Resources

In addition to electronic resources (papers, studies, books, journals, etc) documented below, Equalinrights has also created a dedicated Budgeting for Human Rights Wiki and Dgroup to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and resources. Click on the following links to access:

Budgeting for Human Rights Wiki

Budgeting Rights Dgroup

Useful Websites

NEW!

Open Budget Survey 2008 Released!

The Open Budget Initiative - launched by the International Budget Partnership (IBP) - is a global research and advocacy programme to promote public access to budget information and the adoption of accountable budget systems.

Available Online Resources

A budget guide for civil society organisations working in education
Authors: Perry, V.
Produced by the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability (2009)
By analysing education financing, citizens can understand budget priorities and the factors that influence education expenditure. Budget analysis has been used in many countries to lobby governments to prioritise education in public spending. It has also strengthened the ability of the poor and marginalised to advocate for their right to education.

Rethinking Macro Economic Strategies from a Human Rights Perspective. (Why MES with Human Rights II)
Author(s): Radhika Balakrishnan, Diane Elson and Rajeev Patel (February 2009)
This report assesses economic policy using the ethical lens of the human rights standards that all governments have agreed upon and, through its analysis of human rights and economic policy in Mexico and the United States, shows how and why progressive economists and human rights advocates can work together.

Achieving economic and social rights: The challenge of assessing compliance
Author(s): Edward Anderson and Marta Foresti (ODI Briefing Paper, December 2008)
This Briefing Paper explores how social sciences methods, including the application of economic models, can help to assess government compliance with obligations on economic, social and cultural rights.

Implementing the Paris Declaration: Implications for the Promotion of Women’s Rights and Gender Equality
Author(s): Cecilia Alemany, Nerea Craviotto, Fernanda Hopenhaym, with Ana Lidia Fernández-Layos, Cindy Clark and Sarah Rosenhe, January 2008

Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness: Application of the criteria for periodic evaluation of global development partnerships – as defined in Millennium Development Goal 8 – from the right to development perspective: the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.
Mr. Roberto Bissio, January 2008
This paper examines the impact of the Paris Declaration (PD) on Human rights, in particular the Right to Development (RtD), that are not mentioned in the PD.

The Paris Declaration, March 2005
The Paris Declaration, endorsed on 2 March 2005, is an international agreement to continue to increase efforts in harmonisation, alignment and managing aid for results with a set of monitorable actions and indicators. Visit the OECD website for more information.

OPEN DIALOGUE: Eyes on the Budget as a Human Rights Instrument, UNICEF (2007)
This report shares experiences and perspectives on using public policies, in particular the national budget, as a vehicle for building a rights-based society.

Expert Meeting on measuring the contribution of General Budget Support to Social Sectors, Alliance 2015 towards the end of poverty (2007)
This background paper lays emphasis on the responsibility of donors and recipient governments, as well as of civil society in the North and the South, for ensuring that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are reached. In order for this to happen, it is necessary to identify and measure MDG focus throughout the chain of policy formulation and implementation: policy priorities, policy dialogue, financial allocations, results indicators and the actual impact achieved on the ground. Tracking financial allocations is part of monitoring, and poses particular challenges in General Budget Support (GBS).

Budgeting Human Rights: APRODEV Rights & Development Group (January 2007)
This guide attempts to clarify ‘Budgeting Human Rights’ as a concept, address the potential benefits and challenges as also establish the degree to which national budgets cater for meeting the human rights obligations of the government involved. Practical examples of organisations working on ‘Budgeting Human Rights’ are also provided.

Integrating Human Rights into Development: Donor Approaches, Experiences and Challenges (OECD 2006)
This publication, based on a study commissioned by the DAC Network on Governance (GOVNET), reviews the approaches of different donor agencies and their rationales for working on human rights.

Budget Analysis and Policy Advocacy: The Role of Nongovernmental Public Action, Robinson, IDS (2006)
This paper examines the impact and significance of independent budget analysis and advocacy initiatives that are designed to improve budget transparency and the poverty focus of government expenditure priorities. It draws on case study research of six budget groups in Brazil, Croatia, India, Mexico, South Africa, and Uganda, which include non-governmental organisations, research institutions and social movements.

