Human Rights-Based Approach to Programming - UNFPA -

1. Human Rights-Based Approach to Programming- UNFPA - SESSION 8 Advocating for a HRBA: Challenges and Opportunities for UNFPA

2. Session Overview • UNFPA’s advocacy role • Advocacy strategies • Obstacles and challenges • Strategies for challenging contexts • Importance of cultural sensitivity • Conclusion

3. UN Country Team Role • information, education • participation • organization • monitoring • access to remedies • (administrative, judicial) • laws • policies • services • data, monitoring • remedies fulfil duties Capacity development CSO claim rights duty-bearers rights-holders Information, participation, organization, monitoring advocacy technical assistance laws and policies service delivery UN-CT support Source: Action 2 CLP

4. UNFPA’s Advocacy Role • What are the different ways in which UNFPA engages in advocacy? • with governments, other duty-bearers? • with individuals, civil society, other rights-holders? • within the UNCT? • at the international level? • others?

5. Strategies (1) • Know where the government stands on various issues • Know how advocacy and programme implementation might be most effectively carried out • For example: • legislative reform may be required and legislative capacities may need to be strengthened • policy reforms may be needed to combat discrimination and ensure consistency between macroeconomic and social policies and more equitable public policies

6. Strategies (2) • In order to devise and deliver effective advocacy, engage in environmental scanning • Allows understanding of factors that create or constrain anenabling environment • Analysis should consider overall legal, political and economic environment, and be sensitive to the critical role of local culture *Remember: An enabling environment entails building a human rights culture

7. Obstacles and Challenges (1) Challenging contexts include places where there is: • Lack of political will to deal with issues seen as especially sensitive or controversial • Overt resistanceto the concepts and methods of human rights (including for ostensible cultural, religious or other reasons) • Open political resistanceto human rights

8. Obstacles and Challenges (2) Challenging contexts include places where there is: • Lack of political commitmentand/or weak capacity to develop and implement a HRBA • Resistance to acknowledging certain populations, and therefore resistance to ensuring the human rights of those populations • Cultural or religiously sanctioned subordination of women, and where negative attitudes towards women and stereotypes are deeply entrenched

9. Obstacles and Challenges (3) Challenging contexts include places where there is: • Government that operates in a highly centralized manner, with limited public accountability • Violent conflict, widespread poverty or extremely weak capacity, where basic survival or institution building is seen as a priority • Generally weak governance or other significant structural and political barriers

10. Strategies for Advocating in Challenging Contexts • Work with culture • Emphasize that a HRBA is synonymous with national ownership • Show that human rights are not a foreign concept • Demonstrate that you know the value of a HRBA • Emphasize capacity development • Do the best you can in each specific situation • Be patient, and work progressively towards change

11. Advancing ICPD Agenda and a HRBA Without Saying ‘Human Rights’ (1) • Talk about the benefits of a HRBA, e.g.: • national ownership • sustainable programmes • capacity development • engenders the trust of the citizenry • improves long-term development outcomes • uncovers root causes of development challenges • use data to show disparities • the focus on process • 3AQs

12. Advancing ICPD Agenda and a HRBA Without Saying ‘Human Rights’(2) • Refer to nationally entrenched rights in constitutions and domestic legal standards • Reassure governments that you can help them meet their ‘international commitments’ • Share UNFPA’s own efforts to ensure accountability, participation, etc. • Change terminology: • ‘reproductive health’ or ‘healthy families’ may be less controversial than ‘family planning’ or ‘reproductive rights’ • Build development around the strengths and interests of the people involved

13. Importance of Cultural Sensitivity • Cultural or religious traditions and practices can be in opposition to UNFPA’s efforts • Working to change behaviours and attitudes is extremely time-consuming with limited immediate obvious impact • Incremental changes are possible and may be more enduring in the long run. This is the reason why UNFPA promotes a culturally sensitive HRBA • Essential to design and implement programmes that work from within a culture

14. Conclusion • Integrating human rights into development assistance is not simply a technical matter resolved by adequate training or better tools and procedures • In addition to knowledge of what a HRBA means in practice, it requires negotiation with governments, consensus-building, and adapting to potentially difficult and unfriendly contexts