Rights based approaches to poverty reduction and development reality versus rhetoric

Abstract

Over the past two decades erudite understanding of poverty has generated an overlapping consensus on what poverty entails. It is now almost universally accepted that poverty is multi-dimensional, and is a human rights violation that arises mainly from structural inequalities. The search for a holy grail of its reduction has seen widespread deployment of Rights-based newlineapproaches (RBAs), fronted by NGOs, since the turn of the century. In spite of this, coupled with a marked increase in development resources, poverty is proving to be robustly sustainable. The study determined the appropriateness and effectiveness of RBAs newlineas a guiding framework for sustainable poverty reduction and development. This entailed an assessment of the practical impact of RBAs and implementation of RBA strategies as well as identification of key variables necessary for successful rights-based development. As a descriptive survey, the study was underpinned by the pragmatism research philosophy, and employed a mixed methods approach with a concurrent embedded strategy that was largely qualitative but embedding a quantitative strand. Data were collected through interviews, observations and focus group discussions. In all 98 newlineparticipants from 25 villages and 9 organisations were directly studied newline(excluding observations) and were selected using probability and nonprobability sampling methods. Data were analysed using the thematic approach and SPSS. The results of the study highlighted that poverty which had increased during the period covered by the study, is still largely defined from the basic needs and income perspectives, and attributed to individual deficiencies. newlineUnderstanding of RBAs is weak and orientation on RBAs to staff and partners was inadequate.