NGO Capacity Building on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as they Relate to Development

1. Executive Summary of the Project
   
   The project focused on the challenges of developing NGO capacity to integrate economic, social and cultural rights into development processes and programs.
   
   The Human Rights Council collaborated with the Asian Centre on the Progress of Peoples to host and facilitate an NGO Workshop on Economic, Social and Cultural Right and Development in Bangkok. The workshop brought together individuals from the Asia-Pacific region working on development issues.
   
   The Human Rights Council provided workshop participants with a background paper on current policy developments in relation to poverty and human rights. Expert resource people outlined the core content of economic, social and cultural rights and the nature of government obligations to human rights and the challenges of seeking to integrate human rights in development programming and advocacy.
   
   Workshop participants agreed that awareness of economic, social and cultural rights could help the civil society and the poor hold governments accountable to their human rights obligations and focus poverty reduction efforts on the underlying causes of poverty. The potential of using the international human rights framework to contest the imposition of development models was also explored. Participants identified the need for training on economic, social and cultural rights and for more accessible, practical and culturally appropriate resource and information materials.
   
   There was agreement that the workshop should be the beginning of a process of collaboration on these issues and to meet the challenges of integrating economic, social and cultural rights into development processes.
   
   
2. Project Schedule
   
   The workshop took place 25-26 March 2003, at the Institute of the Monfort Brothers of St. Gabriel, Bangkok, Thailand. Workshop participants came from Bangladesh, Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan and Thailand.
   
   The agenda and list of participants are attached as appendix Iand appendix II.
   
   
3. Collaborating and Participating Organisations/Individuals
   
   Principal collaborator in this project was the Asian Centre for the Progress of Peoples. Also collaborating and participating were the following organisations:
   
   Catholic Relief Services, Bangkok
   Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, Geneva
   Disabled People International, Oceania Office, Suva
   Focus on the Global South, Bangkok
   Forum Asia, Bangkok
   International Save the Children Alliance, Regional Office, Bangkok
   Regional Rights Resource Team, Suva
   
   
4. Summary and General Evaluation of the Project
   
   Which aspects of the project do you consider successful and why?
   
   
   • Collaboration of the Human Rights Council with the Asian Centre for the Progress of Peoples (ACPP) was particularly successful. The project enabled ACPP to explore a new area of work in a focussed and practical way and provided HRCA with access to a key network of grassroots agencies working with poor and marginalised communities in Asia. Both ACPP and HRCA place priority on the need to better integrate human rights into work against poverty in the Asia-Pacific region and have established a firm basis for future cooperation.
   • The presenters and resource people for the workshop were excellent and provided participants with access to some of the leaders in the area of economic, social and cultural rights as they relate to development. The Human Rights Council was able to call on the services of these resource people because of its track-record of working in this field and the high regard in which its work is held. Resource materials that will have relevance for the longer term were produced and distributed.
   • The agenda provided participants with a comprehensive and practical introduction to economic, social and cultural rights and the policy debates over the relationship between poverty and human rights. For most participants this was their first exposure to economic, social and cultural rights and the agenda was well balanced to enable exploration of how these legal rights could be practically applied in development work.
   • By the end of the workshop there was a clear desire on the part of participants to find ways to collaborate with each other and to promote greater use of human rights in their development work with communities.
   • Workshop participants came up with useful and relevant recommendations for grassroots development organisations to better integrate human rights into their work to end poverty.
     

   Which aspects of the project do you consider unsuccessful and why?

   It would have been better to have wider participation from across the Asia-Pacific region. The Indonesian participant had to withdraw at the last moment.. It is unfortunately unrealistic to expect participants to fund their own travel costs to such a workshop. More funds would have enabled wider representation and more time to be allocated to promotion of the workshop through different networks. Longer lead times and increased resources would enable broader participation.
   
   What lessons has your organization learned from carrying out the project?
   
   The project has confirmed the Human Rights Council's belief that there is considerable interest in economic, social and cultural rights among grassroots development organisations, but there is a real lack of education and training materials relevant for these organisations.
   
   There are real opportunities to integrate economic, social and cultural rights into development planning processes at all levels but there is an urgent need to develop the capacity of NGOs and civil society to realise these opportunities.
   
   If funds permitted at least one or two additional days for the workshop would have enabled greater opportunities to apply some of the knowledge gained in practical exercises and enabled exposure to some of the organisations working on economic, social and cultural rights with marginalised communities.
   
   What impact do you expect to result from the completion of the project? On whom will the impact be felt?
   
   

   I am sure that the exposure to the ESC Rights and the contacts with people like you that we got during this workshop will go a long way in our service to the poor and the marginalised. That the workshop ended with a positive note of continuing collaboration adds strength to our efforts. Fr. Antony Philomin Raj Executive Secretary CBCI Commission

   
   The workshop was seen by all participants as the beginning of a process of developing capacity to apply economic, social and cultural rights in the range of work they are involved in - from campaigns on debt relief, work with scheduled castes and untouchables and work with women and with grassroots development organisations.
   
   Participants expressed the need for training workshops with senior colleagues and with constituent organisations, for better networking and for the preparation and dissemination of practical information and resource materials on economic, social and cultural rights and development.
   
   The impact of the workshop will be most obvious in the future work of participants but will also be felt by the communities they work with.
   
   What were the specific outcomes of the project?
   
   The project met its objectives of raising awareness and understanding of economic, social and cultural rights among development organisations working with the poor. It provided an opportunity for sharing knowledge, experience and the best of emerging practice.
   
   Other specific outcomes include
   

   • the preparation of a background paper providing an introduction and overview of economic, social and cultural rights and poverty,

   • preparation and dissemination of presentations and materials addressing key issues

   • input of recommendations and suggestions into the development of more accessible resource materials for integrating economic, social and cultural rights into poverty reduction strategies.

   • Preparation and distribution of a project report to contribute to the work of NGOs working to integrate economic,social and cultural rights into development work.
     

   What will be the expected follow-ups to the completed project?
   
   Discussions will be held with ACPP and with participants on future in-country training programs, the development of appropriate resource and training materials and networking opportunities.
   
   HRCA will follow-up the project outcomes in the course of a subsequent workshop in Jakarta that it is facilitating with different development NGO networks on themes of empowering civil society to claim their economic, social and cultural rights in development processes.
   
   How does the completion of the project relate to other future plans of your organization and your collaborators?
   
   It is clear that while there is increasing interest in economic, social and cultural rights there is little knowledge of the content of these rights in most development NGOs and civil society. Currently there are virtually no specific materials aimed at developing the capacity of development NGOs to integrate human rights into economic development processes.
   
   HRCA is proposing to meet this need by developing an NGO training program on economic, social and cultural rights and development (subject to funding being available). This workshop and project will contribute to shaping the direction of this training program and offers the prospect of partnering with key organisations in the development of this training.
   
   ACPP is hopeful of expanding its role and work in this area, and in developing its interaction with the extensive Catholic based social development networks and is hopeful that future collaboration with the Human Rights Council will be possible.
   
   

5. Materials produced in connection with the Project
   
   • Towards a Framework for a Human Rights Analysis of Poverty, Background Paper for Participants
   • Towards a Framework for a Human Rights Analysis of Poverty, PresentationChild Rights Programming, Joachim Theis, Senior Advisor, Child Rights Programming, International Save the Children Alliance Powerpoint Presentation
   • Indonesian Experiences in Engaging the World Bank, Powerpoint Presentation, Sugeng Bahagio
   • Challenges for advocacy on economic, social and cultural rights - a Thai experience, Kamol Kamoltrakul Forum Asia