The post war period saw not only a significant reshaping of the world geography but also of the

international political economy. The latter more or less influenced by the former. The great depression of the 1930s was recovered through the investments done during the war, and the real test of the economy was to be decided in the post war period. The 1950s, therefore saw the espousal of the macroeconomic models made famous by Keynesian economics, Harrod- Domar, and Solow. All these growth models were faithful to the dominant assumptions of the neoclassical macro theory : full employment, market clearing, perfect competition, all of which seemed to have little relevance for segmented commodity and labour and credit markets for poor countries (Ranis 2004 :1) The latter was the result of the decolonization process in the post world war two period. This emerged as the dominant view of nation states, emphasising on economic growth and as such believing that the state can promote welfare by intensive achievement in industrialisation. The changing political landscape accompanied by the demands of new nation states to progress on their own turf further intensified these ideas. National governments began to enhance national capacities in order to be understood as developed. 1970s saw several changes in the global economic world- the Oil Price Crisis, debt crisis, and the collapse of the commodity prices signalled the need for policy reforms, especially in Latin American and African countries. Market reforms emerged in the form of Washington Consensus which along with the liberalisation agenda preached macro economic reforms (Saiko Fukuda-Parr 2011:123). Reappraisal of development strategies led the arguments to believe in a paradigm where minimum intervention of the government was to be sought. Hence, the age of neo liberalism Thatcherism and Reagonomics being varied representative of these goals. The consequence of Washington Consensus was however far reaching. It called for the restructuring of the macroeconomic strategies but depending upon the individual countrys need determined the policy briefs. These included enhanced labour market, flexibility, legal, financial, and other institutionalised reforms. (Ranis 2004: 11). The Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs), instituted as a set of policies by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to help the nations in crisis, became instruments of lending programs, whose objects encompassed macroeconomic restructuring but was not limited to it. Their interference and consistent involvement in the micro economic practices, from the governance mechanisms to delivery systems to determining what were to be national goals, the SAPs came to signify more than just the recovery agenda. They allowed the

The promise of capability approach is to empower the individual by integrating itself to the human development model. This category of empowerment therefore becomes the bedrock of all development policies, and governance agendas. The idea follows that all state policies, including administrative policies should not become obstacles in empowering its citizens. The category of empowerment therefore is the central concern of national vision, and a commitment of the nation state to the principles of liberal welfare policies. In this section, I want to interrogate this category of empowerment, allowing myself to make space to argue that the development model focusing on the human component by emphasising on capabilities, functioning, and freedoms, is actually an incomplete model, and that the shift that is traced in the developmental models of the 1950s-60s to the Human Development Model is a false shift. To be able to do this, I will look at the Gender Empowerment projects that have or that promises to have incorporated the capabilities approach. I will describe this link between gender development and capabilities approach and see what kind of challenges do they encounter. I will then interrogate these challenges and argue that they are challenges because of the incomplete assumptions that the capabilities approach makes in its conception. Nevertheless, I do not wish to completely discard this approach but merely to place it in the evolutionary potential of the development paradigm. That, the Human Development model based on the capabilities approach is an eventual progress of a modern capitalist neo liberal agenda motivated by its very logic. The evolution of the state, at various stages of the unfolding of the development stage is as crucial to this story as the story itself. The state that exists in 1950s is very different form the states that exist today, and much of the demand of the human development model is perfectly compatible to the necessitated role of the state. What does empowerment mean? Empowerment is defined by the oxford dictionary as having two meanings- one, to give (someone ) the authority or power to do something, and two, to make (someone) stronger, and more confident, especially in controlling their life

and their rights. When one looks at these definitions, then one can see how they are congruent to the principles of the capability approach.