Empowering Women Through Microcredit in Post-War Congo

Empowerment through Microcredit?
Post-War Reconstruction and Gender Equality
in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Magister Thesis
Desirée Zwanck
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Faculty of Arts and Humanities III
Centre for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies
Department of Gender and Globalisation
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Christine Bauhardt
Assistant Supervisor: Christiane Kayser

i
Zusammenfassung (German Summary)
Die vorliegende Magisterarbeit in den Gender Studies (verortet im Fachbereich
Gender und Globalisierung am Institut für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des
Landbaus der Landwirtschaftlich-Gärtnerischen Fakultät) setzt sich mit der Frage
auseinander, ob und wie Kleinkredite die Situation von ressourcenarmen
Kleinbäuerinnen dergestalt verbessern können, dass sie deren Empowerment
fördern.
Die Arbeit zeigt auf, dass Kleinkredite nur dann eine positive Auswirkung auf
Geschlechtergerechtigkeit haben, wenn sie von sozial und kulturell orientierten
Maßnahmen begleitet werden. Dafür spielt die Kooperation mit Männern eine ebenso
große Rolle wie eine entwicklungspolitische Perspektive, welche die Bedürfnisse und
Sorgen, aber auch die Strategien und Stärken der lokalen Bevölkerung respektiert
und sich nach diesen richtet.
Dabei konzentriert sich die Arbeit auf den Kontext der Nachkriegsgesellschaft in der
ostkongolesischen Provinz Maniema und auf das dortige Wiederaufbauprojekt „Heal
my People“ der lokalen Nichtregierungsorganisation HEAL Africa. Bei dem Projekt
handelt es sich um eine Maßnahme zur ganzheitlichen Heilung und Reintegration
von Frauen die als Überlebende von Vergewaltigungen gesundheitliche und
psychische Schäden davongetragen haben bzw. von den negativen Auswirkungen
des erst kürzlich beigelegten Konfliktes in besonderer Weise betroffen sind (z.B.
durch Verwitwung oder extreme Ressourcenarmut).
In der Einleitung werden das Thema, die Hypothesen und die Fragestellung
dargelegt. Die Verortung der Arbeit in den Sozialwissenschaften wird hier ebenso
erörtert wie die postmoderne, feministische Herangehensweise. Das erste Kapitel
stellt theoretische und praktische Ansätze zu Frauen und Gender in der
internationalen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit vor. Das zweite Kapitel führt in den
Kontext der Demokratischen Republik Kongo ein und beschreibt das Projekt „Heal
my People“. Im dritten Kapitel werden Herangehensweise und Methodik einer
weitgehend qualitativen Feldforschung dargestellt die im Oktober und November
2007 in Maniema durchgeführt wurde.
In den folgenden drei Kapiteln werden die Ergebnisse der Feldforschung dargelegt
und in Bezug zum theoretischen Hintergrund gesetzt. Geschlechterverhältnisse in
Maniema und der Zusammenhang zwischen der Vergabe von Kleinkrediten und
Empowerment werden dabei auf drei Ebenen analysiert: dem Individuum, dem
Haushalt und der Gemeinschaft. Die Schlussfolgerungen werden im siebten Kapitel
zusammengefasst.

ii
Table of Contents
Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................iii

Glossary .................................................................................................................................iii

Acknowledgements...............................................................................................................iv

Introduction ............................................................................................................................1

1. International Development and Gender Equality ............................................................9

1.2
Approaches
to
Women
and
Gender
in
Development ...........................................................11

1.2.1
Women’s
Marginalisation
and
the
Welfare
Approach..................................................................12

1.2.2
Women
in
Development ............................................................................................................................14

1.2.3
Gender
and
Development..........................................................................................................................16

1.2.4
Women’s
Empowerment...........................................................................................................................18

1.3
Microcredit:
A
Tool
for
Women’s
Empowerment?................................................................19

2. War and Post-War Reconstruction in Maniema ............................................................21

2.1
War
and
the
Post-War
Situation..................................................................................................21

2.1.1
Historical
Context.........................................................................................................................................21

2.1.2
The
Post-‐Conflict
Situation
and
Sexualised
Violence....................................................................23

2.2
HEAL
Africa:
A
Local
Approach
to
Reconstruction................................................................25

3. Methodology .....................................................................................................................29

3.1
Feminist
Perspectives
of
Empirical
Research.........................................................................29

3.2
Research
Methodology ...................................................................................................................31

3.2.1
Qualitative
Interviewing............................................................................................................................31

3.2.2
Participatory
Action
Research ................................................................................................................34

4. Gendered Experiences: The Individual ..........................................................................37

4.1
Women’s
Personal
Experiences...................................................................................................38

4.1.1
Gender-‐Based
Discrimination.................................................................................................................38

4.1.2
Experiences
of
War
and
Sexualised
Violence...................................................................................39

4.1.2
Building
(Self-‐)Respect
Through
Microcredit?................................................................................40

5. Gendered Hierarchies: The Household..........................................................................45

5.1
Labour
and
Income ..........................................................................................................................46

5.1.1
Labour
Distribution.....................................................................................................................................46

5.1.2
Impacts
of
Microcredit
on
Labour
and
Income ...............................................................................48

5.2
Trade
and
Mobility...........................................................................................................................50

5.2.1
Conditions
of
Trade
and
Mobility..........................................................................................................50

5.2.2
Impact
of
Microcredit
on
Trade
and
Mobility ..................................................................................52

5.3
Resource
Ownership
and
Control...............................................................................................53

5.3.1
Excursus:
Cooperative
Conflict...............................................................................................................53

5.3.2
Hierarchies
in
Resource
Ownership
and
Control ...........................................................................55

5.3.3
Impact
of
Microcredit
on
Resource
Ownership
and
Control.....................................................58

6. Gendered Networks: The Community ............................................................................60

6.1
Social
Capital
and
Reciprocity
in
Maniema..............................................................................61

6.2
Women’s
Solidarity
Networks......................................................................................................65

6.2.1
Women’s
Solidarity
Networks
in
Maniema.......................................................................................65

6.2.2
‘Heal
My
People’
Solidarity
Groups
as
a
New
Social
Force.........................................................66

7. Conclusion........................................................................................................................70

Bibliography .........................................................................................................................74

Printed
Resources ...................................................................................................................................74

Electronic
Resources..............................................................................................................................77

Eidesstattliche Erklärung ....................................................................................................79

iii
List of Figures
Dialogue Box 1: Changes in Family Relationships…………………………………..43
Dialogue Box 2: Discussion on Ownership During Workshop in Pangi……………57
Dialogue Box 3: Emergency Support Options………………………………………..68
Abbreviations
CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women
CONADER Commission Nationale de Désarmement, Démobilisation et
Réinsertion
DAWN Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era
DRC Democratic Republic of Congo
FP female participant
HMPM Heal My People Maniema
HEAL Africa Health, Education, Action and Leadership for Africa
IGA income-generating activity
KfW Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau
IMF International Monetary Fund
MONUC Mission des Nations Unies en République Démocratique du
Congo
MP male participant
NGO non-governmental organisation
PAR participatory action research
SAP structural adjustment program
UN United Nations
Q question by facilitator
Glossary
bwana Swahili term for ‘sir', ‘master’ and ‘spirit’
kitu kwa kitu Swahili term for barter / exchange of goods
likilimba Swahili term for rotational and communal (field) work
Magister In Germany, the Magister is a first degree that requires four to
six years of study and is equivalent of a Master’s Degree
Rega Ethnic group in Maniema
tontine Investment vehicle that combines elements of group savings,
group life insurance and lottery (named after 16th
century
Banker Lorenzo di Tonti). In Congo, it is used to describe
rotational savings accounts.
Zimba Ethnic group in Maniema

iv
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I thank the people of Maniema who have lavished me with their
hospitality and shared their time, concerns and hopes with me so that this survey
could be completed. I also thank HEAL Africa and its ever-friendly and helpful staff
that has greatly facilitated my stay in Goma as well as my research in Maniema. I
am particularly grateful for the substantial advice and kind cooperation of the
program manager Gwendolyn Lusi and her assistant, Harper Mcconnell.
Similarly, I would like to thank the entire staff of ‘Heal My People Maniema’ for their
kind support and advice in all matters related to the completion of this document. I
am very grateful to the project director Muliri Kabekatyo, as well as training
coordinator Julienne Chakupewa, IGA coordinator Francesca Ferusi and monitoring
and evaluation officer Albert Mushiaramina. My gratitude goes out also to trainers
Kahindo Vihamba and Omoyi, who took every measure to make the stay in
Maniema comfortable.
I would further like to express my gratitude for the outstanding cooperation of
Marceline Ndarabu, supervisor of ‘Heal My People’ in Kipaka and Godelive
Akilyabo, supervisor in Kampene, for their courage and inspiration as well as their
excellent Swahili/French translation during my research. I would also like to thank
Pastor Nehemiah and Pastor Michel Pierre Sumaili Bukanga from Kampene for their
translation.
I am equally indebted to the Nehemiah Committees of Kipaka, Kampene and Pangi,
who supported the planning and implementation of my research in every way
possible. I would like to thank members of all three committees for their curiosity
and their willingness to share their thoughts and aspirations.
Furthermore, I would like to thank the professionals, programs and organizations
that cooperated with me in this research and provided me with their knowledge and
expertise, namely Dr. Birgit Niebuhr of the KfW, Noella Katembo of Choisir la Vie,
Neema Mayala of Maternité à Moindre Risque, Joseph Ciza of Heal My People
Nord-Kivu, Pastor Jules Bolingo of the Nehemiah Commitees, Jules Barhalengwa of
Women for Women, as well as Samuel Ferguson of Hekima/World Relief and Achim
Koch of GTZ Jeunesse Kindu. Last but not least, the KAP study on sexual violence
conducted by Andrea McPherson has been of tremendous help for my
understanding of the subject matter.
In Germany, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Prof. Dr. Christine
Bauhardt for her valuable input in conceptual and theoretical questions. The same is
true for my assistant supervisor Christiane Kayser, whom I also want to thank
because she opened up the possibility of this research to me and encouraged me to
accomplish it. I further want to thank Dr. Ilona Pache, Course Coordinator of the
Humboldt University’s Centre for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies for her kind
support in the planning of my research trip. Last but not least, I am deeply grateful to
the constructive criticism, the support and advice of my colleagues and friends,
especially Danielle Lanyard and Julika Schmitz.

