“Family violence is a human rights issue – I never connected the two” Before she took part in a Taku Manawa human rights community-led development programme in Aotearoa New Zealand, one woman knew more about human rights issues in Tibet than she did about the way human rights affected people in her country. When she took part in Taku Manawa – Building Human Rights Communities her eyes were opened to local human rights issues. ‘The big thing I got from it was that there are human rights violations happening right here ... Family violence is a human rights issue. I never connected the two.’ The mother-of-four and grandmother-of-one went on to facilitate with those who had experienced family violence, a self-empowerment programme for women who had been victims of family violence. The programme aimed to promote an understanding that human rights are not a privilege available only to a few. Most of the participants had no awareness of their human rights previously, nor how to access support when their human rights were violated. (Tai Tokerau, New Zealand Human Rights Commission) 3.2 Community decides outcomes You have now completed the community analysis and worked with the community to identify their priority issues which have been examined using human rights (including gender rights) and cultural lenses. The next step is to facilitate discussions in the community about what they want to achieve – what their agreed outcomes are. Outcomes-based planning is different from other planning in that it focuses on results and measuring those results. The focus is not on what the community will do (activity) or produce (output) but what it is aiming to achieve (outcome). Outcomes define what the situation will be if the human rights strategy is successful. They also provide a target to work toward and a benchmark against which success will be measured. The key question when developing outcomes is: What does ‘good’ look like – what will the situation be when the human rights issue/s have been successfully addressed? For protracted activity such as with a HRCLD approach, outcomes can be organised into short-term, medium-term and long-term. For the purposes of this Guide: • short-term outcomes tend to result in new knowledge and increased awareness and commitment to behavioural change • medium-term outcomes tend to result in increased skills and changes in attitudes, behaviour, decisions or policies • long-term outcomes tend to result in changes in a situation. Outcome levels are interlinked - short-term outcomes lead or contribute to medium-term outcomes, which lead or contribute to long-term outcomes. Encourage the community to think about the story they are telling - if they achieve X, this could contribute to Y, which could contribute to Z. Developing effective outcomes will take time, particularly during a HRCLD process where they are being negotiated by members of the community. However, as the outcomes will determine the resources required and activities that will occur, it is important to get them right. Outcomes need to be owned by the community with a high level of commitment to achieve them. APF HRCLD Guide 42