Human Rights-Based Approaches to Programming

Monitoring and Evaluation

Evaluations are assessments of the progress of a project and programme at one point in time in order to document and examine the results of our work and to learn from the experience. Evaluation is important to evaluate the efficiency, effectiveness, impact, relevance and sustainability of our work.

Monitoring is the systematic and continuous collection and analysis of information about the progress of a project or programme over time. It is seen as a programme management tool that allows the examination of the progress of our work and the realisation of our objective. Monitoring involves data collection and analysis.

Monitoring and evaluation are a key element to a rights-based approach as they ensure organisations’ accountability in relation to donors, children and their communities. Monitoring and evaluation will help determine if our programmes have a positive, real and sustainable impact on children’s rights.

Sharing the results of the monitoring and evaluation is crucial to the learning process and the sharing of good and bad practices.

Monitoring and evaluation will help measure the changes in legislation, policies and practice as well as the impact of these changes on children’s rights and their everyday life.

It is very important to involve children and their communities in the design of a programme including in the process of deciding how and what to monitor and evaluate.

Links to Human Rights Monitoring: 6.12.2004; some useful websites for HR monitoring
Introducing the Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child – and “The Checklists”: 12.3.2005; These guidelines published by UNICEF on the use of the Convention on the Rights of the Child are reproduced only in part. Separate links to each of the articles and the "checklists" from the Handbook.
Experience of Impact Assessment: 12.3.2005; This paper documents some of Save the Children’s experience in developing a new framework for assessing the impact of its work, and some of the lessons learned from implementing it in two-thirds of our 60 country programmes.
Rights-Based Monitoring and Evaluation: 12.3.2005; This paper proposes a rights-based approach to monitoring changes in human and children’s rights, accountability, participation and equity by measuring different dimensions of change: changes in people’s lives, in policies and practices, in equity, and in participation and empowerment.
Rights-Based Approach Evaluation, Learning and Resources: 12.3.2005; The inter-agency group seeks to know to what extent rights-based approaches (RBA) to development programming constitute an effective way to address poverty reduction , livelihood insecurity, social injustice, exploitation and abuse. This proposal outlines the research to be undertaken.
CARE RBA Rating Scale: 12.3.2005; This tool, developed by CARE, is an aid to measuring the level of RBA content and its effectiveness in their work.
Inter-agency Group on RBA Report on Preparation Workshops: 18.5.2005; Malawi, February. 21st – 26th 2005 Bangladesh, March 28TH – April 2nd 2005
Report to DFID: Rights-Based Approach Evaluation, Learning and Resources: 18.5.2005; The UK inter-agency group on RBA (“the inter- agency group”) initiated a joint learning process to explore the fundamental assumption that underlies our commitment to addressing rights through our work: Implementing rights based approaches (RBA) increases our program impact, and we can demonstrate that impact.
RBA Learning Process Research Framework: 18.5.2005; Background notes and methodology for the RBA Group's research project on rights-based programming.
Principles into Practice: Learning from Innovative Rights Based Programming: 12.10.2005; In 2004, CIUK invited CARE country offices around the world to submit examples of work which charted their attempts to incorporate a rights-based approach. This initiative specifically sought to gain insights into a number of aspects of what it means to apply “a rights lens” in practice.

More Information

CRIN - Child Rights Information Network

Human Rights-Based Approaches to Programming

Monitoring and Evaluation

Rights Themes