1
Introduction
In 2006, the Nobel Committee awarded the Peace Price to Muhammad Yunus,
Bangladeshi professor of economics and founder of the pioneering microcredit
organisation Grameen Bank. His work to end poverty was honoured as an important
contribution to peace. In the Committee’s words,
Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find
ways in which to break out of poverty. Micro-credit is one such way.
Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human
rights (Nobel Foundation 2006).
The potential of microcredit lies in its ability to reach the most disadvantaged groups
of society and to provide them with means to improve their living situation on their
own account. As the Committee’s laudation shows, this development ‘from below’ is
commonly regarded as a way to advance peace and equality. One of microcredit’s
frequently cited qualities is that it is especially attractive to women because it
provides them with a supreme avenue towards empowerment, meaning the
achievement of greater social, economic and political power. The most perceptible
proof of this idea is that 97% of the Grameen Bank’s eight million borrowers are
female.
Can we assume that there is indeed a connection between the three elements of
microcredit, women’s empowerment and peace? Does micro-level economic
development have empowering effects on women, and in what way may this
empowerment contribute to peace? In exploring these issues, the present Magister
thesis attempts to tie in theoretical considerations regarding women’s empowerment
with research on the everyday realities of resource-poor rural women in societies
affected by war. By explicitly connecting the issues of war, sexualised violence and
women’s empowerment through microcredit, the paper offers a unique perspective
within the field of development studies.
The empirical part of the study was carried out in the framework of the ‘Heal My
People Maniema’ (HMPM) microcredit program in Maniema province, Eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The program constitutes a post-war
reconstruction effort that mainly focuses on women who have survived rape. Feminist
thought has long challenged public perception of rape as a crime committed by
abnormal men unable to control their lust and instead regarded it as ‘an act of

2
violence committed by “normal” men against women: […] primarily a mechanism of
control and intimidation’ (Mosse 1993: 60). Therefore, the prevalence of rape in war
and post-war situations can be understood as both a result and a constituent of
women’s lack of power. However, the issue of rape survivors is largely missing from
discourses on microcredit and empowerment.
Since 1993, war and armed conflict have dominated the Eastern provinces of the
DRC, which include North and South Kivu as well as Maniema. Though Maniema
has experienced a relatively stable period of peace starting in 2005, the conflict’s
aftermath still weighs heavily on the population. Communities suffer from profound
lack of capital, which is further amplified by the absence of functional infrastructure
for secure and adequate social services, as well as unfavourable political and legal
conditions.
In addition to the adversity experienced by the entire population of Maniema, women
are faced with gender-related forms of discrimination that put them at a relative
disadvantage to men. During the war, women were frequently subjected to rape, and
many women still suffer negative consequences for their health and social status. In
addition, factors such as limited control over economic resources and limited access
to education restrict women’s agency (their capacity to make choices and to act on
these choices), making them especially susceptible to sexual and economic
exploitation. At the same time, women play a central role as economic providers and
social networkers, with a strong potential to enhance post-war reconstruction efforts
and foster peace.
All of the above factors expose a need to strengthen the social, economic and
political position of resource-poor women in rural Maniema who have survived rape
and/or have been otherwise negatively affected by the consequences of war. The
primary cognitive interest of this thesis is whether and how this can be achieved with
the help of microcredit. In order to examine this issue, the argument is structured into
three hypotheses, each of which corresponds to one are of women’s development at
the microlevel of society: the individual, the household and the community. Though
all of these three sub-levels are interconnected, they are treated separately here in
order to facilitate a differentiated microlevel analysis of empowerment. The paper
does not address the broader and more impersonalised macrolevel of national and
international development.

3
The first hypothesis suggests that participation in a microcredit program enhances
the personal empowerment of rural Congolese women who have survived rape.
Individual empowerment is defined here as increased awareness of personal value,
strength and interest, as well as an increased ability to act on this awareness. The
paper asks how exactly this change be achieved by using the tool of microcredit.
The second hypothesis proposes that women’s access to microcredit strengthens
their position at the household sub-level. At this level, empowerment is characterised
by a change in gendered hierarchies in the distribution of labour, resources and
decision-making power that reduces women’s relative disadvantage to men. The
paper examines how the introduction of microcredit induces this change.
The third hypothesis put forward here is that in the post-war environment of rural
Maniema, microcredit can empower the concerned group of women at the
community sub-level. At this level, empowerment is defined as the creation or
recreation of women’s solidarity networks and women’s heightened social and
political influence. The paper inquires how microcredit encourages this process.
With its focus on social, economic and political development of the resource-poor,
the thesis pertains to the field of development studies. Academic discourse on
international development evolved from the preoccupation with economic progress
for newly decolonised countries in the 1950s and 1960s. From its beginnings,
development studies exposed a strong practical focus in trying to delineate paths for
action against the perceived ‘problems’ of these countries, such as poverty or lack of
social services. Initially, development policies and programs were strongly influenced
and informed by economics and natural science, which were believed to be
universally applicable to all societies. When an increasing number of scholars
realised that this focus was not sufficient to address the specific cultural, social or
political conditions in different societies, development studies came to encompass a
more diverse range of disciplines, such as social and political science.
Though multidisciplinary in character, development studies often remain limited to a
eurocentric viewpoint. This is due to the hegemonic character of European-originated
development thought. The ideas of progress, modernisation and the free-market
economy that constitute the mainstream of international development have been
postulated as universally valid ‘truths’ that other societies should adhere to.
At the same time, development studies have offered a fertile ground for alternative
visions that challenge mainstream thought and attempt to change international

4
development discourse from within. Notably, works from developing countries and
feminist works have increasingly placed the local, micro-level realities of resource-
poor people at the centre. In doing so, they have often been successful in informing
more differentiated and inclusionary development policies and programs.
The present thesis is a contribution to this more critical stream of development
studies. It recognises the hegemonic underpinnings of the idea of international
development, but it does not reject the idea per se. As this paper intends to show,
some of the ideas and analytical tools created by critical development scholars can
be utilised to promote equality within individual societies as well as between
developed and developing countries.
From this vantage point, the use of language is critical. The term ‘Third World
Country’ will be avoided here, as it was coined in the 20th
century to describe those
countries that were considered to be the least developed. Today, development
scholars regard the term as obsolete and derogatory because it fixates resource-poor
countries at the bottom of a scale of measurement that was created from within the
so-called ‘First World’ of capitalist, industrialised, and mostly European nations
(Hermassi 1980).
In an attempt to avoid this form of implicit judgement, the term ‘developing country’ is
employed here. Its transitory nature suggests that resource-poor countries are in a
process that wealthier, ‘developed countries’ have completed to a larger degree. The
state of a country’s development is not considered an actual reality here. Instead it is
regarded as an ideological concept, a way of interpreting certain nations according to
standardised economic criteria - such as infrastructure, industry, gross domestic
product, democratic structures and implementation of human rights.
Development language tends to describe the people in developing countries as ‘the
poor’ or ‘the rural poor’, which implies a general state of lack and victimhood. This
terminology does not allow for a view of economically disadvantaged people that
recognises their capacities and potential. People in many African societies may, for
instance, lack financial capital and tangible resources, but they possess a wealth of
social networks and traditional knowledge. This is why the term ‘resource-poor’,
which is now commonly used in development literature, seems more appropriate. It
signifies a relative disadvantage in some resources, thereby defining a circumstance
rather than an innate state of being.

