Thursday 13 October 2011

Integration of the Human Rights Based Approach into Development Policies and Programmes: A guide for the New EU Member States

The human rights based approach (HRBA) is a powerful and pragmatic framework which offers practical solutions for the new EU Member States to overcome some of the specific challenges they face as relatively new donors. This guide by the Minority Rights Group (MRG) provides a range of programming tools for policy makers and programme developers to enable them to integrate and thus capitalize on this framework in their specific context.

The new landmark publication, intended as a follow-up tool to MRG’s policy paper on the relevance of the HRBA for new EU Member States, provides an overview of the policy and programming processes of official aid administrations and identifies entry points for the integration of the HRBA to policy development and programming. The tools presented provide a general guide to development planning and implementation. They are applicable to any thematic area, ranging from infrastructure development to social development and beyond.

Specific focus in the guide is given to three countries, all of which are holding the Presidency of the Council of the European Union during 2011 and 2012: Hungary, Poland and Cyprus. The countries were selected because the Presidency provides some political space for agenda-setting and brings increased attention to the respective countries, including to their development cooperation activities and frameworks.

The toolkit also provides HRBA project management tools tailored for the needs of new EU Member States’ NGDOs to integrate HRBA principles into their projects. See the toolkit by following the link.

Information provided by Bernadett Sebály, Minority Rights Group Europe

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