I used to believe that certain evaluation challenges were unique to human rights. But while stuck in the Addis Ababa international airport, a fellow passenger asked what I did for a living. I explained that I help organizations know if they make a difference— first for many years in a human rights organization, and now in international development. My friend then asked: “What’s the difference?”
The work of many development organizations is closer to human rights work than we might think. The question was a good one. In fact, the work of many development organizations is closer to human rights work than we might think. For example, organizations like ActionAid have tried to transform power relations among development actors by using a human rights-based approach. This work is different from development interventions such as building schools or vaccination programmes. Instead, ActionAid supports communities to hold governments to account—often acting as a bridge between communities and governments—or by raising awareness about rights and opportunities for participating in governance processes.
When it comes to challenges, there are several areas of overlap between evaluating human rights and international development. Dealing with complexity is one of them. Development interventions based upon human rights-based approaches usually involve diverse actors and a range of indeterminate influences. The results are also unpredictable. Often, interventions are carried out with partner organizations, increasing the difficulty of knowing who influenced the change. As Muriel Asseraf recently noted in this debate, unintended results, whether positive or negative, can certainly occur and have long been a problem. Interventions to increase women’s earning potential in Papua New Guinea, for example, have been linked to increased domestic violence.