5
Within the broader field of development studies, this paper is located in the discipline
of social sciences, more specifically in the field of sociology, or the scientific study of
societies. On first sight, we may intuitively consider economics to be a more suitable
discipline for an analysis of a rural microcredit program. Yet we need to consider that
dominant economic discourses, namely classical and neoclassical liberalism, see
human beings as nuclear entities that are driven by rational self-interest and compete
with each other in an impartial, ‘free’ market (Blau and Ferber 1986: 20-21). Such a
view does not allow for the importance of other factors that inform human life, e.g. the
relationships between people or the cultural dimensions of social interaction.
In contrast, sociology focuses on social context. It proposes that individuals are
integrated into, and influenced by, social networks that form their identity and provide
them with a framework of knowledge, beliefs, values, rights and obligations (Weber
1925). Moreover, sociology sees social relations not as egalitarian, but hierarchical,
signifying that they are stratified by inequalities in resources, status and capabilities.
If we examine microcredit with regard to women’s empowerment from a sociological
viewpoint, we describe a process that breaks down and changes these social
hierarchies.
Nonetheless, sociology is subject to some limitations that are similar to development
studies, as it also originates from and reflects European scientific thought. Early 19th
century theorists in sociology were still firmly dedicated to the methods of natural
science with its paradigms of rationality and objectivity. This school of ‘positivists’
suggested that social phenomena could be understood through empirical evidence,
which they equated with incontestable and universal ‘truth’.
Their views were partly challenged by antipositivists such as Weber, who claimed
that sociological research should not use the same tools and methods as the natural
sciences (1949: 63; 110-111). Based on the recognition that human societies are
governed by unique principles such as cultural norms and values, antipositivists
called for a more suitable conceptual framework for social analysis. This movement
ultimately led to the development of the tools and methods that were implemented
both in the empirical research and the evaluation of results that inform the present
thesis.
Despite sociology’s push away from natural sciences, its methods continue to be
influenced by the idea that scientific research and discourse can be neutral or
objective. Feminist sociologists have challenged this supposed objectivity by arguing

6
that it conceals male bias (Nickel 2000: 132-133). They argue that scientific
discourse originated from a context dominated by European men and is imbued with
the inherently subjective viewpoint of this group - even if today, the scientist may be
non-European or female.
The problem of male bias can be exemplified by sociology’s long-standing omission
or misjudgement of women’s specific concerns and the concerns of other
marginalized groups (Nickel 2000: 132-133). One of the great achievements of
feminist scholars since the 1970s has been to bring these concerns to the attention
of scientific debates. This push has eventually led to the introduction of an
interdisciplinary body of discourse that is subsumed under the term ‘gender studies’.
‘Gender’ can be defined as a constitutive element of social relationships that is based
on perceived differences and deeply embedded in the attitudes, knowledge and
practices of both women and men. Gender is generally cited as a cultural construct in
opposition to the immutable, ‘natural’ difference of sex. Butler contests this view by
claiming that sex is ‘as culturally constructed as gender’ (1990: 7). Biological
difference is thus a signifier of the gendered structure of society, which is reinforced
through economic imbalances, religious beliefs, cultural practices and educational
systems.
These imbalances point towards Scott’s proposition that ‘gender is a primary way of
signifying relationships of power’ (2007: 66). She asserts that gender relations are
not only a field in which power is articulated and manifested, but that gender is a
constituent of power itself. Beyond social relations and the institutionalised
inequalities between women and men, this perspective is particularly useful when
analysing a context of sexualised violence in wartime. In this setting, power is
signified and asserted based on symbolic attributions of masculinity and femininity.
In analysing relationships of power, gender offers a guide to contestation and
resistance, making it a key tool for feminist thought and activism. The term ‘feminist’
is defined here as any individual who perceives and is ready to act against the
prevalence of hegemonic power and inequality within a given context. Even though
this paper focuses mainly on women’s empowerment, feminism is not limited to
women alone and does not only relate to ‘women’s issues’. Feminism is an attitude, a
perspective that is critical of all forms of power and dominance. It compels to take
action, to challenge hierarchies and to change them. Therefore, feminism is never

7
exclusively theoretical, but is always already a form of activism that has concrete
practical implications.
As a White, European feminist scholar in the field of development studies, I find
myself in a double bind. I desire to take action against the oppressive systems that
often affect women from developing countries, but at the same time, I operate from
within a position of economic, cultural, political and racial privilege. In doing so, I am
inclined to take a eurocentric standpoint, thereby reinforcing and reproducing some
of the very same social hierarchies that I intend to deconstruct. To the extent that this
means that all women are not equal, we may argue with Mohanty that there is no
common ground for women’s activism, no ‘global sisterhood’ united by a universal
female experience of male oppression (1989-1990: 180).
In order to approach to this dilemma, I employ postmodern feminism. This stream of
feminist thought discusses multiple forms of oppression along the lines of race, class
or ethnicity. It deconstructs scientific paradigms of objectivity and neutrality by
asserting that the researcher is equally as embedded in social context as is the
‘object’ of the research. This signifies that any ‘truth’ that we produce is always
already biased, and we can only deconstruct this bias through self-reflectivity (Spivak
1990: 19). With this in mind, I do not reject the idea of sisterhood altogether, but
rather the notion that this is a natural state or an abstract principle that exists as a
given. Much rather, I agree with Sen and Grown that sisterhood, signifying a specific
kind of sharing and solidarity, is ‘a concrete goal that must be achieved through a
process of debate and action’ (1987: 24).
This concrete goal of solidarity between women can at least partly be achieved
through an approach to development that gives women’s empowerment a paramount
role. The idea of empowerment did not evolve from European academia, but from the
work of feminists in developing countries. It creates favourable conditions for debate
and action because it allows a twofold view on power imbalances that correlates with
postmodern feminist thought: it simultaneously addresses hierarchies between
women and men, and hierarchies between developed and developing countries.
The empowerment approach challenges development literature’s recurring bias that
resource-poor rural women are a homogenous group of passive victims who need
feminists and experts from developed countries to come to their rescue. The task of
development interventions should not be to ‘empower’ women, but rather to create a
favourable environment and provide the ways by which they can empower

8
themselves. Empowerment thus constitutes the process of their coming into power,
of taking directed action by devising their own strategies for agency and autonomy.
The present thesis draws from the theoretical work of sociologists and other scholars
from developed and developing countries that are mainly concerned with issues of
feminism and gender analysis and development. In addition, the paper is based on
an empirical research carried out from November to December 2007 with women and
men in resource-poor rural communities across Maniema province in Eastern DRC.
The research was commissioned by the Congolese non-governmental organisation
(NGO) HEAL Africa, that sought to measure the impact of the HMPM microcredit
program, seeking recommendations on how to improve the program. Rather than
being ‘prescribed’ a gender analysis by a foreign donor, the organisation actively
sought the perspective of an external, European-educated researcher. As a foreign
scholar, I was able to learn from the experience and knowledge of the Congolese
staff at HEAL Africa, who proved to me more than once that it does not take
academic theory in order to understand the value of feminism and women’s
empowerment in people’s lives. Thanks to them, the present thesis has become the
live account of a learning process.
My argument is thus situated at the intersection of theory and practice, which is
characterised by contradictions and fractures. Theories on empowerment that have
been developed within the academic settings of development studies may often not
apply to the actually realities of resource-poor women. Similarly, these realities may
contest academic theories. If we are able to recognise and to brave these tensions,
our theoretical considerations may be useful tools to analyse and inform
development practice.
The paper is structured into seven main chapters. The first chapter deals with the
background of theories and paradigms within development studies that concern
women and gender. The second chapter takes a closer look at the research location
of Maniema with particular regard to its post-war status, the issue of sexualised
violence against women, and the work of HEAL Africa and HMPM. Chapter three
discusses the methodology for measuring empowerment from a feminist standpoint.
Chapters four to six each present one part of the results of the empirical research as
they relate to the three sub-levels of the individual, the household and the
community. These chapters examine the status quo of gendered hierarchies at the
respective sub-levels, the interventions of the HMPM microcredit program and their

9
impact with regard to women’s empowerment. Chapter seven contains my
conclusion.
1. International Development and Gender Equality
This chapter begins with a brief overview of the context of international development.
It then discusses different development approaches to women and gender from the
1950s until present, namely the welfare approach, Women in Development (WID),
Gender and Development (GAD) and women’s empowerment. The final section
introduces microcredit as a possible tool for women’s empowerment.
1.1 International Development
The countries nowadays described as ‘developing’ have frequently been controlled
directly or indirectly by European or North American powers during colonial rule.
Especially between the 17th
and the 19th
century, these countries became subjected
to a European-dominated ‘world system’, of trade, colonisation, financial investment,
political relationships and military aggression. The economic and political control over
subject territories under colonial rule turned them into ‘sources of cheap raw
materials, food, and labour, as well as markets for ruling country’s manufacturers’
(Sen and Grown 1987: 29). Forced commercialisation and systems of private
property turned subsistent, self-provisioning communities into dependents.
The concept of development emerged from the 19th
century experience of
modernisation and industrialisation in Europe. It was founded on a strong belief in the
linear progress of societies and that it could be achieved based on ‘scientific’
disciplines like economics or natural science. Based on these ideas, Europeans
tended to perceive and describe foreign societies as backwards (De Groot 1991:
111-12). When former colonies reached for independence in the post-World War II
era, the economic development of these nations became an issue of international
concern. The principal development actors of the time were the United Nations (UN)
and the World Bank, who in the 1950s and 1960s were joined by numerous non-
governmental organisations. ‘International development’ was equated economic
growth.
Newly created nations were thus encouraged to follow European models of economic
growth, for instance through capital inputs and technical assistance (meaning training

10
and knowledge transfer). Social services and infrastructure were created to support
the development process. The economic benefits of this transition were believed to
eventually ‘trickle down’ throughout society, reaching even its least privileged
members (Mosse 1993: 11).
Especially on the capitalist side of the iron curtain, economic growth was seen as a
measure to guarantee individual freedom. In 1955, William Arthur Lewis, one of the
founders of development economics, made the following remark:
The advantage of economic growth is not that wealth increases
happiness, but that it increases the range of human choice (…). The case
of economic growth is that it gives man greater control over his
environment, and thereby increases his freedom (2003: 420).
However, while development policies and programs had raised the Gross National
Product of many developing countries by the 1970, the problems of the resource-
poor persisted. The promise of freedom hinged on the failure to provide adequate
social opportunities for all members of society. Development scholars and
practitioners began to promote measures that were directly aimed at the resource-
poor (Arndt 1987: 101). Beginning in the 1970s, the orientation of multilateral
development organisations shifted to pursue ‘basic human needs’, with development
projects focusing nutrition, health, water, sanitation and housing.
Proponents of this strategy argued that the provision for basic needs was
indispensable to offer micro-level strategies and opportunities to resource-poor
people in order to enable their full participation in the development process (Sen
1999: 20-22). Meanwhile, scholars from developing countries were commonly critical
of the basic needs approach, believing that its hidden agenda was to diminish
economic growth in developing countries and lock them into a state of backwardness
(Kabeer 2001: 7-8).
Eventually, criticism of development led to a paradigm shift. Resource-poor people
were no longer regarded as passive recipients, but as active stakeholders in the
development process. Economic self-help activities became a main focal point of
governmental and non-governmental development organisations, with the underlying
idea that if people can provide themselves with economic profit, this does not only
improve their actual situation but also promote their self-dependency in the future.
(Deutscher Bundestag 1995: 3-8; 48). Development organisations have since
adapted their programs to foster the participation and capacity building.

