Societal discrimination makes people feel powerless, including not responding to economic opportunities if their experience of discrimination has led them to undervalue themselves. Social combined with political empowerment results in individual and collective capacity to secure the eradication of discriminatory practices in markets, services and state institutions; it also contributes directly to growth through expanding the pool of human resources. Capability in terms of knowledge includes not only skills but also a critical self-awareness. Empowerment and new knowledge are iterative inter-active processes in which people’s growing awareness of the changes they want in their lives stimulates them to seek the knowledge and information they will need to bring these changes about - for example, how the state or the market function, where they can get the best price for their crop, or how to do a business plan.