Human rights budget work - general resources

The Instituto de Estudos Socioeconômicos (INESC) in Brazil has substantial experience doing human rights budget work, particularly at the national level, but also at the sub-national level. In 2009 the organization produced a paper, Budget and rights: developing a budget analysis method from the perspective of human rights, that sets out the methodology it has developed over the years to relate human rights to the government’s budget and use human rights standards to assess governmental expenditures in Brazil.
Budget work to advance the right to food: “Many a slip…” (2009): This guide sets out a methodology (drawing on the approaches used by a number of national and international organizations) for undertaking budget analysis related to a specific right. Although its focus is the right to food, the methodology can be equally used to address issues bearing on other rights. It also includes short summaries of three “frontloading” initiatives. “Many a slip…” is the result of a project sponsored by the Right to Food Unit of the FAO, and coordinated by IHRIP with the assistance of the International Budget Partnership (IBP) and organizations in Guatemala, the Philippines and Uganda.

Dignity Counts: A guide to using budget analysis to advance human rights (2004): Dignity Counts is an easy-to-read, accessible discussion of “how to” analyze government budgets within a human rights framework. The case study that serves as the focus of the book relates to the right to health, but the discussion is relevant for all rights. Dignity Counts is a good introduction to budget work on specific rights, while Budget work to advance the right to food (just mentioned) provides a more in-depth, detailed description of the methodology followed by a number of groups.

“It’s our money. Where’s it gone?” is a documentary produced by the IBP on the work of Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI) in Kenya in mobilizing communities to monitor expenditure of Constituency Development Funds. The video includes a very useful presentation of how such monitoring can be organized and implemented.
“The Case of the Mislaid Allocation: Economic and Social Rights and Budget Work” by Ann Blyberg published in SUR, International Journal on Human Rights. The paper provides a short history of the development of human rights budget work and explains what the work is. It also discusses the different focuses of the work, such as transparency, gender and children as well as specific substantive rights, such as the right to food, and provides examples of work done by civil society groups in different countries. The paper also discusses the current environment for the work, and opportunities and challenges faced by civil society groups. The last part makes recommendations for initiatives that need to be undertaken by civil society, governments, intergovernmental bodies and donors to encourage and facilitate the development of human rights budget work.
“Maximum Available Resources and Human Rights” by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership. This report examines a number of ways that governments can access financial resources in order to fulfill their obligation to use “maximum available resources” to realize ESC rights. The report draws on discussions between economists and human rights experts at the Center for Women’s Global Leadership in December 2010. The report is organized around (1) government expenditures; (2) government revenue; (3) development assistance (both official development assistance and private resource flows); (4) debt and deficit financing; and (5) monetary policy and financial regulation. Particularly interesting is the report’s discussion on the role of central banks.

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