HURITALK
Human Rights Policy Network

Using the experience of UN practitioners to develop tools on human rights and the MDGs

his month, the UN Human Rights Network- HURITALK, hosted at the Oslo Governance Centre, launched two knowledge products to support development practitioners effectively link human rights and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The tools respond to the growing demand for guidance and practical experience in this area; as identified in an e-discussion held on HURITALK and the MDG Network in 2006: The overriding conclusion of the e-discussion was that the human rights framework provides an important tool for achieving the MDGs, helping ensure the Goals are pursued in an equitable, just and sustainable manner. It also adds an unassailable normative framework that grounds development work within a universal set of values. However, linking the two is not clear or simple. More guidance is needed to help practitioners better make the links in their work.

HURITALK in collaboration with the MDG Network has thus developed two tools to respond to this demand.

The Primer- Human Rights and the Millennium Development Goals- Making the Link.The Primerprovides a conceptual overview of the links between human rights and the MDGs and explores the key questions that practitioners face in this area. The content is based on the input and observations from the e-discussion and the deliberations of a Working Group Meeting held in Oslo in September 2006.

primer

The WebPortal- HuRiLink

The HuriLink WebPortal has been developed in conjunction with the Primer. It is an on-line tool which presents the experiences and challenges that practitioners face when striving to link human rights and the Millennium Development Goals in their work. It is a resource that has been developed by practitioners, for practitioners. It features lessons learned, common challenges, tools and resources. The Primer and webportal have been developed as complementary tools that provide conceptual and practical guidance on linking human rights and the MDGs

primer

Bjørn Førde
Director of OGC





28-29 August Workshop in Oslo on Measuring and Assessing Democratic Governance

The UNDP Oslo Governance Centre and InWEnt hosted a Workshop for 22 UNDP Country Offices and national counterparts on methods and processes for assessing democratic governance at the national level. The purpose of the workshop was to bring together staff from selected UNDP Country Offices and national counterparts to raise understanding and awareness of governance measurement approaches and to identify important entry points for UNDP and governments to respond to the various needs at the country level for monitoring the quality of democratic governance within a country. There were four principal outputs expected from the workshop:

  • To develop the capacities of UNDP country offices on best practices and lessons learned in national efforts to monitor governance.
  • To provide a framework for UNDP’s corporate support to governance monitoring built on country needs and demands.
  • To establish a UNDP community of practice in this area and a platform for mutual support across the participating countries.
  • To foster, catalyze and strengthen national based networks and partnerships within participating countries to contribute to national ownership and create a platform for national capacity development.



Measuring Governance and Poverty
The project ‘Measuring Governance and Poverty’ gains momentum as a new contract is awarded to write a comparative paper on conceptual linkages and assessment methodology this month. Aaron Schneider and his team at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex won the bid.

The project ‘Measuring Governance and Poverty’ aims to align governance assessments closer to poverty reduction objectives in an effort to strengthen development strategies. This includes asking questions such as: “What does democratic governance mean to the poor”, “What are the governance bottlenecks for scaling up the MDGs” and “What is the role of governance in growth and poverty reduction strategies?”

This innovative approach to governance assessments brings a new dimension to the ongoing ‘Indicators Project’ at the OGC. The project “Measuring Governance and Poverty” is expected to have the corollary effect of increasing the relevancy of governance assessments.
The project ‘Measuring governance and poverty’ will be conducted in two stages.

 The first stage will consist of writing a comparative paper that will map conceptual linkages between governance and poverty, and assess methods for measuring these linkages. The mapping will look at linkages as they pertain to various areas of policy making.

The second stage will consist of training of UNDP staff and national counterparts, including statisticians, policy makers, development practitioners and other stakeholders.

The comparative paper is expected to benefit from Aaron Schneider and his team’s extensive experience from working in the junction of academia and policy development.




Workshop on Local Government in Post Conflict Situations: Challenges for Decision Making and Service Delivery

On 28-29 November, the Oslo Governance Centre will convene a workshop on Local Government in Post-Conflict Situations: Challenges for Decision Making and Service Delivery.

The workshop is part of a broader initiative by the UNDP Bureau for development Policy and key UN partners to enhance (UN) DP capacities in programme countries in order to strengthen local governance capacities for decision making and service delivery.

The workshop will be preceded by a study which is being undertaken in collaboration with the University of Birmingham. It will bring together UNDP programme staff working on local governance issues in post-conflict situations together with national or government counterparts, regional advisors, UNDP partners in this area and relevant academic experts to discuss challenges and identify strategies and solutions for improved programming support





Updated Access to Information database

OGC has just completed its 2007 global mapping of UNDP supported Access to Information projects. 191 new projects have been added to the OGC Access to Information project database including a short summary of each project and contact information. The complete results and an analysis of the mapping exercise will be launched on International Right to Know Day - September 28.

Staff changes
Sarah Lister joined OGC in July as the new Civil Society and Governance Advisor.  Before joining OGC Sarah worked at the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit in Kabul. She has also worked as a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies UK, and as a Consultant to the World Bank, DFID, and other agencies. Sarah holds MSc and PhD degrees in Social Policy from the London School of Economics. 

Civil Society Research Associate Marianne Knarud Sagen is leaving OGC in late September. Marianne’s replacement, Barry Driscoll, has just finished his Masters in Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics. Before that, he worked on legislative development issues at the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and on civil society issues at the World Bank



First Course of the DG Training Online Launched
The first Course and Introduction of the DG Training Online are now accessible through the Virtual Development Academy and the Learning Management System. The first course covers the topics of Human Rights, Gender and Anti-Corruption and can be accessed here

OGC Fellows
This year, three UNDP staff members were selected for the OGC Fellowship Programme: Jing Li (UNDP China) has just spent one month at the OGC working on a Governance Indicators framework to monitor China’s All-Around Xiao Kang Society - China’s own version of the MDGs. Paola Pagliani (UNDP Serbia) is currently researching how Communication for Empowerment can promote awareness of the MDGs in Serbia. Serge Yapo (UNDP Côte d’Ivoire) is due to arrive at the OGC in October and will be working on local governance and conflict.

Bergen Seminar

The 2007 Bergen Seminar will take place from September 23-25. Over 75 participants will gather to discuss governance assessments in light of the Paris Declaration and how the principles of national ownership, alignment and harmonization can be strengthened. This high-level event will feed into the OECD High-Level Ministerial Forum on the Paris Declaration to be held in Ghana in 2008, where implementation of the Paris Declaration will be assessed for the first time



Civil Society Voices on Human Rights Based Approach
In September, HURITALK launched the first issue of an online publication Civil Society Voices on Human Rights Based Approaches. This initiative aims to promote an understanding of what a human rights based approach entails in practice through hearing experience from the civil society and the NGO community. The series began with an interview with Social Watch Benin entitled: The Experience of Social Watch Benin- Watching over the Development Process.

Partnership with students from the Norwegian Centre on Human Rights

As a follow up to the e-discussion on the International Human Rights Machinery, HURITALK has joined forces with the Norwegian Human Rights Centre to help develop two guidance tools (‘Issue Briefs’) to help Country offices engage with Special Procedures and Treaty Bodies; two of the main pillars of the international human rights machinery





United Nations Development Programme
Oslo Governance Centre

Borggata 2B, Postboks 2881 Tøyen,
0608 Oslo, Norway

Phone +47 23 06 08 20, Fax +47 23 06 08 21 oslogovcentre@undp.org
www.undp.org/oslocentre