{"id":37704,"date":"2026-01-28T12:25:54","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T01:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.internationalaffairs.org.au\/?post_type=australianoutlook&p=37704"},"modified":"2026-01-28T19:59:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T08:59:38","slug":"book-review-aiding-empowerment","status":"publish","type":"australianoutlook","link":"https:\/\/www.internationalaffairs.org.au\/australianoutlook\/book-review-aiding-empowerment\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Aiding Empowerment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Since the UN World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, international donors have substantially increased their financial support to developing countries to promote gender equality and women\u2019s empowerment, amounting to as much as 57.4 billion US$ in 2021, according to OECD calculations (p. 27). In Aiding Development, <\/em>Brechenmacher and Manncriticise the fact that democracy assistance programs for a long time were missing a genuine gender perspective.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This development reflects the new international norm that women\u2019s political empowerment is needed to strengthen democracy and promote its proper functioning, as expressed in the Beijing Platform for Action (Art. 183). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This book is one of the most comprehensive studies of foreign aid programs for women\u2019s empowerment that I have read. It covers the last three decades, and its ambition, empirically and theoretically, is global.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book\u2019s focus is women\u2019s empowerment in political institutions and processes, including elections, political parties, legislatures, and politically oriented civil society organisations, especially women’s\/feminist movements (p. 13). The donors included in this analysis are 1) bilateral donations from single countries, such as US, Australia, Sweden, Canada and the Netherlands, 2) donations from multilateral organizations such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union, IPU and UNWomen, and 3) a wide range of international nongovernmental organizations such as International IDEA, National Democratic Institute, NDI and International Women\u2019s Development Agency, IWDA. The importance of the local (meaning national and subnational) women\u2019s movements is mentioned throughout the book, but their actions, unfortunately, are not a real part of the analysis. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Does Donor Aid Actually Work?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aiding Empowerment<\/em> poses these highly relevant questions: Who are these donors? What types of projects have they been engaged in? And – most importantly, but also most challenging to answer – with what effects?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The analysis is critical, but also constructive. After the book was written, the Trump administration brutally shut down one of the world\u2019s largest donor organisations, USAID. At the same time, democratic backsliding has spread further worldwide. However, Aiding Empowerment\u2019s <\/em>wide-ranging analysis is still highly valuable. It is a scientific work, yet it is declared to inform practitioners and women\u2019s movements about what works and what doesn\u2019t when \u201caiding empowerment.\u201d The authors see themselves as \u201cfeminist critical fiends\u201d vis-\u00e0-vis the aid programs (p.17).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1997, the world average of women in parliament was 12%; in 2025, it had increased to 27%. Around 20% of the world\u2019s cabinet ministers today are women, and around 50% of the world\u2019s present population have experienced having a woman as head of state or prime minister. An all-male political institution has, during this period, lost its democratic legitimacy. Yet, gender equity is still far away, and political life is still dominated by middle-aged men from the ethnic dominating groups and the socio-economic elites in a country, and even more so in international governance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four Case Studies<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The method used is case studies on Kenya, Myanmar, Nepal and Morocco, combined with thematic discussions based on extensive literature reviews. Under each theme, scattered experiences from the four countries are presented. The authors have an impressive knowledge of the literature (40 pages of notes), including both theoretical works and reports from actual programs. However, the overall conclusions for each of these four countries are primarily drawn from previous literature, which is not always up-to-date and may rely on different approaches. One could have wanted more comprehensive analyses of the four countries, showing the major programs in place in each. Such an overview, combined with policy tracing, could allow for a discussion of the effects of various foreign programs on actual changes in women\u2019s political empowerment, in relation to actions and political structures in each country. Did the foreign aid matter? Because each thematic chapter uses different sources, one can find conflicting conclusions about aid and its effects in countries such as Kenya or Morocco. In addition, the authors sometimes rely on sources that present sweeping generalisations about women\u2019s power in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critique of International Donor Aid<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book presents an essential general critique of international aid targeting the political empowerment of women, among these are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n