Human Rights and Development: An Introduction

1. Human Rights and Development: An Introduction Media and human rights workshop February 23, 2012 Siobhán McInerney-lankford World bank nordic trust fund

2. Purpose of presentation: an introduction to the following themes • Links between human rights and development • Approaches to integrating human rights in development • Perspectives on challenges and opportunities • World Bank approach • Nordic Trust Fund

3. Challenges of integrating HR and development • Normative, legal and institutional frameworks remain separate • Few entry points identified for HR in development instruments / analysis • Uneven policy commitment to link HR and development • Potential political sensitivity • Even where HR uptake exists • not systematic or comprehensive • rarely anchored in HR treaties • more principles-based • limited expertise on HRBA methodology • research needed links between HR and economic outcomes • data shortage and lack of HR measurement

4. Origins of emerging convergence between human rights and development • Concerns about accountability in development • Reevaluation of development paradigm (Sen; Voices of the Poor) and focus on poverty 2000/2001 • Poverty as absence of freedom and deprivation of rights (not just economic condition • Rise of normative approaches (esp. bilaterals) and HRBA (UN) • Emerging view on: • need for accountability in service delivery • link between participation and sustainability • increasing overlap in development activities and coverage of HR treaties

5. Legal and policy linkages • Soft law efforts to link the two, e.g. RtD • 1968 Proclamation of Tehran • 1986 Declaration on the Right to Development • 1993 Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action • More recent linkages: • 2000 Millennium Declaration, but MDGs are HR silent • 2008 Accra Agenda for Action (aid effectiveness) • 2010 Millennium Outcome Document • 2011 Busan Outcome Document

6. Justifications for integrating HR in development

7. Integrating Human Rights in Development Cooperation Different donor approaches to integrating human rights in development, can be overlapping / combined HR as primary goal HR as implicit outcome Human Rights Mainstreaming Mainstream human rights into aid interventions across sectors. May include “do no harm” Human Rights-based Approaches Human rights an explicit goal of development cooperation Human Rights Dialogue Foreign policy and aid dialogues include human rights issues (may involve conditionality.) Human Rights Projects Projects or programmes directly target the realization of specific rights, groups or support human rights organizations Implicit Human Rights Work Agencies don’t use explicit HR language but work on similar areas (e.g. “protection” “empowerment” or general “good governance” Source: OECD DAC Human Rights Task Team

8. UN Approach to HR and Development: HRBAsCommon Understanding 2003

9. World Bank approach to human rights and development • No human rights policy • Focus: economic approaches, evidence-based methodology, but growing interest in distributional questions; redress mechanism • Challenges: • Legal constraints of IBRD Articles of Agreement • Lack of empirical evidence linking HR and ec. growth / outcomes • Different views among member countries • Approach: • Implicit support through activities: institutions, justice, gender, health, education, social protection, disabilities • Uptake of human rights principles – participation, accountability, equality (equity)

10. World Bank Nordic Trust Fund • Nordic Trust Fund – knowledge and learning initiative on HR to help WB develop an informed view on HR and how they relate to Bank operations • Supporting countries, not monitoring, assessing or compliance-oriented • Not promoting or based on HRBA • 2 track program • Studies and partnerships • 28 grants, some good results emerging

11. Priority areas for the way forward – based on NTF experience

12. Thank you smcinerney@worldbank.orgNTF : http://worldbank.org/nordictrustfund