Agents of change? The challenges of understanding empowerment through international development

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Contributor(s): Professor Jo Sharp | Join us for the Sylvia Chant Lecture which this year will be delivered by Jo Sharp, Geographer Royal for Scotland. Over the 25 years that Professor Sharp has been working on international development projects, the concept of empowerment has become mainstreamed. As participatory approaches have become more commonplace, the focus has moved to people as the source of change. But how – and why – this change happens is not always so clear. This talk draws on two research collaborations: one with Bedouin women and local academics in Egypt’s south-eastern desert, and another with an interdisciplinary and international One Health project in northern Tanzania. Reflecting on these experiences, Professor Sharp will explore the assumptions we make about people’s abilities and desires to act as agents of change.