Rights-Based Approaches to Development: Exploring the Potential and Pitfalls

by Sam Hickey (Editor), Diana Mitlin (Editor)

Overview

* Comprehensive summary and case studies of major of rights-based approach to development
* Arranged in point/counterpoint format

The associations between human rights and the work of development activists didn’t receive widespread attention from international development agencies until the mid to late 1990s. The most visible sign that attitudes were changing occurred when the UN held its World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995. From that point on, rights became a stated objective of most agencies, regardless of the level of effort they actually spent in incorporating these ideas into their activities.

Now, over a decade after that crucial turning point, Rights-Based Approaches to Development reflects on the effect of the development community’s major shift in focus from market-based frameworks to a rights-based one. Contributors, both academics and practitioners, reflect on their experience with rights-based development activities. They draw out the current debates, theoretical and practical concerns and achievements, and larger implications about poverty and the relationship between citizens and the state. With powerful insights into where the development community has been and where it needs to go, Rights-Based Approaches to Development is critical to understanding the role of social justice in the context of development.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781565492837
Publisher:	Kumarian Press, Inc.
Publication date:	05/28/2009
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Diana Mitlin is an economist and social development specialist and works both at the International Institute for Environment and Development and the Institute for Development Policy and Management (University of Manchester). Her major focus is on issues of urban poverty reduction, in particular in the area of secure tenure, basic services and housing. Her work has explored a number of themes related to the contribution of civil society to addressing issues related to poverty and inequality. For the last ten years, she has worked with Shack/Slum Dwellers International. Recent publications include Empowering Squatter Citizen (2004, with David Satterthwaite) and Confronting the Crisis in Urban Poverty (2006, with Lucy Stevens and Stuart Coupe).

Sam Hickey lectures on international development at IDPM, School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester. His research focuses on the politics of development, particularly the links between politics and poverty reduction, issues of citizenship and participation, and the role of civil society and NGOs in development. Recent papers have appeared in World Development and Development and Change, and he is co-editor (with Giles Mohan) of the collection entitled From Tyranny to Transformation: Exploring New Approaches to Participation (Zed Books, 2004). He currently co-ordinates research into the politics of exclusion within the Chronic Poverty Research Centre.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; PART ONE) THE RISE OF RIGHTS-BASED APPROACHES TO DEVELOPMENT: 1) Introduction—Sam Hickey and Diana Mitlin; 2) Linking Rights and Development: Some Critical Challenges—Robert Archer; 3) The Rights of the Rich versus the Rights of the Poor—John Gledhill; PART TWO) RIGHTS, GOVERNMENTALITY AND CITIZENSHIP: 4) Exploring a Political Approach to Rights-Based Development in North West Cameroon: From Rights and Marginality to Citizenship and Justice—Jeidoh Duni, Robert Fon, Sam Hickey and Nuhu Salihu; 5) Recognition or Misrecognition?: Pitfalls of Indigenous Peoples’ Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)—Katsuhiko Masaki; PART THREE: DO RIGHTS-BASED APPROACHES OFFER A PRO-POOR ROUTE TO DEVELOPMENT? 6) Property Rights and Rights-Based Sustainable Livelihoods—Leonith Hinojosa-Valencia; 7) Reinterpreting the Rights-Based Approach: A Grassroots Perspective on Rights and Development—Sheela Patel and Diana Mitlin; PART FOUR: FROM VOLUNTARISM TO EMPOWERMENT? 8) Rethinking Agency, Rights and Natural Resource Management—Frances Cleaver; 9) ‘We Are Also Human’: Identity and Power in Gender Relations—Michael Drinkwater; PART FIVE: THE OPERATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF RIGHTS-BASED APPROACHES: 10) Rights-Based Development: The Challenge of Change and Power for Development NGOs—Jennifer Chapman in collaboration with Valerie Miller, Adriano Campolina Soares and John Samuel; 11) The “Human Rights-Based Approach to Programming”: A Contradiction in Terms?—Lauchlan T. Munro; PART SIX) CONCLUSIONS AND WAYS FORWARD: 12) The Potential and Pitfalls of Rights-Based Approaches to Development—Sam Hickey and Diana Mitlin; Contributors; Index.