Defending Dignity A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions on Monitoring Economic, Social and Cultural Rights PART II: COLLECTING AND ANALYSING DATA Chapter 5: The role of data in monitoring economic, social and cultural rights Data provides the information necessary to answer the questions set the by indicators. There has been a trend towards quantification in human rights monitoring; the value-add of quantification is that it provides a standardized, comparative unit of measurement that can be analysed to identify patterns and trends among variables, such as population groups, geographic areas or periods of time. Nevertheless, quantification has limitations and should always be complemented with qualitative data and human knowledge. Chapter 6: Finding secondary data Secondary data is data collected by someone else or for some other purpose. Different types of secondary data include events-based data, administrative statistics, perception-based data and expert judgments. Different types of secondary data can be useful for indicators related to the four steps of OPERA: outcomes, policy efforts, resources and assessment. A large amount of secondary data is available online. If data is not available online, a formal request to access information – for example, to a government ministry or municipal government – may be necessary. The quality of secondary data depends on a range of different factors, such as accuracy, reliability impartiality and how complete it is. Chapter 7: Collecting primary data Primary data is collected by the researcher for the specific task at hand, providing more specific data – both quantitative and qualitative – tailored to a particular monitoring activity. Primary data is relevant for indicators related to outcomes, policy efforts, resources and assessment, but is especially useful in gathering data about how policies translate into goods and service on the ground. Primary data can be collected through surveys, direct observation, interviews and focus groups. It is important to ensure a community-focused, rights-based approach to collecting primary data. Although primary data collection can be time intensive and resource intensive, many NHRIs already use these data gathering techniques in their regular work (e.g. in complaints handling). Strengthening this capacity may involve being more methodical and systematic. Chapter 8: Analysing data: A short introduction to working with spreadsheets Spreadsheets are an important tool for organizing and analysing data. Creating a spreadsheet and sorting and filtering its cells can reveal a lot about the data that has been collected. With some basic formulae (e.g. adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing) it is possible to learn even more about the data. Understanding basic statistical concepts, such as range, count, averages, variation and normalization, is important for this. Nevertheless, it is important to be cautious about the conclusions that can be drawn from the data because correlation does not equal causation. PART III: ASSESSING RESOURCES Chapter 9: Evaluating resources Step three of the OPERA framework considers whether the State is dedicating the maximum of its available resources to ESCR. Policy areas relevant to this question include: government expenditure; government revenue; development assistance; debt and debt financing; and monetary policy and financial regulation. The human rights norms that these policies should be judged against include minimum core obligations, non-discrimination and progressive realization. Process principles are also critically important and all stages of the budget cycle – formulation, approval, execution and oversight – should be assessed according to whether they are transparent and participatory. 166