Lessons and challenges from implementing a rights-based approach to impact assessment

1. Lessons and challenges from implementing a rights-based approach to impact assessment Simon Starling, Save the Children UK New Directions in Impact Assessment, Manchester, 24-25 November 2003

2. Complexities of impact assessment • Causality: development processes are not linear • Subjectivity: impact is subjective and different perspectives must be accounted for • Attribution: many different contributing factors to change • Scale and diversity of SC UK activities

3. Where are we now? • Clear mandate drawn from the UN Convention on Rights of the Child • Developed “Child Rights Programming (CRP)” approach and manual • Organisational commitment at all levels to CRP, but mixed practice in different countries and regions (and Head Office) • Until now, limited ability to assess impact of our work to realise children’s rights

4. Key principles of Child Rights Programming Equity: focusing on those most discriminated against or most disadvantaged to get their rights respected, protected and fulfilled (address inequality). Participation: ensure that all rights holders but particularly those most invisible or discriminated against, can actively participate in getting their own needs met and rights claimed. Accountability: “describing and addressing situations not just in terms of human needs, or areas of development, but in terms of the obligations to respond to the rights of individuals. This...should ultimately empower people... to demand justice as a right, not as a charity.” (Mary Robinson)

5. SC UK Global Impact Monitoring framework (G.I.M.) • Focus on change and processes leading to change • Simple system built upon existing mechanisms • Inclusive process involving external stakeholders • Identification of general dimensions of change to enable analysis and comparison

6. Common dimensions of change of SC UK work • Changes in the lives of children and young people • Which rights are being better fulfilled? Which rights are no longer being violated? • Changes in policies and practice affecting children and young people’s rights • Duty bearers are more accountable for the fulfilment, protection and respect of children’s and young people’s rights. Policies are developed and implemented & the attitudes of duty bearers take into account the best interests and rights of the child. • Changes in children’s and young people’s participation and active citizenship • Children and young people claim their rights or are supported to do so. Spaces and opportunities exist which allow participation and the exercise of citizenship by children’s groups and others working for the fulfilment of child rights. • Changes in equity and non-discrimination of children and young people • In policies, programmes, services and communities, are the most marginalised children reached? • Changes in civil society and communities capacity to support children’s rights • Do networks, coalitions and/or movements add value to the work of their participants? Do they mobilise greater forces for change in children and young people’s lives?

7. Lessons learned: Measurement • Quality of evidence of impact varied • Involving others is critical, but avoiding bias is difficult • Unfocused objectives and lack of milestones hamper impact assessment • Assessing advocacy particularly challenging (long term, multiple influences, need to monitor policy influence & implementation)

8. Lessons learned: Management • Purpose of reporting: tensions between impact assessment and management reporting • Resources: time and labour intensive. • Requires a different set of skills from NGO staff?

9. Lessons learned: Accountability • Significant engagement of stakeholders in GIM processes (e.g. Bangladesh) has led to increased transparency and accountability • Some institutional donors positive (e.g. DFID accepted GIM as reporting mechanism for Programme Partnership Agreement)

10. Lessons learned: Rights (1) • GIM approach and five dimensions, proved concrete way of ‘operationalising’ CRP • Programmes have to report on both impact and processes leading to that change (improved learning about what works) • Programmes have to report on questions about participation, equity and other key elements of rights for the first time

11. Lessons learned: Rights (2) • Countries where CRP not entrenched found GIM process more difficult • Rights-based principles and processes must be integrated into the whole programme cycle, not just assessment • Assessing impact of advocacy work, a key component of a rights-based approach, is particularly methodologically and practically challenging

12. What’s happening now? • Integration of GIM into new Country Planning and Review Process • Ensuring this process is rights-based and practical • Project looking into children’s role in governance, as well as in programming • Recruitment of CRP adviser

13. What else needs to happen? • More work to ensure understanding of CRP at country, regional, global levels • More work to ensure full organisational understanding of the implications of a rights-based approach • Ways found to assess impact of our work on policy, and the impact of policy change on the realisation of children's rights