The NGO-ization of Women’s Empowerment in Pakistan: Impacts, Challenges, and the Politics of Inclusion

Women’s empowerment has been a key development priority for decades, but Pakistan, whichranks last out of the 148 countries included in the Global Gender Gap Report 2025, remainsamong the world’s most gender unequal societies. This paper argues that the NGO-ization ofwomen’s empowerment, the shifting of rights-based work from the state to donor-funded NGOshave depoliticized the struggle for gender equality. By building upon Kabeer’s discussion ofagency in addition to Sen’s capabilities approach and Moser’s distinction between practical andstrategic gender needs, it seeks to demonstrate that the NGO approach of microfinance, skillstraining and awareness campaigns address pragmatic needs while leaving the structural causes ofwomen’s subordination untouched. It then goes on to examine the ways in which donor-drivendesign excludes rural and religious-minority women, with a particular reference to the BenazirIncome Support Programme and how the depoliticized logic of charity has made its way into statepolicy. This paper concludes by arguing that women’s empowerment is a political responsibilityof the state that cannot be delegated to NGOs