States must respond to citizen demand for greater accountability Source: Marta Foresti/ODI
Today is International Human Rights Day. This page brings together recent resources from ODI, including the Briefing Paper 'Voice for accountability: Citizens, the state and realistic governance' published today. Today the UN will begin a year long campaign leading to the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, on the theme of 'Dignity and Justice for us all'. The Declaration is one of the most translated documents of all time. However, 60 years on, these are not easy days for human rights.
Blogs and opinions
show details hide detailsInternational Human Rights Day 2007: new challenges
The issues that have always been the concern of those working in the human rights field still exist. Human rights violations are still all too common. Dignity and justice are still not a reality for many people, particularly in poor countries. But new challenges and opportunities to the field have emerged in the post 9/11 era. Security concerns is one of the new issues facing the human rights mainstream. The "war on terror" led to fierce debates about western models of democracy - including the promotion of human rights. It is in this context that human rights activists around the world are confronted with hard won civil liberties being increasingly contested.
Blog post
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10 December 2007
Marta Foresti
show details hide detailsAssessing governance: No easy task
The Ibrahim Index of African Governance is the latest addition to the flourishing field of governance assessment. The World Governance Assessment (based at ODI), the Kaufman and Kraay indicators, and the Bertelsmann Transformation Index all seek to tell us about governance scores and progress in developing countries. So, what does the Ibrahim Index measure? Why is it distinctive? Is it offering something new? What are the most interesting features? How does it compare to other indices?
Blog post
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2 October 2007
Marta Foresti
show details hide detailsChina and the politics of development in Africa (PDF, 94kb)
'While Western nerves may jangle at China’s growing and muscular presence in Africa, the 48 African heads of state who shot off to Beijing to see what was on offer have fewer qualms.'
ODI Opinion 76
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November 2006
Diana Cammack
Briefing papers
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Voice for accountability: Citizens, the state and realistic governance
(PDF, 624kb)
This briefing paper presents emerging findings and policy recommendations from a recent multi-donor evaluation of voice and accountability policies and interventions. It argues that voice does not automatically lead to accountability: voice without concrete mechanisms to effectively hold the state accountable is not likely to achieve change. Furthermore, donors’ interventions are not sufficiently tailored to the local political and socio-economic context.
ODI Briefing Paper 31
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December 2007
Marta Foresti and Bhavna Sharma with Alison Evans
show details hide details The military and civilian protection: developing roles and capacities (PDF, 456kb)
Soldiers are increasingly being asked to perform roles in protecting the civilians of other states. While it is assumed that the political ends of peace operations should create environments with fewer threats to civilians, how far can military efforts go to prevent conflicts, support peacebuilding and serve humanitarian goals? What role can troops play in directly protecting civilians?
HPG Research Briefing 22
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March 2006
Victoria K. Holt, Henry L. Stimson Center
Papers and reports
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Evaluation of Citizens' Voice and Accountability: Review of the literature and donor approaches
(PDF, 1.2MB)
Enhancing citizen voice and accountability has increased in importance for donors since the 1990s. This paper reviews existing literature and the strategy and policy documents of seven DAC donors in order to contribute to the design of an evaluation framework to assess the effectiveness of these donors’ voice and accountability interventions.
Donor report
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August 2007
Tammie O’Neil, Marta Foresti and Alan Hudson
show details hide detailsHuman rights and livelihood approaches for poverty reduction
(PDF, 317kb)
This briefing paper maps the key features of the two approaches and their foundation, content and contribution to analysing poverty in specific contexts, also identifying operational entry points (Section 2). In Section 3 the two approaches are compared, with synergies identified as well as differences. Section 4 then provides some ideas on how the two approaches could be combined, and what could be gained from such a two-pronged approach. Section 5 pulls together some of the most relevant issues and makes initial recommendations for the reader.
poverty.wellbeing.net Briefing Note
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November 2007
Marta Foresti and Eva Ludi with Roo Griffiths
show details hide detailsThe 'protection crisis': A review of field-based strategies for humanitarian protection in Darfur
(PDF, 280kb)
This Discussion Paper is part of a study on 'protection in practice' by the Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG) at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). The study aims to examine current practice in humanitarian protection and explore strategies, programmes and initiatives undertaken in different contexts to support the protection of civilians. Focusing on roles, outcomes and the internal and external limitations of humanitarian actors, the purpose of the research is to draw lessons and elicit best practice, rather than evaluate specific programmes or agencies.
HPG Discussion Paper
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December 2006
Sara Pantuliano and Sorcha O’Callaghan
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Aid effectiveness and human rights: strengthening the implementation of the Paris Declaration.
(PDF, 345kb)
Changes to the international development context, and an agenda of ambitious reforms in the international aid system, are presenting new challenges for the integration of human rights into development. Donors and partner governments alike are increasingly focused on improving aid effectiveness, including in fragile states. This has the potential to open up opportunities to advance human rights – and ways of working on human rights – in a changing context of more aligned and harmonised aid and new aid modalities. Yet human rights have not been addressed explicitly in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, and there is little written at present on ownership, alignment, harmonisation and other key principles of this document from a human rights perspective.
Report
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October 2006
Marta Foresti, David Booth and Tammie O’Neil
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Human rights and poverty reduction: Realities, controversies and strategies.
(Link to contents and PDFs for downloading)
This publication provides a synthesis of the main debates that emerged during the course of the 2005 ODI meeting series Human Rights and Poverty Reduction and reflects on whether the series acheived its three main objectives:
(i) To stimulate debate regarding the realities of the relationship between human rights and poverty reduction.
(ii) To provide space to discuss some of the controversies.
(iii) To generate constructive ideas about possible strategies for implementation of rights-based approaches to development.
Report
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2006
Edited by Tammie O'Neil
This meeting formed part of a broader ODI meeting series, (Re)building developmental states: From Theory to Practice, which seeks to bring academics and policy actors together to rethink the 'developmental' state. In this particular session, Dr Hans-Otto Sano, Director of Research at the Danish Institute for Human Rights will consider the role and relevance of human rights in the context of developmental states. 26 April 2006.
During 2005, ODI undertook a study for the OECD DAC Human Rights and Development Task Team reviewing and analysing the approaches of different donor agencies to human rights. This study is the most comprehensive and up-to-date of its kind and has contributed to a process that will lead to the DAC's first policy statement on human rights. Also during 2005, a UK NGO Inter-Agency Group on Rights-Based Approaches undertook an evaluation to test the assumption that implementing a rights-based approach increases the impact of their programmes on poverty. In this meeting, the lead authors of these complementary studies presented their findings and recommendations. . 23 January 2006.
The series aimed to stimulate debate regarding the realities of the relationship between human rights and poverty reduction; provide space to discuss some of the controversies; and generate constructive ideas about possible strategies for implementation of rights-based approaches to development. January - March 2005.
