A Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA) in Practice
Evaluating NGO Development Efforts
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6355448 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Hans Peter Schmitz (0000-0002-8343-7755, Syracuse University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 523-541 |
| Publication date | 2012-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Polity (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0032-3497 • E-ISSN: 1744-1684 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1057/pol.2012.18 |
| OpenAlex | W3123419071 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 21 |
| References cited | 15 |
Human rights-based approaches (HRBAs) promise greater alignment of development efforts with universal norms, as well as a focus on the root causes of poverty. While HRBAs have been widely adopted across the development sector, there is little systematic evidence about the actual impact of this strategic shift. Evaluating the effectiveness of HRBAs is challenging because various non-governmental and other organizations have developed very different understandings of how to apply a rights-based framework in the development context. This essay takes a step toward the rigorous evaluation of HRBAs by offering a comprehensive review of rights-based programming implemented by Plan International, a child-centered organization. It shows that Plan’s adoption of HRBA-inspired strategies has transformed its interactions with local communities and added an explicit focus on the state as the primary duty bearer. There is evidence for a systematic increase in individual rights awareness, greater ownership exercised by community organizations, and the application of evidence-based advocacy aimed at scaling up proven program activities. But Plan’s peculiar brand of HRBA neglects collaboration with domestic social movements and civil society, largely avoids a more confrontational approach towards the state, and has yet to produce evidence for regular successful rights claims by disadvantaged communities against governmental representatives at local, regional, or national levels. The study also reveals a limited ability of Plan to address disparities and discrimination within local communities, as well as a need to define clearly the organization’s own accountability and duties deriving from its presence in local communities across more than fifty developing nations
Accountability · Civil society · Context (archaeology · Disadvantaged · Human rights · Political science · Politics · Poverty · Public relations · State (computer science · Human Rights and Development · International Development and Aid · Law · Legal Issues in South Africa · Public Administration
Impact of Non-DRR NGOs’ interventions for community-based DRR mainstreaming in Bangladesh
Humanizing Bureaucracy
Human Rights Advocacy Evaluation in the Global South
Evidence for the impact of the human rights-based approach in social policy and programming
Assessing the effectiveness of a rights based approach for pro-poor Wash services
Do NGO Restrictions Limit Terrorism? Smear Campaigns or Counterterrorism Tools
Can Human Rights Organizations in the Global South Attract More Domestic Funding
Sexual orientation and gender identity in Nepal
When aid NGOs embrace the human rights-based approach
Improving Sanitation in the Slums of Mumbai
Rights-Based Approach To Poverty Reduction
Addressing food and nutrition security from a human rights-based perspective
Who practices rights-based development? A progress report on work at the nexus of human rights and development
Hands Off My Regime! Governments’ Restrictions on Foreign Aid to Non-Governmental Organizations in Poor and Middle-Income Countries
Empowerment and disempowerment in community-based natural resource management
Principled instrumentalism
Towards a rights-based approach to youth programs
Avances en la evaluación integral
NGOs and Political Change
A Tale of Two Influences
Negotiating rights and faith
New Rights Advocacy
Human Rights and Development
Reasons to Be Cautious about Evidence and Evaluation
Beyond norms and interests
Donor–NGO relations and representations of livelihood in nongovernmental aid ahains
In the Eyes of the State
A Poverty of Rights
Is the rights focus the right focus? Nicaraguan responses to the rights agenda
Rights-based approaches to development
| Unique citing works | 21 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,75 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2025 (12) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 21 |