A guide towards a housing policy cycle aligned with human rights and te Tiriti o Waitangi This guide reflects the right to a decent home grounded on te Tiriti o Waitangi. Based on the five-step policy cycle, it provides a checklist of 20 questions. The checklist is neither comprehensive nor explicitly cloaked in human rights language. Nonetheless, the checklist of questions is informed by human rights and te Tiriti and underpinned by national and international human rights law. Additionally, the checklist is supported by short commentaries (see the next page). Together, the guide, checklist of questions, and commentaries are designed to help housing policy makers give effect to New Zealand’s binding human rights commitments and te Tiriti o Waitangi. We encourage policy makers and practitioners to improve and elaborate on this resource in light of their invaluable expertise and experience. The resource is work in progress. Step 1: Agenda Step 2: Policy formulation Identify the key problems and issues Define policy objectives and develop policy options 1. What is the crucial context of the key problems we are addressing? 2. Which explicit values will shape our policy process 6. What policy objectives are we trying to achieve? and its policies? 3. How does te Tiriti o Waitangi bear upon the key problems we are addressing? 4. What evidence are we using to identify and understand the key problems, and is data disaggregated? 5. As we identify the key problems, how are we ensuring the meaningful participation of disadvantaged groups? 7. How will each policy option advance key features of the right to a decent home? 8. How will each policy option give effect to te Tiriti o Waitangi? 9. On what evidence is each policy option based? 10. As we define policy objectives and develop policy options, how are we ensuring the meaningful participation of disadvantaged groups? Step 3: Decision making Step 5: Monitoring and evaluation Monitor effectiveness of the selected policies and identify how we can make improvements Select the policy options for implementation 11. Who is selecting the policy options – who is the decision maker? 19. Are the selected policies subject to periodic independent review against key checkpoints? 12. Are the selected policies evidence-based, rational and achievable? Is the reasoning transparent and publicly available? 20. How will progress, periodic reviews and lessons learned loop back into the policy cycle? 13. How are priorities being set and trade-offs being made? 14. How does the decision-making process support inclusivity and participation? Step 4: Implementation Put the selected policies into action 15. Who has responsibility for implementing the selected policies? 16. How are resources being allocated to ensure that the most disadvantaged groups benefit from the selected policies? 17. How are Māori and other disadvantaged groups being included in the implementation process? 18. How are we measuring progress? 2. Integrating human rights and te Tiriti o Waitangi into housing policy making 17