three of the poorest neighbourhoods in Cairo. A multi-qualitative methods approach was used through Focus Group Discussions, interviews and ethnographic observations. The presentation draws on the preliminary findings of this research, which show how three specific factors permeate, influence, shape and complicate the formal project mechanisms employed in craft-based WEE programmes in Egypt. They are: 1) the participants embodiment of a decolonial and different notion of empowerment as compared to what is said in the literature; 2) the supervisors style of mediation within their respective workshops; and 3) the existing power dynamics (critically analysed from a feminist perspective) between the participants. It is such discrepancies in the understandings of women’s empowerment, mediation style and power imbalances that underscore the importance of NGOs to adopt and prioritise the lived experiences and perceptions of the beneficiaries as well as the technical expertise and mediation style of supervisors in craft-based WEE programmes.