11
Regardless of these efforts, international development continues deeply intertwined
with European hegemonic power, consolidated during colonisation and reinforced
through the expansion of world markets commonly known as ‘globalisation’.
Development critics claim that even though today, this system may also benefit other,
non-European actors, it is still marked by profit-oriented behaviour and high deficits in
ethical standards. The strong links between international development and global
financial institutions and trade agreements dedicated to neoliberal models of
unregulated economic growth are seen to undermine local decision-making
processes (Mies 2002: 60-77). Development interventions often leave unequal
economic treaties and political imbalances between developing and developed
countries unquestioned, thereby reducing the potential to instigate significant
changes. The humanitarian nature of many development efforts has therefore been
accused of simply lending a friendlier face to globalisation, while deep-seated
structural inequalities persist (Mies 2002: 71-73).
Critical examinations of development expose the contradiction between its declared
goal of ending inequalities and its investment into an inherently unequal, globalising
world system. While it is important to recognize this inherent weakness, it should not
obstruct the practical need for well-directed measures in developing countries that
directly reach out to those most negatively affected by economic inequality. As
Barakat and Chard point out, it’s especially in regions suffering from war and armed
conflict where development interventions can be ‘a response to endemic, deep-
seated deficits that undermine people’s lives both physically and psychologically’
(2005: 175).
1.2 Approaches to Women and Gender in Development
Women’s situations in developing countries are often marked by discrimination,
marginalisation, and extreme resource poverty. The following chapter offers an
overview of some of the ways in which development policy and practice have
handled the ‘woman’s question’. The approaches discussed here have often evolved
simultaneously and are not always mutually exclusive. They all continue to be
employed in development, often even simultaneously. However, for reasons of
clarity, they are presented in chronological order.

12
1.2.1 Women’s Marginalisation and the Welfare Approach
The early theories that equated development with economic growth rarely addressed
women explicitly. If women were mentioned, it was to show that they would profit
from growth and modernisation, since they were believed to ultimately overcome any
discriminatory traditions (Andorfer 1995: 10). In 1955, Lewis stated that:
Women benefit from growth even more than men. (…) Woman gains
freedom from drudgery, is emancipated from the seclusion of the
household, and gains at last the chance to be a full human being,
exercising her talents in the same way as men (2003: 422).
These words imply that only participation in the free market allows human beings to
realise their potential, and not the supposed ‘drudgery’ that is household work. In
fact, Lewis implies that it is only participation in the market that allows women to
become fully human.
His statement is a reflection of classical economic theory, which views the household
as a secluded sphere in which ‘reproductive’ (informal, unpaid and ‘feminine’) work
takes place. Classical and neoclassical models of society and the market exhibit
strong tendencies to ignore and/or devalue this ‘reproductive’ sphere, placing
singular emphasis on ‘productive’ (formal, income-generating and ‘masculine’)
activities, which are viewed as the single contributing factor to generating economic
growth (Blau and Ferber 1986: 20-21).
Feminist economists have challenged this view by defining the reproduction of labour
power as ‘the renewal of the capacity of energy to labour expended in production’
(Bujra 1979: 20), thereby highlighting the significance of women’s ‘reproductive’
contribution to the economy. The production of goods and their consumption also
takes place within the household and that the actual humans that undertake
‘productive’ activities are created and nurtured from within the ‘reproductive’. The
distinction between the two spheres thus appears to be an artificial construct, which
stems from gendered hierarchies in economic thought and has little relevance to the
actual realities ‘in the field’.
As Mackintosh (1984: 9) suggests, the sexual division of labour in society should be
viewed as an ‘intersection of two sets of social forces: capitalism and patriarchy’:
while the former is a system of economic hegemony, the ladder is a system of male
hegemony. This idea is confounded by Kabeer’s assertion that
Women’s labour in the home relieves men of the tasks associated with
maintaining both their own bodies and the domestic locations where such

13
maintenance takes place, thereby freeing them to behave ‘as if’ they were
indeed the disembodied rational agents of liberal theory (2001: 29).
Classical economic theory thus confounds hierarchies in the way that labour,
resources, recognition and power are distributed (Jacobsen 1994).
During these early development decades of the 1950s and 1960s, the focus on
neoclassical policies in capitalist countries led to a marginalisation of women (Sen
and Grown 1987: 31). Policies sought to transfer control of the economy from the
public to the private sector through deregulation, decentralization and promotion of a
global free-market economy. This entailed commercialisation and private property,
which reduced women’s access to resources.
Development efforts tended to get directed to men, thereby failing to recognize the
central role women play as household managers and producers1
. In many cases,
social and cultural norms that ensure women’s economic and legal dependency on
men were enforced in this way (Gittinger 1990: 3). Mainstream development efforts
were mainly directed towards men, focusing on jobs and the industry (Kabeer 2001:
5). Accordingly, men entered the development process as household heads and
‘productive’ agents, while women were supposed to become better housewives,
mothers and ‘at-risk’ producers.
Lewis’ theory that women would automatically benefit from economic growth was
disproved when women turned out to be disproportionably represented among the
resource-poor and powerless of the world, leading to a ‘feminisation of poverty’
(Mosse 1993: 116). If development programs and policies addressed women, it was
in terms of the welfare approach. Welfare provided women with food aid and family
planning measures. The welfare approach attempted to ease the burden of ‘women’s
labour’, but it did so from a narrowly defined, eurocentric view of gender relations that
ignored women’s ‘productive’ capacity. While this constituted a first recognition that
women had different needs than men, it almost entirely eclipsed their ‘productive’
role, their social and economic capacities and their potential for agency. Women’s
subordination was left unchallenged.
1
According to studies from sub-Saharan Africa, African women make up approximately 70
percent of the total food production by engaging in agricultural and commercial activities
mostly geared at household consumption (Gittinger 1990: 3).

14
1.2.2 Women in Development
The first work that contested the notion that women and men equally benefited from
development was Ester Boserup’s study ‘Women’s Role in Economic Development’
published in 1970. Boserup stated that economic modernisation had increased men’s
labour productivity but ousted women from most productive processes (1970: 1-15).
She was the first to draw attention to the fact that international technical cooperation
focused almost exclusively on teaching new farming techniques to male farmers
(1970: 53-57).
Boserup’s work inspired liberal feminist scholars and practitioners to push for a
broader inclusion of women into development. Studies focusing on the intersection of
women’s ‘reproductive’ and ‘productive’ labour were now carried out in all regions of
the world, with the goal to appropriately recognize women in all policy and
programming (Rogers 1980: 181-192). This new discourse was subsumed under the
term ‘Women in Development’ (WID).
In the light of new policy approaches that emphasised basic needs, women were now
identified as crucial development agents and the UN became one of the central
platforms for the promotion of WID, declaring the years 1976 to 1985 as the ‘UN-
Decade for Women’. Over the course of these ten years, three international women’s
conferences were held, 1975 in Mexico, 1980 in Copenhagen and 1985 in Nairobi. In
1979, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW) was passed. Today 185 countries have ratified it, making up over
90 percent of UN member states (United Nations 2006).
The two major approaches that emerged from WID were anti-poverty and efficiency.
The anti-poverty approach attempted to end the marginalisation of women in
development by no longer limiting them to the ‘reproductive’ sphere and instead
recognising their potential as providers. It directed ‘women-specific’ measures
towards them in order to improve their access to resources and income and to
increase their productivity. This was often done in terms of special projects for
income generating activities (IGAs), such as handicraft or small-scale agricultural
production and trade.
The anti-poverty approach constituted a first step away from limiting women solely to
their roles as housewives and mothers. However, it showed similarities to the welfare
approach since it did not handle women’s poverty as an issue of subordination and

