Lessons Learned From Rights-Based Approaches in ... - HRBA Portal

aid flows - that many donors are now veering away from aid delivery in pure service
delivery initiatives and harnessing such aid delivery towards initiatives that are highly
participatory, often involves the poorest of the poor and that aims at building
capacities of such groups to produce outcomes that are often more sustainable and
viable.
Challenges in Implementing Rights-Based Programming Strategies: Lessons
Learned
� Using confrontational means can invite resistance: The landless groups often
use advocacy methods rooted in confrontational means like blockades, gheraos and
protests to raise awareness on their plight and to highlight service failures on the part
of the duty-bearers. While such means have highlighted their cause, they have also
met with resistance and obstruction from duty-bearers and other groups (like the
powerful shrimp-farm owners). Many groups have met with violence for indulging in
such forms of advocacy and protests.
� Using the legal system still not widely undertaken: Under a rights-based
approach to realizing rights, the legal system is used to a large extent to access justice,
especially for the poor, vulnerable and marginalized groups. Nijera Kori appears to be
somewhat constrained when it comes to using the legal system on behalf of such
groups. 20 Part of the reason of limited use of the courts to access justice lies in the
inaccessible nature of the Bangladesh legal system itself. Additionally, part of the
problem lies in the fact that the network of socially oriented lawyers faces constraints
in reaching out to the remote rural areas of Bangladesh. Finally, such an approach
would detract from the organization’s approach of not undertaking any servicedelivery
initiatives. Revamping the legal system and making it people-friendly is
imperative, especially since the poor in Bangladesh face insurmountable odds in
accessing and using the legal system to demand and claim rights.
� Focusing on social mobilization without any attendant service delivery
mechanisms poses a challenge: While it is true that the focus on social mobilization
and on collective capabilities have resulted in many visible gains for the poor and
vulnerable groups, the low priority accorded to service delivery aspects of the
organization’s strategy - especially in less-developed countries like Bangladesh - can
have an impact on sustaining members’ interests. This can pose a challenge to
sustaining the struggles on a long-term basis. To guard against such a risk, quite a few
strategies that focus on rights-based approaches 21 and that are used by NGOs do have
service-delivery components to them.
The fact that Nijera Kori hardly has any service delivery components in its strategy,
while at the same time, encourages poor and vulnerable groups to break with past
20 This is not to understate the fact that Nijera Kori does not use the legal system; its groups are
currently involved in filing 733 cases and in 2005, 75 new cases were filed by the groups. The groups
themselves are financially supporting 499 cases and Nijera Kori are helping support 234 more. Nijera
Kori and the groups have also initiated four writ petitions in the courts.
21 Please refer to the case study of Sankaalp in the India Education Case Study in this volume of case
studies. Other Indian NGOs like the MV Foundation or Pratham in India, while also applying rightsbased
approach to delivering education for poor and vulnerable groups of children, do have servicedelivery
aspects in their strategy like the setting up of non-formal schools.
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