Defending Dignity A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions on Monitoring Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 10.4. DETERMINING PRIORITY AREAS By calculating ratios, it is possible to determine the share of the budget dedicated to particular sectors that can be used for the fulfilment of ESCR. This can help give an indication of whether a government is really dedicating the maximum available resources to achieving minimum essential levels of rights enjoyment. As shown in the graph below, calculating ratios is simply a matter of dividing a smaller pool of money by a larger pool of money, in order to see what percentage it comprises. The ratios below calculate the percentage of the budget dedicated to primary education, as a percentage of the overall economy. Note that in this case, gross domestic product (GDP) is used as an indicator to represent the size of the overall economy. Less frequently, gross national product (GNP) might be used instead. PRIMARY EDUCATION EXPENDITURE AND ALLOCATION RATIOS (to monitor minimum core obligation of right to education) Public expenditure ratio Government share of GDP Education allocation ratio Education share of government spending Primary education priority ratio Primary education share of education spending Primary education expenditure ratio Primary education share of GDP Source: CESR, adapted from Human Development Report 1991, UNDP Once you have calculated the relevant ratios, you have standardized, comparable indicators to work with. Benchmarks help to judge the reasonableness of these indicators. Possible benchmarks for judging the reasonableness of allocation ratios might include: • Comparisons to other similar countries (e.g. in terms of GDP) • Comparisons to national or international targets or commitments agreed to by the Government (e.g. OECD countries have committed to allocating 0.7% of their GNP to official development assistance) • Guidelines from national or international experts (e.g. the internationally recommended minimum investment in education is 6% of GDP) • Comparisons to spending on other sectors within the budget that do not support the realization of ESCR (e.g. military spending when there is no legitimate security threat) • Comparisons to costing estimates (i.e. a methodology used to calculate the resources a particular rights-focused policy would actually require). The point here is not to be overly prescriptive; it will generally be impossible to say that exactly X% of the budget must be allocated to health or exactly Y% to social security. There may be valid reasons for government allocations to vary from a particular benchmark. Nevertheless, a notable variation from the benchmark can be a red flag, which suggests there is cause for concern about whether the Government is in compliance with its international human rights obligations. This can help bring pressure to bear on the Government to explain and justify its allocation decisions. 106