The vulnerable social situation of the indigenous women in Bolivia is often on the agenda

of many organisations (CSOs and NGOs). Especially, the deep rooted socio-political

discrimination of this group has been addressed in several researches and during various

international development forums. However, few of these investigations have tried to

understand in what ways the Aymara women themselves want to be supported by

organisations in order to become socially empowered. In regard to this, the contemplation

of this Master Thesis has been to, in an inductive manner, increase the understanding of

the concept of social empowerment from the perspectives of Aymara women and

NGOs/CSOs. To do so a qualitative field based study, aimed at letting Aymara women

themselves explain the social situation, was conducted in Bolivia during the spring 2007.

The outcome of this research has also served as a foundation to a discussion, with special

references to the Swedish aid-agency Svalorna Latinamerika, concerning what NGOs and

CSOs ought to consider when working with social empowerment of Aymara women.

The overarching methodological approach of the study has been that of a bottom-up

implementation analysis. In order to retrieve information from the field techniques such as

socio-anthropological studies, observations, interactions and interviews have been applied.

Several interesting insights and conclusions have been retrieved from the investigation. The

primarily conclusion drawn is that empowerment can neither be received nor given as it has

the features of a learning process. Accordingly, in regard to this organisations must adopt

the role of 'supporters' rather than 'suppliers'. Secondly, it has been reasoned that any

undertaking aimed at supporting social empowerment for and of Aymara women must be

synchronised with the progression of the women's learning processes. This specifically

suggests that organisations must adopt long-run as well as holistic programmes rather than

ad hoc activities. The overall conclusion drawn is that if the social empowerment for and of

Aymara women is to benefit from the undertakings of organisations the planning,

implementation and evaluation of the activities must primarily be based on terms given by

the women.

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