Human rights work covers a huge range of interventions, and evaluation approaches will vary according to the type of work being assessed. There may be forms of human rights work that have discrete, “trackable” interventions where a results-based management type approach would make sense. But, more often than not, human rights advocacy—as with any influencing intervention in complex social and political environments—does not involve straightforward results that are easy to quantify and attribute causes to.
As others in this debate have suggested, a results-based lens is a problematic starting point when trying to understand social change. Change processes are complicated and unpredictable. In the constellation of actors and factors operating in all directions to influence how policy and political processes play out, the role of even the biggest, most active NGO is likely to be relatively small. In such contexts, the risk is that a demand for predictable, quantifiable results may lead to a misrepresentation of reality.
It may also constrain and pervert priorities, as encapsulated in a quote from a human rights defender cited in a report looking at the monitoring and evaluation approaches of three human rights organisations:
