The Impact of NGO' functions on women participation in capacity building programmes in Iran

• Main Authors: Nikkhah, Hedayat Allah, Abu Samah, Asnarulkhadi, Redzuan, Ma'rof
• Format: Article
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/17192/1/The%20Impact%20of%20NGO.pdf; http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/17192/

Women, as citizens and human resources, have the same rights, duties, responsibilities and opportunities as men in all aspects of life and development activities. Thus, women‟s participation in society and their role in development have been accorded significant importance. Recently, policy makers and NGO programmers have realized how women can play an important role in the development of their society. However, some factors such as norms, beliefs, customs and values constrained the women participation, particularly in Third World countries. This study attempts to examine the effect of NGO‟s function to promote participation among women in capacity building programmes. Indeed, this paper discovered that the local NGOs have high impact on the participation of women in Shiraz, Iran. Data was collected from 195 women who involved in NGO‟s activities. The result of study revealed that the mean score of the women‟s participation are different among the four functions of NGOs, based on the mean score. The result of study also showed that the function of “mobilizing women to participate in programme” had higher impact compare to other functions. In short, the study concluded that the NGOs in Shiraz could act as medium to encourage women‟s participation and subsequently has the potential to empower them.