15
did not attempt to change their relative position in society. As a result, it often placed
additional work on women without improvements in their autonomy or agency.
After the 1980s debt crisis, numerous developing countries faced growing
macroeconomic problems, which they tried to tackle with loans from the International
Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF tied these loans to policies of economic efficiency and
debt repayment through structural adjustment programs (SAPs). These programs
became the central macroeconomic approach in development, obliging developing
countries to further market liberalisation, export-oriented production, privatisation and
reduction of social services.
From this context, the efficiency approach emerged. While promoters of anti-poverty
had still been preoccupied with proving that development marginalised women,
promoters of the efficiency approach were preoccupied with showing the negative
effects this had on development. The efficiency approach proposed that the
liberalisation process could be enhanced if women were explicitly recognized.
Women then were mostly regarded in their capacity to compensate for the negative
results of SAPs. Their poverty was seen more in terms of their lack of participation
and agency within ‘formal’, ‘productive’ structures, which was to be balanced out
through opening up new opportunities of resource and capital ownership and broader
access to the labour market. The efficiency approach also promoted IGAs as a
central tool. It focused on women’s role as subsistence farmers, improving their
opportunities for the processing and marketing of products, typically through creating
and supporting women’s cooperatives and providing them with technological
innovations such as rice mills.
Since the efficiency approach did not challenge neoclassical premises or the
supposed need for SAPs, it came to be highly persuasive to development
organisations such as the World Bank (Kabeer 2001: 25). In the process, women’s
domestic duties were ignored while they faced increasing pressure to produce goods
and social services, which did little to balance out their relative disadvantage to men
(Elson 1995: 168-185; Moser 1989: 1814). Both WID approaches, anti-poverty and
efficiency, thus had in common that they sought corrective reforms that largely left
the status quo of dominant social and economic hierarchies of society untouched
(Kabeer 2001: 12).

16
1.2.3 Gender and Development
From the mid 1980s onwards, feminist scholars and activists brought about another
shift in approaches to women and development. They were still dedicated to the
general goal of efficiency, but focused more on the structures that determine
women’s and men’s relative positions within society. Whereas most WID scholars
rejected the emerging notion that women’s capacities were in any way different from
those of men, the new paradigm specifically emphasised gender differences. This
approach was subsumed under the term Gender and Development (GAD).
GAD scholars contended that women and men inhabit different roles in society that
are based on inequality and give rise to different needs. Because women start from a
position of relative disadvantage, they need to be specifically strengthened and
encouraged in order to participate in development and benefit from it. This
constituted another difference to earlier approaches, which tended to see women as
a homogenous group. GAD thereby pursued a more just and equitable distribution of
assets along the lines of relevant social factors such as gender, class, ethnicity and
age. Resource-poor women were differentiated by these additional factors.
Caroline Moser created a central conceptual framework to plan for development
interventions from a GAD perspective. She suggested the use of gender as an
analytical approach to development planning:
Women will always be marginalized in planning theory and practice until
theoretical feminist concerns are adequately incorporated into a gender
planning framework, which is recognized in its own right as a specific
planning approach (1989: 1800).
According to Moser, women’s development should be addressed in terms of practical
and strategic needs (1989: 1804-06). ‘Practical needs’ result from differences in
labour distribution. They can be tackled by facilitating and supporting women’s
specific roles, for example by giving inputs in healthcare and water. Though these
material assets constitute an important first step to improving women’s living
situation, it does not necessarily help to end their subordination. Moser stated that
the satisfaction of practical needs did not question existing gendered hierarchies.
Instead, it may have contributed to their reproduction by ascribing women to the
domestic sphere or burdening them with ever increasing workloads.
‘Strategic needs’ of women concern the underlying structures of society that create
and perpetuate gender subordination. Strategic needs are met when women obtain
control over their own bodies and sexualities and can participate as equal partners in

17
social and political processes. This can involve ending discrimination in the judiciary
system, in education and the labour market as well as eliminating sexualised
violence.
In addition, Moser (1989: 1801) designed an analytical planning tool named the ‘triple
role of women’. It includes the common distinction between women’s ‘reproductive’
and ‘productive’ roles, while adding a third component of women’s community
managing work. This involves women’s roles as protectors and caretakers of the
community, for example by creating solidarity groups and engaging in reciprocal
exchange. Moser asserts that women’s support for the community is often not
valued, since it is seen as an extension of women’s ‘natural’, domestic role as
housewives and mothers, and thus ‘non-productive’.
The analytical tools of practical and strategic needs and the triple role of women
allowed for a more differentiated view of the activities of resource-poor women in
developing countries, laying the groundwork for well-conceived development
interventions. Gender-specific research after GAD models has been highly efficient in
proving that much of a development project’s success, if not all of it, depends on
sensitivity to gender issues. The need for gender-segregated analysis of labour and
income is now widely recognized in academic research and practical development
planning and policy (Andorfer 1995: 35).
Due to its interdisciplinary character, gender analysis can be adapted into diverse
fields of discourse and action, a characteristic that corresponds well with the diversity
of development issues and stakeholders. Further, gender analysis acknowledges that
each discipline or situation requires a uniquely modified response. This is a sensible
point of departure, considering that each developmental effort needs to adapt to
specific local conditions and requirements. Gender analysis places each situation in
a broader context of inequality, such as male dominance, colonialism or
globalisation.
Despite a generally high level of differentiation and social consciousness among
GAD scholars and practitioners, they are not free from European-originated
development discourse that sets developed countries as the standardised ideal all
societies have to reach. The focus is on integrating resource-poor people into this
project rather than questioning the unequal and often exploitative relationships
between developed and developing countries (Andorfer 1995: 46). GAD scholars
thereby continue to imply a view of women from developing countries as victims of

18
poverty, discrimination and oppression. This denies them a chance to speak for
themselves and voice their opinions to an attentive audience.
1.2.4 Women’s Empowerment
At the end of the 1980s, a new development paradigm emerged from the Southern
side of the globe. Often labelled ‘Third World Feminism’, it was most closely
associated with the political manifest ‘Development, Crises and Alternative Visions’
delivered by a women’s network, Development Alternatives with Women for a New
Era (DAWN), during the preparations for the final conference of the UN-Decade for
women in 1984. DAWN, which at the time consisted of activists and scholars from
over 60 developing countries, demanded adequate recognition of women’s diversity
and the multitude of feminisms across the world (Sen and Grown 1987: 18). The
manifest discussed development as a structural transformation of economic, political
and cultural power at three levels: the local, the national and the international.
DAWN rejected the idea that integrative approaches such as GAD could be a
panacea to women’s diverse problems in a globalising world order. Instead, they
voiced a sharp and direct critique of the capitalist world system and the model of
neoclassical globalisation: ‘A development process that shrinks and poisons the pie
available to poor people, and then leaves women scrambling for a larger relative
share, is not in women’s interest’ (Sen and Grown 1987: 20).
DAWN regarded the unchallenged top-down approach to development (project
identification, planning and implementation) as both a result of, and a way to
reproduce, economic and political inequalities. They demanded that the voices of the
resource-poor would be heard and promoted a people-centred approach, asserting
that ‘absence of local participation in favour of a more bureaucratic approach is not
only undemocratic and inequitable, but highly inefficient’ (Sen and Grown 1987: 40).
Since DAWN evolved almost simultaneously with GAD, both approaches mutually
influenced one another. While addressing interlocking and multiple forms of
oppression, DAWN always allotted gender equality a paramount role above all other
struggles:
For many women, problems of nationality, class, and race are inextricably
linked to their specific oppression as women. Defining feminism to include
the struggle against all forms of oppression is both legitimate and
necessary. In many instances gender equality must be accompanied by
changes on these other fronts (Sen and Grown 1987: 19).

19
Based on these assertions, DAWN introduced the concept of ‘empowerment’ that is
central to this Magister thesis. It implies that while some parts of society hold
economic, social or political power, some groups have less, or no power at all.
Women are thought to be on the losing side of this equation due to their subordinate
position within a patriarchal system that is solidified by cultural norms, social divisions
of labour, marital customs as well as educative and legal systems. Empowerment
differs from previous approaches because it places women’s participation and
agency at the centre: it is neither seen as an added contributing factor to efficiency,
nor as an elite, top-down approach for development planners and policy makers, but
as a central motor for social change:
Only by sharpening the links between equality, development, and peace,
can we show that the ‘basic rights’ of the poor and the transformation of
the institutions that subordinate women are inextricably linked. They can
be achieved together through the self-empowerment of women (Sen and
Grown 1987: 81).
The use of the word ‘self-empowerment’ is significant. It stresses that DAWN does
not favour a setting in which women are being empowered by any external agents.
They may benefit from gender-sensitive programs that provide them with useful tools,
but resource-poor communities must initiate change themselves. Women’s
grassroots initiatives and local organisations of Women from developing countries
are promoted as the central nuclei for social change. They present an opportunity for
community organizing and a potential arena for transformation.
From the perspective of women’s self-empowerment, power is not a form of
dominance over others in the sense that ‘women gain and men loose’. Instead,
power is crucial for its potential to increase women’s capacity for inner strength and
self-reliance, their right to determine life choices and gain control over material and
nonmaterial resources, to shape their own environment and influence decision-
making processes (Moser 1989: 1814; Schultz 2002: 63). While this means that men
need to share certain privileges, they gain the opportunity of an equal partnership
with women with direct and measurable benefits to the entire community.
1.3 Microcredit: A Tool for Women’s Empowerment?
In recent years, empowerment discourse has gained ground. Microcredit and IGAs
have been appropriated as essential tools to support the idea of self-empowerment.
According to the previously mentioned noble laureate Muhammad Yunus, ‘the able-

