Definitions of Empowerment on the Web:

• The provision of power, usually to those seemingly without means of self-protection or control over changes affecting their life. ...
  www.eubios.info/biodict.htm
  
  
• The process of communities equipping themselves with the knowledge, skills and resources they need in order to change and improve the quality of their own lives and their community. Empowerment may come from within or it may be facilitated and supported through external agencies.
  www.quest-net.org/glossary.asp
  
  
• having the right to make one's own choices and of having the ability to act on them.
  www.lymphomainfo.net/lymphoma/glossary.html
  
  
• [SCOPE NOTE: Promoting self-advocacy among people with disabilities]
  cirrie.buffalo.edu/thesaurus/these.html
  
  
• Increasingly, poverty is defined in terms of empowerment, or rather, disempowerment. Often, the poor are too disempowered to rise up above poverty - there is a lack of opportunities and services available to them, and so they remain in poverty.
  library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00282/other_glossary.htm
  
  
• The process of transferring decision-making power from influential sectors to poor communities and individuals who have traditionally been excluded from it.
  www.cpa.ie/povertyinireland/glossary.htm
  
  
• a mechanism by which people, organizations, and communities gain mastery over their affairs.
  www.inspection.gc.ca/english/corpaffr/publications/riscomm/riscomm_appe.shtml
  
  
• If the older person makes a choice about a service that appears to be 'unsuitable', from a professional's viewpoint, this can cause a great moral and ethical dilemma, which needs to be managed sensitively and appropriately. Managers need to support their staff in dealing with these situations.
  www.ehma.org/carmen/is_01.html
  
  
• (Skt. abhisheka / Tib. wang): A ritual initiation into a mandala of a particular Buddhist practice, empowerment is conferred by a lineage teacher who is a recipient and practitioner of such transmissions. Thus, the student is empowered to perform the practice.
  www.bodhipath-west.org/glossary.htm
  
  
• The concept of encouraging and authorizing workers to take the initiative to improve operations, reduce costs, and improve product quality and customer service.
  services.eliteral.com/glossary/managerial-accounting-glossary.php
  
  
• the process of displacing decisionmaking downwards to the workforce, or lower levels of management, to enable them to use their skills more effectively and flexibly. The emphasis is often on better engagement with customers.
  www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199253975/01student/glossary/glossary.htm
  
  
• An empowerment is a structured occasion on which a Lama gives transmission of Vajrayana practice. It may be described as a 'ceremony' or 'ritual' - but those terms suggest rote performance. To be effective, an empowerment must be ecstatically involving. ...
  arobuddhism.org/component/option,com_aro_glossary/task,show_all/Itemid,80/
  
  
• the creation of joint responsibility and capacity for addressing crime
  www.issafrica.org/static/templates/tmpl_html.php
  
  
• To transfer authority and resources to enable a person or organization to obtain a greater amount of autonomy and control.
  www.fao.org/docrep/w8961e/w8961e08.htm
  
  
• the process and practice of deriving power from within the self, or assisting others to do so through power-with; link-theme between spiritual dimension and physical dimension
  www.tetradian.com/glossary
  
  
• transfer of control over decisions and resources
  www.worldbank.org/afr/particip/keycon.htm
  
  
• is as famous in all UN Conference documents as it is ambiguous. The temporary agenda of the Women's Central Commission, in its 44 th Session "Follow-up of the Fourth World Conference for Women" and in its discussion of integrating the issues of women in the main activities of UN Organizations ...
  www.ikhwanweb.info/images/Terminology.doc
  
  
• a process through which stakeholders influence and share control over development initiatives, and the decisions and resources which affect them.
  www.scottishmediation.org.uk/smn/fxcseven/pgz/six.htm
  
  
• "expansion of assets and capabilities of poor people to participate in, negotiate with, influence, control, and hold accountable institutions that affect their lives. In its broadest sense, empowerment is the expansion of freedom of choice and action. ...
  faculty.maxwell.syr.edu/hpschmitz/TNGOProject/TNGOGlossary.htm
  
  
• transmission received from a master allowing a student to learn and engage in a practice associated with a particular deity. This is also called an initiation.
  www.dawneagle.com/terms.html
  
  
• The devolution of power and decision-making responsibility to those lower in the organisation.
  www.lhfm.salford.ac.uk/students/Stratman/glossary_etoh.htm
  
  
• Releasing the gifts, talents, and knowledge resident, but often laying dormant, in those we lead. Empowerment results in helping others find and accomplish their ministry.
  aldn.net/joomla/index.php
  
  
• authorization: the act of conferring legality or sanction or formal warrant
  wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
  
  
• *Empowerment is also the name of a piece of public art in Lincoln, England.
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empowerment
  
  
• Empowerment is a public sculpture in the centre of the city of Lincoln in England.
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empowerment (sculpture)