Part I Defining the issues to be monitored Chapter 4: Working with indicators and benchmarks KEY QUESTIONS • What are human rights indicators? What are benchmarks? • What value do indicators and benchmarks add to monitoring? • What questions can indicators and benchmarks help answer? • How can indicators and benchmarks be identified? • What criteria should we use to judge them? INTRODUCTION Chapter 3 introduced OPERA, a four-step framework that groups together the norms underpinning the fulfilment of ESCR. It also suggests tools and techniques for measuring them. Indicators and benchmarks are tools used in several steps of the OPERA framework. Indicators are simply a way to help answer a question. Often, they answer a question using quantitative data. For example, if the question is “How many girls are enrolled in school compared to boys?”, the indicator would be the male-to-female enrolment rate. Benchmarks are important because they give us something to compare the indicator against. This chapter introduces the concept of human rights indicators and benchmarks, explaining how they can be used to measure particular human rights norms within OPERA. 4.1. INDICATORS, DATA AND BENCHMARKS: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? At its most basic, an indicator is piece of information; it is a thing that indicates a particular state or level. In other words, an indicator gives us a gauge or a signal of circumstances at a particular place and point in time. A good analogy is the dashboard of a car. By looking at the dashboard, it is possible to get a snapshot of what the car is doing at a particular moment, based on indicators like what gear it is in, how much fuel is left, the distance it has gone and the speed at which it is going. An indicator suggests, gets close to or approximates a particular situation, but it is never an exact measure. Indicators are often quantitative. They are defined in terms of numbers, ratios or percentages. In other words, they tell us “how much”, “how many” or “what percentage”. Examples of indicators can include the number of people receiving retirement pensions or the ratio of girls-to-boys attending school. Indicators can also be based on qualitative information; for example, surveys gathering women’s experiences of discrimination, or the length of term of judges. Another distinction is between fact-based indicators and judgment-based indicators. Fact-based indicators can be directly observed or verified, such as the height of a child or the level of toxins in a water sample. Judgment-based indicators record people’s views, feelings and opinions. These judgments are sometimes categorized and then converted into quantitative indicators; for example, the percentage of parents satisfied with the quality of their child’s education. Chapter 4: Working with indicators and benchmarks | 43