Human Rights-Based Programming: What It Is / How to Do It

This handbook from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is a conceptual framework and methodological tool written to provide a systematic human rights-based approach to programming as well as evaluation, so that human rights principles are reflected in UNFPA programmes and are integrated into policies and national development frameworks. It breaks down a human rights-based approach into its various components, and provides a checklist for development practitioners to use in assessing their work.

The handbook is divided into sections called "What It Is," consisting of 11 points defining a human rights approach to programming and "How to Do It," which is an implementation checklist made to be adapted to local realities, for use in reviewing existing programmes and designing new ones that ensure the rights of marginalised or excluded groups. In the implementation section, there are subsections:

• "Assessing the Human Rights Situation in a Particular Country," consisting of 16 questions on a range of rights-related topics like discrimination in current laws or policies, human rights instruments that have not been ratified by the country, or universal access to reproductive health care in the country.
• "Analysing the Human Rights Dimensions of UNFPA Support," consisting of 16 questions on, e.g., UNFPA country programme inclusion or UNFPA support of initiatives for legal reform.
• "Determining the Capacity of Stakeholders," consisting of 5 questions, e.g., do rights holders have the capacity to claim their rights.
• "Including Marginalised Groups," consisting of 5 questions, e.g., who is marginalised and how is their exclusion addressed by country-based UNFPA.
• "Assessing Project Outcomes," consisting of 4 questions, e.g., whether strategies to build the capacity of rights holders to claim their rights have been effective.
• "Integrating UNFPA Concerns into Broader Programmes," consisting of 7 questions, e.g., if the development of needs assessments and national development processes has been consultative.