The Role of Literacy in Enhancing Women's Agency andWell-being

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Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) are oftenviewed as the indisputable new actors in providingeducational programs for women in developingcountries. However, there is a paucity of researchshowing how successful these programs prove to be incatering to women's needs and in bringing aboutmeaningful changes in their lives. More importantly, there is paucity of field-based research using thevoices of women as prime data to explore the extentto which these literacy programs have effects ontheir lives. This study examines the effects of theNGO Tostan's educational program on the lives ofwomen in a rural community in Senegal, and ways inwhich it affects their agency and well-being.Thestudy progressed on the assumption that any literacyprogram that seeks to be successful in improvingpeople's lives should develop greater sensitivity tolocal kinds of knowledge and culture. The findingssuggest that it is not literacy per se, but theoverall empowering education process in which womengained access to skills, knowledge, and greaterawareness, that allowed them to critically reflect ontheir social reality and take collective action totransform it.