20
bodied poor don’t want or need charity. The dole only increases their misery, robs
them of incentive, and, more important, of self-respect’ (2003: 205).
The most compelling argument for microcredit is that the formal finance sector is ill
prepared to make credit accessible to the resource-poor. This especially affects
women, whose lack of resources leads to a lack of liability and bars them from
accessing credit from conventional banks. Microcredit offers small denominations
and alternative security measures such as savings groups and women’s solidarity
groups in which liability and risks can be shared. Loan takers invest their credit into
IGAs that are often supported by special vocational training programs, focusing on
women’s capacities as entrepreneurs in informal, small-scale business.
Yunus points out that women are more reliable loan takers, because their payback
rates are higher and they use their assets more effectively for poverty-reducing
measures than men (2003: 70-72). Based on the case of Bangladesh, he observes
that resource-poor women are willing to work harder to lift themselves and their
families out of poverty than men. According to Yunus, ‘when a destitute father earns
extra income he focuses more attention on himself’, whereas women’s aspirations
are geared towards the need of their children and the household (Yunus 2003: 72).
Though some scholars are critical of microcredit, they do not challenge the concept
per se, but its appropriation by neoclassical economists (Wichterich 2007). Today,
the World Bank is the strongest promoter of microcredit. Their policies tend to treat
resource-poor women as an ideal ‘target’ of economic investment, but do little to
improve their actual status in society. In doing so, neoclassical policy makers remain
dedicated primarily to the goals of WID efficiency (Batliwala and Dhanraj 2006: 382).
Yet women’s empowerment does not come as an automatic benefit of microcredit.
While not negating the successes made by microcredit programs, critical studies
warn that microcredit schemes may expose women to great pressure while failing to
adequately recognize risks such as male control over women’s income or women’s
failure to reimburse. While it can be confirmed that resource-poor women sacrifice
themselves for their families and communities, are reliable in debt repayment and are
more impervious against corruption, these potentials arise from women’s struggle for
survival and should serve their own empowerment, and not political and economic
ends of ‘poverty alleviation’ (Batliwala and Dhanraj 2006: 373-74).
Microcredit can be a tool for empowerment can be achieved through microcredit
under the condition that strategic complementary measures ensure that microcredit

21
furthers women’s participation, their agency and their autonomy (Stromquist 1993:
265). Moser’s GAD tools for gender planning can be helpful here, as they provide a
framework to ensure that microcredit programs for women are effective in breaking
down barriers to gender equality. As DAWN has argued, all action concerned with
resource-poor women has to be reflective of global inequalities and respectful of the
voices and opinions of women from developing countries.
2. War and Post-War Reconstruction in Maniema
The following chapter provides an introduction to the research location of Maniema
province in DRC. It outlines the historical background of war and armed conflict
while highlighting some trends in the post-war situation. The chapter emphasises the
issue of sexualised violence and introduces the work of the local non-governmental
organisation (NGO) HEAL Africa.
2.1 War and the Post-War Situation
2.1.1 Historical Context
The DRC is six times the size of the Federal Republic of Germany and has a
population of 53 millions. The population consists of almost 250 different ethnic
groups, almost each with their own language or dialect. In pre-colonial times, the
most common system of political organisation was the kinship group ruled by a local
chief. The Portuguese, who first arrived at the Congolese shore in 1482, did not
comprehend of these lose and dynamic structures as a form of civilisation and
instead labelled them as primitive (Chiari 2006: 15-16; 20-21). Europeans
subsequently used this form of cultural discrimination to legitimise enslaving the
people they encountered in the Congo and selling them to colonies in the Caribbean
and the Americas.
In 1885, the Belgian King Leopold II secured the entire territory of the Congo for
himself in the course of the Berlin Africa Conference in 1885. He thereby ended the
dominion of Arab-Swahili slave hunters and traders operating in the Eastern region of
what is nowadays the DRC. While the experience of slave hunts and Arab-Swahili
culture left a strong imprint on societies in the region, it was European rule that
created the structures of systematic exploitation affecting them until today (Ngongo
2007: 36-55). Leopold commissioned Belgian companies with the economic

22
exploitation of the Congo through mining, logging and the extraction of natural
rubber, also known as cautchouc. In order to achieve maximum profits, local peoples
were brutally enslaved and abused, leading to the death of millions.2
As these atrocities became publicly known and denounced across Europe, Leopold
was pressured into selling his personal colony to the Belgian state in 1908. However,
this shift did little to improve the situation of the Congolese, mainly because the
companies that were in charge of exploiting raw materials did not change. The ‘Force
Publique’, Leopold’s original colonial army consisting of white European officers and
an ethnically mixed African soldiery, stayed in place until 1965 and put down
repeated uprisings and rebellions.
After the end of World War II, a national liberation movement developed and finally
achieved independence in 1960. In 1965, after a period of wars and civil wars,
General Joseph Désiré Mobutu took power as president of the independent
Congolese state. Through a political project of ‘Africanisation’, Mobutu attempted to
define an authentic nationalism and a return to pre-colonial structures that entailed
the eventual disenfranchisement and the expulsion of all foreigners and foreign
companies. This was followed by a gradual collapse of the national economy from
the late 1970s onwards. The state abandoned the public sector, leaving the
Congolese citizenry to fend for itself. In the meantime, Mobutu’s government
recklessly exploited the country’s rich resources. Regardless of these actions, the
USA and other Western powers regarded Mobutu as an ally against communism and
backed his regime until the end of the Cold War.
In the early 1990s, while Mobutu’s opponents tried to seize power and establish a
democratic parliament, ethnic conflicts over territorial resources led to a war in Masisi
territory. This constituted the first in a long series of wars largely fought in the Eastern
provinces of the country. In 1994, members of the Hutu ethno-political group, who
were mainly responsible for the genocide in Rwanda, fled across the border to
Eastern Congo. The militant core moved on to form the FDLR rebel group that
continues to destabilise the region until this day.
After the overthrow of the Mobutu regime in 1996/97, the country experienced a
number of wars that to a large extent also involved its Eastern neighbours Rwanda,
Uganda and Burundi. The effects on the population were devastating, with several
2
According to Hochschild, the number of Congolese that died during colonisation may be as high as ten million (2000: 220-
233).

23
million dead. All warring factions have used rape and other forms of sexualised
violence as a systematic strategy to attack their respective ‘enemy population’, which
has been destructive to the social order of society.
Though war supposedly ended in 2003, the DRC remained in an unstable state of
political transition until 2006. The MONUC (Mission des Nations Unies en République
Démocratique du Congo) was therefore installed across DRC. They remain the
largest UN peacekeeping mission worldwide as the ongoing insecurity in the country
has not yet allowed setting a date for their withdrawal.
On the 30th
of July 2006, the DRC had their first free elections in 46 years and the
Congolese voted for a new parliament with Joseph Kabila as president. In most parts
of the country, the population now experiences a phase of relative stability. Yet, all-
pervasive insecurity, armed conflict and a culture of violence continue to exist and
are particularly rampant in the Eastern provinces of North and South Kivu as well as
in Ituri district in Province Orientale. Relative peace could be established in Maniema
province, though the state of security is fragile due to local rebel groups (Mai-Mai).
2.1.2 The Post-Conflict Situation and Sexualised Violence
Even after the successful elections, the DRC is marked by corruption,
mismanagement, violence, ethnic conflict and battles over economic resources.
Involved in these conflicts are local and provincial leaders, who often instrumentalise
ethnic fault lines to fuel conflict and employ various militias (Djateng, Kayser and
Mavinga 2008: 21-22; 50). In the Eastern region, all conflict parties, including the
Congolese national army, behave like occupying powers, recklessly exploiting
resources and violating human rights. Foreign investors are equally involved as they
seek to access Congo’s mineral resources (Johnson and Tegera 2005: 13-14; 22).
In Maniema province, were fighting lasted until 2005, the local population is only
beginning to recover from the effects of war. Though improved by recent
reconstruction efforts, Maniema’s infrastructure remains the least developed of the
entire country. Development efforts are severely hindered by the lack of viable
transport routes, the lack of hospitals, schools and training centres and the near non-
existence of financial institutions. The population has limited access to capital,
technical training and employment opportunities.
Other regions across the continent are faced with similar problems, with one in every
five people in Sub-Saharan Africa directly affected by civil war (Elbadawi and

24
Ndung’u 2005: 18). Economic poverty can be identified as both an outcome of, and a
major cause for, the perpetuation of conflict. As Elbadawi and Ndung’u point out:
Conflict and post-conflict countries face a development tragedy. Without
political stability and peace there can be no lasting economic
development. Countries emerging from conflict continue to suffer poverty
and therefore, lingering risks of renewed conflict (2005: 20-21).
Barakat and Chard define violence as the central feature that distinguishes a post-
war situation from natural catastrophes or chronic poverty. Violence damages social
institutions on every level. For this reason, interventions cannot be limited to financial
assistance, ‘nor can collective violence be regarded as a temporary aberration on an
aid-to-peace continuum’ (2005: 177). In order to get out of the ‘conflict-poverty trap’,
other root causes of conflict besides resource poverty need to be addressed. Rule of
law, the legal system, political liberalisation and democratic accountability are equally
important preconditions for peace.
At present, the international community plays a central role in ensuring peace in post-
war situations, helping to mediate and recreate trust between warring factions (Fosu
2005: 237). These needs are particularly urgent where women are concerned. As we
will see in chapter 4, the poorly addressed post-conflict situation in Maniema has
negative effects on women’s social and economic condition. The combination of
economic poverty, insecurity and impunity makes women especially vulnerable to
violence, reducing their capacity to participate in the reconstruction process on equal
terms with men and to make their own contributions to building peace.
In the Congolese wars, soldiers have used sexual aggression as a way to destroy
entire communities and reduce their perceived enemy to a weaker, ‘female’ status.
The heavily reported act of raping women in front of their male relatives in order to
humiliate them exemplifies the symbolic nature of this act. Moreover, men have also
been subjected to various forms of sexualised violence, including the mutilation of
male sexual organs. This evidence suggests that rape is not related to sexual desire,
but to a desire for power, just as gender signifies relationships of power that are not
necessarily connected to the physical ‘reality’ of the body (Scott 2007: 66).
‘Rape’ in this context refers to the act of forced penetration of a person's body. Yet,
rape is not the only way that violence can be exercised through sexual abuse. The
term ‘sexualised violence’ allows for a broader understanding of what constitutes an
abuse, e.g. forced coercion into other sexual practices, sexual exploitation of minors
and subordinates or forced prostitution. Sexualised violence is not limited to outlawed

