A Critical Study of Non-Governmental Organizations Active in the Field of Empowerment in the Last Two Decades in Tehran

The main problem of this research is to pursue the issue of empowerment in non-governmental organizations in Tehran. The purpose of the research is to identify and categorize the four dimensions of empowerment, i.e. economic, psychological, social, and political among NGOsIn this research, in-depth semi-structured interview was used as a data collection technique, and 18 in-depth interviews were conducted with the officials of 13 non-governmental organizations in Tehran, who were active in the field of empowerment. Also, thematic analysis has been used to analyze the data. The findings of this research show that the activity that is carried out in the name of empowerment in these organizations is usually economic and limited to low-level skills training and providing cheap labor to the market, and social and political empowerment, in the sense of demanding and acting, is of little concern to these organizations. Organizations have not been placed. Most of the investigated organizations, even in the case of making demands, had limited demands at the level of meeting their needsWith the expansion of individual-oriented approaches and the expansion of self-help projects and of course some obstacles, these organizations have more or less given up on structured activities and are trying to address the immediate needs of clients and also train them in skills to enter the market incompletely and not to act, criticize, and make demands in relation to upper institutions and policymaking and legislation.