Rights-Based Approaches in the Context of Livelihoods
The
human rights approach to development means empowering people
to take their own decisions, rather than being the passive
objects of choices made on their behalf. The Universal Declaration
of Human Rights sets out all people's human rights. These
include economic, social and cultural rights, such as rights
to the highest attainable standard of health and education,
as well as civil and political rights such as rights to life
and liberty. All these rights share the characteristics of
indivisibility (the violation of one right will affect the
respect of several other rights) and universality (all people
have equal rights to claim economic, social and cultural,
civil and political entitlements).
DFID
(2000) identifies three principles to ensure that human rights
are achieved within development initiatives:
Participation:
enabling people to realise their rights to participate
in, and access information relating to, the decision-making
processes which affect their lives.
Inclusion:
building socially inclusive societies, based on the values
of equality and non-discrimination, through development
which promotes all human
rights for all people.
Fulfilling
obligation: strengthening institutions and policies which
ensure that obligations to protect and promote the realisation
of all human rights are fulfilled by states and other
duty bearers.
The
PRP papers below provide insights into poor people's rights
from a number of different perspectives.
The Livelihood Options project considers rights
in the context of pro-poor policy and explores one case study
Rights,
Claims and Capture: Understanding the Politics of Pro-Poor Policy
(Craig Johnson / Daniel Start / ODI /Working Paper 145 / 2001)
(PDF)
The first paper considers poor people's difficulties in influencing
policy by looking at three interrelated features of pro-poor
policy: (1) the role that states play in promoting and implementing
redistributive policies; (2) the ways in which social actors
affect these actions; and (3) competing ideas about the role
that states should play in encouraging particular forms of development.
Peoples'
Social Movements: An Alternative Prospective on Forest Management
in India (Amitabh Behar /ODI / Working Paper 177 / 2002
) (PDF)
Another paper from the Livelihood Options project explores social
movements in Madhya Pradesh and the effects upon forest management
. It investigates how movements have effected policies, plans
and programmes which govern forest management. It tackles issues
of social exclusion and takes a historical perspective.
The SLSA project explores the reality
of rights claiming
Rights Talk and Rights Practice: Challenges for Southern
Africa ( SLSA Team/ IDS/ 2003) (PDF)
The Sustainable Livelihoods in Southern Africa (SLSA) project
looks at the question of how rights can be made real for poor
people in rural areas. Research in Mozambique, South Africa
and Zimbabwe sheds light on the practice of rights claiming
on the ground.
The
LADDER project looks at rights and gender in southern Africa
Gender and Diverse Livelihoods: Uganda (Catherine Dolan
/ Working Paper no. 10 / 2002) (PDF)
This paper focuses specifically on how gender-related constraints
influence the livelihood options of male- and female-headed
households in Uganda. While the Ugandan government has implemented
a far-reaching approach to gender policy, female headed households
face a number of constraints that shape their capacity to expand
and/or diversify their livelihood portfolios.
Gender
and Rural Poverty in Tanzania; Case of Selected Villages In
Morogoro Rura and Kiloso Districts (Joyce Lyimo-Macha /
Ntengua Mdoe / Working paper no. 18 / 2002) (PDF)
This study focuses on two districts in Tanzania and examines
the effect on women's livelihoods of gender bias in terms of
access to and control over resources, household decision making,
and access to and control over income. It reveals that poor
women have limited access and rights over resources that they
might utilize to improve their livelihoods.
The
Sustainable Coastal Livelihoods Project (SCL) explores the rights
to participate and information in development processes
Improving
the Relevance of Policy Research to the Reduction of Coastal
Poverty
Policy
briefing paper (PDF)
Working paper (PDF)
This
paper discusses the role of information in poverty reduction
and research programmes. It highlights the growing concern that
information flows between policy makers and the poor are weak
and that this adversely affects both policy formulation and
implementation. It discusses the role of the poor in research
programmes, considering the right to information and participation
as a key element of rights based approaches and development
processes.
A
Research Participation Framework(PDF)
This
accompanies the SCL document above, exploring at the role of
the poor in research processes. It aims to provide a practical
framework a) to help researchers to identify where participation
in research by the poor is appropriate b) to link formal and
community knowledge systems by providing guidance on facilitating
greater collaboration between formal researchers and coastal
communities in the research process.
Comments:
Send
your insights, experiences and views on Rights-Based Approaches in
the Context of Livelihoods to the Post-it Board by email to: livelihoods-connect@ids.ac.uk