25
or criminal activity. Forced marriage and forced intercourse between spouses is no
less a form of abuse than rape by a stranger (HEAL Africa 2007).
Even though fighting has stopped in many parts of Eastern Congo, sexualised
violence still prevails. For women in Maniema, sexualised violence has not ended
with the war. They continue to be affected by widespread incidents of rape and a
culture of impunity that results from the absence of a strong Congolese state,
incapacity to enforce the penal code and the weakening of traditional authorities (e.g.
community chiefs). For the women and young girls who have had the courage to
publicly identify their rapists, prosecutions are slow to nonexistent. The ongoing
assaults against women create a society in which security is not available to a
considerable part of the population.
This issue cannot be tackled by foreign support alone, but must evolve from within
society, building on people’s capacities for social action and change. Like many other
regions that suffer from prolonged conflict, societies in the East of the DRC fall back
on a great diversity of local, ‘informal’ and often traditional structures. As Kayser
highlights, it would equal a boycott of people’s hopes not to recognize, rehabilitate
and strengthen these networks (2006: 141).
Especially regarding sexualised violence, numerous local and international
organisations operate in Maniema. Church groups, faith-based organisations, female
lawyers, women’s cooperatives, health services and the UN all make their own
contribution to ending sexualised violence in Maniema. These can be viewed as part
of a larger process towards rebuilding a functioning, just and equitable society.
Especially non-governmental organisations are crucial elements of civil society that
can potentially further women’s empowerment.
2.2 HEAL Africa: A Local Approach to Reconstruction
HEAL Africa is a grassroots organisation that is led by locally based program
directors. Its name stands for Health, Education, Action and Leadership for Africa.
The organisation works in multiple partnerships with stakeholders of Congolese civil
society as well as national and regional institutions and international donor
organisations. HEAL Africa is engaged in several development coalitions to tackle
issues such as HIV/AIDS, sexualised violence, reproductive health and early
childhood development.

26
All of HEAL Africa’s assets and work is locally owned and invested, lending the
organisation high credibility and acceptance among Congolese communities. The
director of HMPM, Muliri Kabekatyo, who has been a leader in HEAL’s programs to
address sexualised violence since 2003, has lead a provincial group of protestant
women’s union (Division Femme et Famille de l’Eglise du Christ au Congo) for 20
years. A female leader like ‘Maman Muliri’ is able to organise communities while
providing relevant education and advice.
A crucial element of HEAL Africa’s work is its primary focus of training and equipping
new leaders in a long-term approach, rather than just solving short term needs. Due
to its inclusionary approach in working through the faith-based community in DRC,
HEAL Africa reaches a large proportion of rural communities. HEAL Africa's
programs actively involve all faith communities in Eastern DRC (Protestant, Catholic,
Muslim, Animist).
With support from the Congolese National Commission for Disarmament,
Demobilization and Reintegration (CONADER) and the German Development Bank
(KfW), HEAL Africa launched HMPM in 2005. It is as a holistic program for the
medical, psychological and social rehabilitation of women who have been raped
during or after the war. HEAL Africa is a local partner within the joint effort of the
German and the Congolese government to further the reintegration of former
combatants into society and to rebuild peace. The economic revival of the region is
seen as a crucial factor in achieving this goal. This involves support for small
agricultural projects, provision of microcredit and reconstruction efforts in basic
infrastructure.
A project that has been exported from a foreign country is likely to differ from one
that has been created within the country where it is needed. If a project is planned at
the desks of foreign ‘development experts’, it may lack adequacy and create new
conflicts within communities. HMPM is locally conceived and implemented and well
adapted to local needs and strategies. KfW contributes financial support and some
technical assistance. This setting may be characterised as a synergy between
developing and developed countries that is based on collaboration and participation.
The HMPM program attempts empower women by providing holistic care that
addresses a broad range of issues affecting local communities. A holistic approach
has multiple dimensions, targeting multiple disadvantages such as poor health,

27
illiteracy, isolation, material dependency and psychological consequences such as
fear, depression or a sense of powerlessness (Kabeer 2005: 67).
Rape survivors are provided with medical care and surgery to heal the physical
damages resulting from rape and to treat sexually transmitted diseases. Medical
personnel in local health centres and hospitals are receive training, equipment and
medication. In order to address the psychological consequences of rape, the
program trains and employs 120 local counsellors do engage in trauma work with
rape survivors. They identify rape survivors and establish the contact with the
program, counsel them to help them overcome traumatic experiences and aid them
in their return to a ‘normal’ way of life. In order to reintegrate rape survivors into their
social life, the counsellors also mediate with husbands and other family members of
survivors.
In order to further the socio-economic reintegration of survivors, but also as a general
reconstruction effort, the program offers microcredit and vocational training. This is
seen as a way to provide economic opportunities to resource-poor women, rebuild
self-esteem among rape survivors and ensure their sustainable integration into the
community. Other microcredit programs in Eastern DRC mainly focus on farmers
and small entrepreneurs who already possess some notions of financial
management. Due to women’s lack of financial and other resources, these programs
often fail to respond to their specific needs.
When introducing microcredit into a community, the program organises a meeting
with community members to learn about their living conditions and needs. Individual
and collective concerns are brought up and discussed in order to agree on core
issues and strategies. It is ensured that all stakeholders, and especially the
participants in the microcredit program, are able to influence the planning and
implementation processes. The local counsellors serve as mediators, or negotiators,
between the program and the community in weighing options and defining the
program procedure. Even though this process is time-intensive it is of great
importance because women’s needs can vary greatly depending on their social and
economic environment. In Kindu, the provincial capital of Maniema, where
commercial activities are strong, women tend to express a need for small enterprise
start-up capital. In rural areas, where women still regard cash as tied to risks and rely
mostly on barter, they lean towards microcredit in form of ‘life assets’ like livestock.

28
Rural participants are joined in solidarity groups of six, each of which elects a
president, a vice-president and a treasurer. They sign an agreement, read out in
public, that states all conditions, including those of repayment. They then receive a
micro-loan in form of livestock. The program does not yet ask for any interest. The
investment that women make consists of sparing their time and energy in what is
already a very busy working week.
However, the animals are not a gift, since they must be reimbursed in full. If a group
has received six goats, they must breed them and give six goats back to the program
eventually. The animals are then used to form new groups. In this way, other women
can also become participants and receive microcredit later on, making the program
expansive and potentially self-sustaining. If adequately prepared, women’s solidarity
groups may reach a state in which they can administer the goats self-dependently.
This would signify a high level of self-empowerment.
When new participant enters the program, they receive a basic training in livestock
rearing and animal health. The program also offers training in tailoring, baking and
soap production so that the women can diversify their activities. In addition, it
contains literacy classes in order to prepare them for broader social, economic and
political activities and increase their capacity for participation in society. Consensus
building at the household and community levels is a core objective of the program.
Therefore, counsellors ensure the husband agrees with his wife’s loan and
participation in a solidarity group. In some households, this requires several
negotiating sessions, but the counsellors are generally successful in achieving the
consent of male family members.
The success of solidarity groups is monitored in two major ways. Firstly, the local
counsellors regularly report back to the central program management. Secondly,
group formation works as a ‘tangible collateral’ (Osmani 1998: 69): because the
whole group is liable for their success or failure, a bond of mutual responsibility ties
the members together. The peer pressure that arises from this system is a
mechanism of control that is meant to ensure the timely reimbursement of lent
livestock.
As a final component, HMPM lobbies against impunity and cooperates with local,
mostly faith-based leaders to mobilise communities against sexualised violence.
Sensitisation sessions are meant to create a more favourable environment for rape
survivors and who would otherwise get rejected by their communities. They also aim

29
to create awareness to ensure that sexualised violence is outlawed, prevented and
punished. To date, the program lacks a judicial component. In the future, HMPM will
offer training on women’s rights and install legal clinics where rape survivors can
receive counselling.
The external evaluation process is conducted regularly in close cooperation with the
donor, who appoints development consultants from the DRC and Germany that
regularly conduct evaluations in the project area. This synergetic process allows to
define goals clearly, to set indicators and to reflect if activities are in line with the
initial goals or if these goals need to be reconsidered and reset.
3. Methodology
This chapter discusses feminist approaches to empirical research and defines the
methodological framework for the present Magister thesis. In addition, the chapter
elaborates on the specific methods and tools that were implemented during the
research, namely qualitative questionnaires and participatory action workshops.
3.1 Feminist Perspectives of Empirical Research
Academic studies frequently deal with rural women’s work in terms of ‘feminist
empiricism’. Empiricism is a scientific epistemological theory emphasising sensory
experience and evidence as the basis for knowledge. All hypotheses and theories
must be verified by testing them against the natural world, while discounting innate
ideas or the inborn mental capacities that are advocated by ‘rationalists’. Pro-
empiricist feminists do not challenge the existing methodological norms of science
but use traditional, objectivist means in order to correct sexist or eurocentric bias in
science.
Feminist criticism has been concerned with empiricism’s failure to understand
meaning in context, leaving aside cultural distinctions in its search for rules and laws
that apply to all people all the time. As Harding argues, empiricists distort reality with
concealed subjectivism, as their emphasis on the supposed objectivity and rationality
of science fails to question the tacit biases of scientific work (Harding 1986: 24-25).
By contrast feminist, feminist standpoint theory rejects the very idea of scientific
objectivity and argues that every scientist is embedded in social context that
influences their academic agency, choice of topic and interpretation of results.

