Part I Defining the issues to be monitored Being aware of these distinctions can be helpful when building relationships with development actors, such as planning ministries and finance ministries, especially as they have not traditionally been interlocutors for many NHRIs. Emphasizing the normative goals of a human rights-based approach is also important because it helps guard against a reductionist or technocratic understanding of a rightsbased approach. The “human development” approach The “human rights-based” approach Needs are contextual and open-ended. Hierarchy of needs. Rights indivisible and interdependent, though practical prioritization may be required. Beneficiaries deserve help. Beneficiaries have universal and legally established claims and entitlements to enforceable rights. Passive beneficiaries – can be invited to participate. Beneficiaries are active participants, by right. Pragmatic ways to work with structures. Power structures must be effectively changed. Development is technocratic – for experts. Development should transform behaviour, institutions and empower rights holders. Source: OHCHR, HRBA Training Materials (not dated) 1.5. WHAT IS THE ADDED VALUE OF A HUMAN RIGHTS-BASED APPROACH? There are two main rationales for adopting a human rights-based approach to development: 1. The intrinsic rationale, acknowledging that a human rights-based approach is the right thing to do, both morally and legally 2. The instrumental rationale, recognizing that a human rights-based approach leads to better and more sustainable human development outcomes. A human rights-based approach stresses obligations and requires that all duty bearers, including States and intergovernmental organizations, be held accountable for their conduct. Accountability is increasingly recognized as central to sustainable development. When understood holistically, a human rights-based approach puts respect for individual human rights, dignity and gender equality at the heart of any civil, political, social and economic agenda. In this way, it encourages policymaking that strikes a balance between competing socio-economic and political dynamics in order to achieve the overall objective of realizing human rights. By encouraging development that is people-centred and sustainable, a rights-based approach also helps overcome traditional divisions between the different categories of rights. This also means that a human rights-based approach can provide a solid foundation for achieving gender equality. Rather than merely viewing women’s advancement as important for economic development, the improvement of women’s political, social, economic and health status are considered inherently important ends. Given its particular attention to issues of discrimination, equality, equity and vulnerability, as well as its recognition that these issues vary depending on context, rights-based approaches can also be valuable in identifying the gendered dimensions of a particular situation. As will be explained further below, the meaning of equality is also more expansive and specific under a rights-based approach, incorporating more nuanced understandings of the obstacles to equality and aiming at real changes to the opportunities, outcomes, systems and power dynamics that women experience. Chapter 1: Poverty, development and human rights: Making the connections | 11