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ABSTRACT
The adoption of a rights-based approach at ActionAid has transformed the non-governmental organisation’s structure, processes and priorities. Yet the organisation may have underestimated the tension between pre-existing participatory work and rights-based approaches, and between grassroots definitions of rights and the rights prioritised in national and international advocacy and campaigning. By looking at the evolution of ActionAid’s work on unpaid care, we can see how the organisation has built on work translating rights to make them relevant for local communities and begun to promote alternative articulations of rights and of rights-based approaches inspired by participatory work with communities.
Acknowledgements
This article is particularly indebted to doctoral research carried out by Kate Newman, a former member of ActionAid’s international education team.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author
Note on contributor
Ruth Kelly works with ActionAid to develop research and policy that respond to the priorities of communities and activists in the global south and that challenge problematic paradigms or practices in international development. Before joining ActionAid in 2013, Ruth worked with Oxfam, the UNDP and the European Commission, on international trade, land rights and programme implementation.
Notes
1 Sherine Jayawickrama and Alnoor Ebrahim, Building and Governing a Democratic Federation: The ActionAid Story (Hauser Institute, 2013), http://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/hauser/news-events/news/building-and-governing-a-democratic-federation-the-actionaid-story (accessed 5 April 2016).
2 See, for example, David Archer, ‘Developing a New Strategy for ActionAid to Advance a Human Rights-Based Approach to Development’, Journal of Human Rights Practice 3, no. 3 (2011): 332–54.
3 See further Kate Newman, ‘Challenges and Dilemmas in Integrating Human Rights-based Approaches and Participatory Approaches to Development: An Exploration of the Experiences of ActionAid International’ (PhD diss., Goldsmiths, University of London, 2011), 120–3, 234–5.
4 David Archer, People’s Action in Practice: ActionAid’s Human Rights Based Approach 2.0 (ActionAid, 2012), 9, 22–4, http://www.actionaid.org/sites/files/actionaid/1._peoples_action_in_practice_final_20_07_2012.pdf (accessed 27 April 2016).
5 Ibid., 19.
6 Key elements of the research signature include: ‘1. People living in poverty are empowered by our research-both process and product: a) Active in identifying research priorities; b) Active in using the research evidence for influencing change at different levels and c) Actively represented throughout the research outputs: voices are amplified through analysis, perspectives, quotes, pictures, and stories; 2. Strong analysis: Involves the participation of people living in poverty and their movements directly (wherever possible) in identifying, thorough joint analysis and by bringing in new knowledge, strategies for change.’ Kate Carroll, AAI Research Signature (ActionAid internal document, 2015).
7 Bronwen Magrath, ‘Advocacy as Political Strategy: The Emergence of an Education for All Campaign at ActionAid International and the Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education’ (PhD diss., University of Toronto, 2013).
8 Newman, ‘Challenges and Dilemmas’.
9 Archer, People’s Action in Practice.
10 Newman, ‘Challenges and Dilemmas’, 186–7.
11 Ibid., 261–3.
12 Ibid., 248.
13 Asmara Figue, Action for Children’s Rights in Education: End of Project Evaluation Report (ActionAid, 2013), 16, 24, http://www.actionaid.org/sites/files/actionaid/action_for_children_in_education_-end_of_project_evaluation_report_august_2013.pdf (accessed 27 April 2016).
14 Rachel Moussié, Women’s Unpaid Care Work Programming Framework (ActionAid internal document, 2010); Deborah Budlender and Rachel Moussié, Making Care Visible: Women’s Unpaid Care Work in Nepal, Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya (ActionAid, 2013), http://www.actionaid.org/sites/files/actionaid/making_care_visible.pdf (accessed 27 April 2016); ActionAid, Unpaid Care Work: Resource Guide (ActionAid, 2013), https://www.empowerwomen.org/~/media/files/un-women/knowledge-gateway/resourcefiles/2013/10/11/15/35/actionaid%20unpaid%20care%20work%20resource%20guide.ashx (accessed 27 April 2016); Zahrah Nesbitt-Ahmed and Deepta Chopra, Country Progress Report: Nigeria (2012–2013), Evidence Report No. 46 (Institute of Development Studies, 2013); Zahrah Nesbitt-Ahmed and Deepta Chopra, Country Progress Report: Nepal (2012–13), Evidence Report No. 54 (Institute of Development Studies, 2014); Zahrah Nesbitt-Ahmed and Deepta Chopra, Unpaid Care Work Programme: Uganda Country Progress Report (2012–2014), Evidence Report No. 126 (Institute of Development Studies, 2015); Zahrah Nesbitt-Ahmed and Deepta Chopra, Who Cares: Reflections on the International-level Advocacy Work of the Unpaid Care Work Programme (2012–2015), Evidence Report No. 157 (Institute of Development Studies, 2015).