30
(Harding 1986: 26-27). According to feminist standpoint theorists, men’s dominant
position in social life leads to pertinacious and partial understandings of reality, while
women’s subjugated position renders their worldview more complete. This unique
female perspective is defined as ‘a morally and scientifically preferable grounding for
our interpretations and explanations of nature and social life’ (1986: 26).
Objections of standpoint theory echo the criticisms of a ‘global sisterhood’ of women
in feminist development studies (see above, page 7), as both insist that there is no
unified perspective of women per se. Class, ethnicity, culture and other factors divide
women’s social experience, rendering a universal standpoint questionable. In
attempting to identify a universal structure of reality, feminist standpoint theory
exchanges a man-centred approach for a woman-centred approach, thereby failing
to deconstruct the alliance between power and knowledge inherent to scientific
discourse (1986: 138).
From the vantage point of postmodern feminism, it may be an important step to
formulate a woman-centred hypothesis, yet the ultimate goal of feminist scholarship
should be freedom from gender loyalties. Postmodernism may integrate elements of
feminist empiricism and standpoint theory while renouncing the possibility of any
essential, super ordinate scientific theory or narrative, since it is ‘the very view of the
ruler that falsely universalises’ (Harding 1986: 26). As Spivak indicates, feminism
needs universal narratives in order to dismantles the deeply rooted alliances
between scientific thought and sexism, racism or imperialism. In order not to be
trapped by these narratives, theorists need to continuously question them, and in
doing so, reflect on their personal standpoints (1990: 29-30). Spivak calls this
process of self-reflection a ‘radical acceptance of vulnerability’ (1990: 18) – the
recognition that any claim of universal truth is vulnerable to subjectivity and
limitation.
My thesis contains elements of all three feminist perspectives of empirical research.
The empiricist element consists of using empirical evidence to prove or disprove my
hypotheses and to provide answers to my questions. To the degree that these
answers are used to draw general conclusions, they are presented as having
universal value in the empiricist sense. The standpoint element highlights the specific
social embeddedness of both researcher and researched. Also the focus on women’s
specific experiences and capacities to promote post-war reconstruction and peace
supports the idea of a distinct feminist standpoint. Finally, by acknowledging the

31
limitations, fractures and contradictions stemming from my subjective position and
my attempt to create a coherent argument, I adhere to the principles of postmodern
feminist thought.
3.2 Research Methodology
During a period of one-month period in October and November 2007, I carried out a
qualitative research to observe impacts of the HMPM microcredit program on
women’s empowerment at the three sub-levels of the individual, the household and
the community. The research sites included the towns of Kipaka, Kampene and the
recently incorporated Pangi, as well as some of the surrounding villages. During this
time, I conducted 31 semi-structured interviews with individual female participants in
the microcredit program. In addition, I designed a participatory action research
workshop for each of the three research sites.
3.2.1 Qualitative Interviewing
Qualitative interviewing is adaptable to feminist sociological research because it
respects interviewer and interviewed, their positions and their respective versions of
‘the truth’. By comparison, the stripping away of context and the interchangeability of
interviewees that are characteristic for quantitative surveys can have a
homogenising effect. Quantitative methods often reject the idea that there may be
several realities, as evidenced when interviewees offer different reconstructions of
the same event. This makes them less suitable for feminist research.
Qualitative interviews can be regarded as modifications or extensions of ordinary
conversations, allowing for a focus on the understanding, knowledge and insights of
interviewees. The interview content, specifically the order and choice of questions
and issues, may be adapted to the interviewee’s state of knowledge and
understanding (Rubin and Rubin 1995: 6). As I focused on the people-centred,
participatory concept of empowerment and on women in their capacity as
autonomous individuals, I extended the implications of what one studies to the
methods of doing research, ruling out quantitative surveys.
In qualitative research, there are two kinds of questionnaire design: unstructured and
semi-structured. With an unstructured format, the researcher suggests a broad topic
for discussion and lets the interviewee elaborate freely on the issue. The semi-
structured format is used in order to ask for more specific information, allowing the

32
interviewer to steer the interview by posing a set of predetermined questions (though
there is room for spontaneous probing and deviation from the order of questions).
Due to the narrow time frame the need to examine well-defined areas of people’s
lives, I chose a semi-structured format.
Prior to using my initial questionnaire design, I rapidly encountered the very
limitations to scientific ‘objectivity’ that I discussed previously in this chapter (see
3.1). As I choose which areas of women’s lives would be the most relevant to their
empowerment, I applied my own subjective judgement as a European feminist. For
instance, I defined women’s empowerment strongly in terms of personal autonomy
and equal access to education and income. Through preliminary interviews with
HEAL Africa project staff and other NGOs, I learned that these factors do not have
the same significance in Maniema, where women’s personal strength is defined
more in terms of their ability to provide to the basic needs of their families and their
communities.
As I gained a better understanding of the situation in the field, I adapted the
questionnaire as far as possible to the everyday realities of resource-poor rural
women. I then conducted pilot interviews among rural refugee women staying in
Goma. This test showed that I had to restructure some of the questions for better
understanding, while adding or discarding others.
During the one-month research trip to Maniema, I visited interview partners in their
homes in small towns and remote villages in the areas of Kipaka and Kampene
(HMPM had not yet started a microcredit program in Pangi, so no interviews were
conducted there). Interviewees were chosen from a list of HMPM program
participants by random probability sampling. The interviewees included women aged
25 to 70 who could be married in mono- or polygynous unions, divorced or widowed.
All interviewees were rape survivors and/or otherwise marginalized, e.g. due to
extreme resource-poverty or widowhood. All interviewees had received microcredit
up to 15 months prior to the time of research.
During the actual research, the questionnaire had to be lightly adjusted in order to
adapt to concepts and realities distinctive to Maniema (for example, to ask about
local concepts such as likilimba and kitu kwa kitu that will be explained further
below). All interviews were recorded both in written form and using digital recording. I
analysed data simultaneously to the interviewing process in order to examine
concepts and themes occurring repeatedly and to emphasize them during later

33
interviews. Interviewing was continued until the content of responses became
repetitive, indicating that a point of saturation was reached.
I worked with local translators to facilitate French-Swahili translation. Swahili is the
African lingua franca of the East of the DRC3
. Some of the women could not
understand or speak Swahili properly, in which case the local translators resorted to
local languages such as Kirega and Kizimba. Though women with a sufficient
educational status are rare in rural Maniema I insisted on working with female
translators. Since cultural conventions in Maniema often hinder women from
speaking confidently and openly with men, it was particularly important to provide
female translators to interview women.
The need for translation evidences the limitations of a foreign researcher neither
versed in the local language, nor familiar with the concepts, mentalities, norms or
values that inform people’s speech. Several incidents of avert misunderstandings
could be corrected through double-checking and reiteration. However, it is likely that
others went unnoticed or were coloured by my own subjective understanding of what
was said, leading to distorted research results.
Adhering to ethical standards, all interviewees were informed about the nature and
objectives of the interview and asked whether they were comfortable with answering
the questions. To encourage open and critical remarks, interviewees were assured
that their replies would be considered in the program implementation, but be kept
anonymous. This appeared especially important because many of the interviewees
have survived rape, rendering talk about their life experiences highly sensitive.
The fact that none of the names of interviewees were marked down created a
paradox. Even though the intention was to respect the individual privacy of
interviewees, the result was that they were homogenised as nameless, and therefore
arbitrary, ‘program participants’. In retrospect, this incapacitated me to acknowledge
the contribution individual contributions of rural women, giving more textual weight to
development scholars and practitioners whose names are, after all, listed in the
acknowledgement section and the bibliography of this paper. In retrospect, it may
have been more consistent with the proposed feminist principles of this research not
3
Arab-Swahili slave traders in the second half of the 19th century introduced Swahili to the Eastern provinces of what is
nowadays the DRC. As such, it is not a native language of the DRC. Few rural Congolese learn it as their mother tongue,
yet most people (even with very basic education) know to speak Swahili as it is one of the four official African languages of
DRC. French is the lingua franca of educated Congolese (secondary school and higher). Due to their better educational
status, their heightened participation in public life and their greater mobility, men are more proficient than women both in
Swahili and French.

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