Capacity Gaps

Practitioners suggest that better exchange of knowledge and expertise between different programmes and programme officers is the simple remedy to this problem.  Activities have also been proposed to raise awareness among UNDP staff regarding the human rights aspects of their work, and as means of building common interest in human rights elements to programming.  Generally, country offices have stressed the importance of having inter-disciplinary project teams, with team members from a variety of backgrounds to enhance the quality of programming.  Some country offices warn, moreover, that a project team composed solely of human rights experts is hazardous, as it can produce unworkable tools, and become isolated from other UNDP programmes and activities.

Some country offices suggest that timing is essential to any capacity development exercises that will help link human rights and the MDGs, and suggest that holding human rights capacity building workshops just before important planning activities, such as preparation of CCA/UNDAF, will reinforce these capacities over the long term.  Similarly, one country office created a Task Force on Human Rights-Based Approach to train UNDP staff in preparation for drafting of the annual work plan and budgeting. 

Partner Technical Capacities

Some country offices note that, like UNDP practitioners, government counterparts, especially at the local or provisional level, are also often not very familiar with human rights principals and approaches to development.  This can make it easy to gather initial government support for human rights in programming, but this can be problematic at the implementation stage, as more demanding aspects and subtleties of human rights programming become apparent.  Country offices recommend identifying such capacity gaps early in situation analysis (tool).  This also makes capacity building exercises more effective throughout the programming cycle.  

Country offices have noted that the limits of institutional and resource capacities also present a significant challenge to programming.  This is especially true at the local or provincial level, where technical, financial and human resources all tend to be quite limited.  When local governments lack institutionalized mechanisms such as regular coordination meetings, monitoring and clear reporting procedures, this can significantly inhibit the participatory mechanisms and accountability measures that are inherent both to human rights based approaches and standard development good practice.  Sometimes capacity gaps may be informational, and country offices have reported instances in which municipal governments did not in fact know very much about the situations of local groups, presenting a serious obstacle to planning.  Country offices suggested that these challenges may be met at least in part by coordinating programme activities with actors from the national level (be they government actors, CSOs or national human rights institutions) and local representatives.  The careful selection of partners with national contacts can improve efficiency and access to resources, while local partners also provide essential quality control.

Beneficiary Capacities

Some practitioners have described difficulties arising from the limited capacities of local populations.  In order to reach largely illiterate populations, awareness raising programmes have utilized alternative media such as concerts, iconic photographs adapted to local cultures, and word of mouth mechanisms organized through community groups such as churches and school clubs.