Rural Africa includes some 80% of the African population; its people are poverty stricken, illiterate, ill-sheltered, and ill-nourished. These circumstances make rural development absolutely vital. However, past rural development policies have failed to take into consideration the structure and division of labor in the farm family, the traditional…

This paper examines the concept of "empowerment" and analyzes contrasting perspectives on the empowerment of parents that have informed developments at national and local levels in the United Kingdom and also in the United States and other countries. Empirical data illustrate the limited impact these approaches have on a group of…