15 Boaventura de Sousa Santos, ‘Towards a Multicultural Conception of Human Rights’, in Moral Imperialism: A Critical Anthology, ed. Berta Hernández-Truyol (New York University Press, 2002).
16 Joseph Slaughter, ‘Enabling Fictions and Novel Subjects: The “Bildungsroman” and International Human Rights Law’, Publications of the Modern Languages Association of America 121, no. 5 (October 2006): 1405–23.
17 Kate Nash, The Political Sociology of Human Rights (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 115.
18 Archer, People’s Action in Practice, 18.
19 Ibid., 55–7.
20 Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, trans. Myra Bergman Ramos (The Continuum Publishing Company, 1970; London: Penguin Books, 1996), 55. Citations are to the Penguin edition.
21 Ibid., 139.
22 David Kennedy, ‘The International Human Rights Movement: Still Part of the Problem?’, in Examining Critical Perspectives on Human Rights, ed. Rob Dickinson, Elena Katselli, Colin Murray, and Ole W. Pedersen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 25.
23 Hannah Miller and Robin Redhead, ‘Beyond Rights-based Approaches’, International Journal of Human Rights (2017).
24 Anthony Bebbington, Sam Hickey, and Diana Mitlin, ‘Introduction’, in Can NGOs Make a Difference? The Challenge of Development Alternatives, ed. Anthony Bebbington and Sam Hickey (London: Zed Books, 2008), 5.
25 Ibid., 10.
26 Ibid., 13.
27 Ibid., 19.
28 Ibid., 9.
29 Newman, ‘Challenges and Dilemmas’, 261–3.
30 Santos, ‘Towards a Multicultural Conception of Human Rights’, 50.
31 Ibid.
32 Ibid., 39, 45–6.
33 Ibid., 44–53.
34 Archer, People’s Action in Practice, 13–15.
35 Abby Riddell, A Review of 13 Evaluations of Reflect (ActionAid, 2001), 50, https://www.actionaid.org.uk/sites/default/files/doc_lib/192_1_evaluation.pdf (accessed 27 April 2016).
36 ActionAid, Giving People Choices (ActionAid, 1994), 9.
37 Newman, ‘Challenges and Dilemmas’, 120.
38 ActionAid, Global Education Review 2002 (International Education Unit, 2002), 30, https://www.actionaid.org.uk/sites/default/files/doc_lib/140_1_global_education_review.pdf (accessed 27 April 2016).
39 Ibid.
40 Magrath, ‘Advocacy as Political Strategy’, 125.
41 Jennifer Chapman, Valerie Miller, Adriano Campolina Soares, and John Samuel, Rights-Based Development: The Challenge of Change and Power, GPRG-WPS-027 (Global Poverty Research Group, 2005), 38, http://www.gprg.org/pubs/workingpapers/pdfs/gprg-wps-027.pdf (accessed 27 April 2016).
42 ActionAid, Rights to End Poverty (ActionAid, 2005), 11, http://www.actionaid.org/sites/files/actionaid/rightstoendpoverty.pdf (accessed 23 April 2016). See also Newman, ‘Challenges and Dilemmas’, 133.
43 Newman, ‘Challenges and Dilemmas’, 219, 224, 242.
44 Yusuf Sayed and Kate Newman, Review of ActionAid’s Education Programme: Challenges and Prospects (ActionAid, 2009), 21, http://www.actionaid.org/sites/files/actionaid/education_review_2005_-_2009_-_final_18_01_11.pdf (accessed 27 April 2016).
45 Newman, ‘Challenges and Dilemmas’, 186–7.
46 Archer, People’s Rights in Practice, 73.
47 Paul Gready, ‘ActionAid’s Human Rights-based Approach and its Impact on Organisational and Operational Change’, in Towards a Theory of Change: Human Rights and Development in the New Millennium, ed. Paul Gready and Wouter Vandenhole (Abingdon: Routledge, 2013), 180, 183.
48 Gready, ‘ActionAid’s Human Rights-based Approach’, 183, 189.
49 David Archer and Everjoice Win, Core Insights to Shape ActionAid’s Future HRBA (ActionAid internal document, 2016).
50 Santos, ‘Towards a Multicultural Conception of Human Rights’, 50.
51 Jonathan Ensor, ‘Linking Rights and Culture: Implications for Rights-Based Approaches’, in Reinventing Development? Translating Rights-based Approaches from Theory into Practice, ed. Paul Gready and Jonathan Ensor (London: Zed Books, 2005).