Indicators for Monitoring Compliance with International Human Rights Instruments, United Nations Office of the HIgh Commissioner of Human Rights, OHCHR ( May 2006)
The OHCHR has developed a conceptual and methodological framework for identifying operationally feasible human rights indicators. This aims directly to support the UN Treaty Bodies to make use of statistical information in States parties’ reports. The general conceptual framework distinguishes between indicators for substantive human rights and indicators for cross-cutting human rights issues and uses concepts such as structural - process - outcome indicators and respect-protect-fulfil. The paper contains an annex which lists a number of illustrative indicators for four human rights: the right to life, the right to judicial review of detention, the right to adequate food and the right to health.
Status Note, August 2007

Why MES with Human Rights? Integrating Macro Economic Strategies with Human Rights.
Author: Radhika Balakrishnan, October 2005
An analysis of the adverse impacts of globalization and the new global economy on people in both developed and developing countries.

Gender Responsive Budgeting: Manual for Trainers
UNDP, 2005
This manual was developed for trainers and workshop facilitators involved in implementing Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) initiatives.

Budgeting for Women’s Rights: Monitoring Government Budgets for Compliance with CEDAW, D. Elson: UNIFEM (2005)
This publication adds a landmark to the discourse on the link between human rights standards and government budgets. It elaborates on how budgets and budget policy making processes can be monitored for compliance with human rights standards, in particular with the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

DIGNITY COUNTS: A guide to using budget analysis to advance human rights, Fundar/International Budget Project/International Human Rights Internship Program (2004)
This publication uses a real-life case study to explore how budget analysis can be used to assess a government's compliance with its human rights obligations and to arrive at specific, concrete recommendations related to the government's budgeting and expenditures that, if implemented, would improve the human rights situation.

PROMISES TO KEEP: Using Public Budgets as a Tool to Advance Economic, Social And Cultural Rights, Shulz, FUNDAR (2002)
This report aims to show that public budgets are mechanisms for allocating public resources and, therefore, often the chief instruments through which governments either comply or fail to comply with these rights. It further examines the connections between these two important fields of work—to create a more powerful force behind economic, social and cultural rights.

Making sense of MDG Costing: Jan Vandemoortele & Rathin Roy, Poverty Group, UNDP, New York, August 2004 (Published by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
MDG costing is necessary for integrating global development goals into national poverty reduction strategies. But the price tag of the MDGs depends on strategic choices about the ways and means for reaching the targets. This study proposes steps for aligning the PRSPs and the MTEF with MDG targets in a meaningful way.

Overview of MDG Costing Methodologies
Antoine Heuty, UNDP Consultant
Concerned with developing more accurate methodologies to cost the MDGs, this review presents MDG costing methodologies in two parts: Global sector models and their limits and recent experiences with country level costing models.

What’s behind the budget? Politics, rights and accountability in the budget process, A. Norton and D. Elson (2002)
This paper identifies issues, partners, tools and methods that may help development actors to support citizen accountability and a pro-poor, gender-equitable, focus in public expenditure management. The paper aims to take this debate forward by looking at the ways in which a human rights approach can contribute to strengthening pro-poor voice and outcomes in budget processes.

The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health. A methodological framework for the evaluation of the compliance with social rights through applied budget analysis, Hofbauer & Lara, FUNDAR (2002)
This document elaborated for the “Exploratory Dialogue on Applied Budget Analysis as a Tool for the Advancement of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights”, provides insights into how national budget analysis can be used to achieve the right to the highest attainable standard of health.

The South African Children‘s Budget Unit (CBU) of Idasa: Presentation for the Exploratory Dialogue on Applied Budget Analysis for the Advancement of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Streak, IDASA (2001)
This document provides a strategy for implementing the child rights in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the national Constitution. It involves research, mobilisation and information dissemination to ensure that children are prioritised - `put first‘ – in budgets and policy.

A Rights-Based Approach towards Budget Analysis, MS Dicko: International Human Rights Internship Program (1999)
This paper provides a beginning framework towards budget analysis from a rights perspective.Its limitations and gaps will likely become more evident as the rightsbased approach is tested time and again by non-governmental organizations around the globe. This paper is intended to encourage, stimulate and provoke human rights groups to explore budget analysis from a rights perspective.