52 Santos, ‘Towards a Multicultural Conception of Human Rights’, 44–53.
53 The 10 rights outlined in the charter are as follows: 1. Right to free and compulsory education; 2. Right to non-discrimination; 3. Right to adequate infrastructure; 4. Right to quality trained teachers; 5. Right to a safe and non-violent environment; 6. Right to relevant education; 7. Right to know your rights; 8. Right to participate; 9. Right to transparent and accountable schools; 10. Right to quality learning. ActionAid, Promoting Rights in Schools: Providing Quality Education (ActionAid, 2011), 4, http://www.actionaid.org/sites/files/actionaid/prs_-_english-final__4_may_2011_2_0.pdf (accessed 5 August 2016).
54 Mervat Rishmawi and Cathy Keable-Elliot, Right to Education Project Indicators: Stocktaking Report (Right to Education, 2012), http://www.right-to-education.org/resource/right-education-project-indicators-stocktaking-report (accessed 27 April 2016).
55 Figue, Action for Children’s Rights, 15–16, 32.
56 Quoted in Newman, ‘Challenges and Dilemmas’, 248.
57 Figue, Action for Children’s Rights, 16, 24.
58 Newman, ‘Challenges and Dilemmas’, 159.
59 ActionAid, People’s Action to End Poverty (ActionAid, 2011), 7, 13, http://www.actionaid.org/sites/files/actionaid/peoples_action_to_end_poverty_28pp.pdf (accessed 23 April 2016).
60 See, for example, Miriam Lang and Dunia Mokrani, ed., Beyond Development: Alternative Visions from Latin America (Rosa Luxembourg and Transnational Institute, 2015), https://www.tni.org/files/download/beyonddevelopment_complete.pdf (accessed 31 August 2016).
61 Archer, People’s Action in Practice, 27.
62 Ibid., 26–7.
63 Ibid., 13–15.
64 ActionAid, Fighting Poverty Together: ActionAid’s Strategy 1999–2005, a Short Guide (ActionAid, 1999), 11, https://www.actionaid.org.uk/sites/default/files/content_document/FPTweb.pdf (accessed 27 April 2016).
65 ActionAid, Rights to End Poverty, 17.
66 ActionAid, People’s Action, 15, 19.
67 Moussié, Programming Framework, 9.
68 Budlender and Moussié, Making Care Visible, 13–14.
69 Moussié, Programming Framework, 10.
70 ActionAid, Resource Guide, 25.
71 Budlender and Moussié, Making Care Visible, 23.
72 Ibid., 24.
73 Ibid., 4–5.
74 Ibid., 29.
75 Ibid., 30–35.
76 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 16.3; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 23.1; see also International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Article 10 of which recognises the right to maternity leave.
77 Nash, Political Sociology of Human Rights, 120.
78 Nesbitt-Ahmed and Chopra, Who Cares, 10, 17–19.
79 Miller and Redhead, Beyond Rights-based Approaches.
80 Lourdes Beneria, Gunseli Berik, and Maria Floro, Gender, Development and Globalization: Economics as if All People Mattered, 2nd ed. (Abingdon: Routledge, 2015), 14.
81 Nesbitt-Ahmed and Chopra, Uganda Country Progress Report, 12; Nesbitt-Ahmed and Chopra, Country Progress Report: Nepal, 5; Budlender and Moussié, Making Care Visible, 25.
82 ActionAid, Resource Guide, 41, 43.
83 Nesbitt-Ahmed and Chopra, Country Progress Report: Nigeria, 13–14.
84 Nesbitt-Ahmed and Chopra, Uganda Country Progress Report, 16, 19.
85 Nesbitt-Ahmed and Chopra, Country Progress Report: Nepal, 14.
86 Budlender and Moussié, Making Care Visible, 27.
87 Nesbitt-Ahmed and Chopra, Country Progress Report: Nepal, 13; Nesbitt-Ahmed and Chopra, Who Cares, 23.
88 Nesbitt-Ahmed and Chopra, Country Progress Report: Nepal, 13.
89 Nesbitt-Ahmed and Chopra, Who Cares, 12.
90 Archer and Win, Core Insights.
91 María Delgado, Daniel Guijarro, and Eva Otero, Final Report: Evaluation of ActionAid Work on Women’s Rights (ActionAid internal document, 2016), 37.
92 Tobin Aldrich, Danny Burns, James Crowley, and Liepollo Pheko, Review of ActionAid International Strategy, ‘People’s Action to End Poverty’: Taking Stock Review 4 (ActionAid internal document, 2016), 7.