knowledge and learning for human rights and development ... · knowledge and learning for human...

January–December2015ProgressReport

Knowledge and Learning for Human Rights and Development

Pub

lic D

iscl

osur

e A

utho

rized

Pub

lic D

iscl

osur

e A

utho

rized

Pub

lic D

iscl

osur

e A

utho

rized

Pub

lic D

iscl

osur

e A

utho

rized

2 Nordic TrusT FuNd Progress rePorT | 2015

iiiNordic TrusT FuNd Progress rePorT | 2015

January–December2015ProgressReport

Knowledge and Learning for Human Rights and Development

The Nordic Trust Fund (NTF) is a knowledge and learning initiative with the objective of helping the World Bank develop a more informed view on human rights. It is designed to improve existing Bank involvement on human rights in the overall context of the Bank’s core mission of promoting economic growth and poverty reduction. This report provides a summary of progress made under the NTF program during 2015, building on earlier activities and results achieved during the five previous reporting periods. It shows how the supported grants and knowledge and partnership program continued to pursue the stated program objective by building and consolidating the NTF program as a platform for human rights related debates and discussions among World Bank staff, management and partners. This report and the five previous ones are available at http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/nordic-trust-fund.

http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/nordic-trust-fund


v

CONTENTs

Abbreviations & Acronyms vi1. Summary of Progress 12. Introduction 33. Activities, Results and Outcome Indicators 4

3.1 AcTiViTies 43.2 resuLTs 83.3 ouTcoMe iNdicATors 10

4. Events, Research and Grants 124.1 KNoWLedge ANd PArTNersHiP eVeNTs 124.2 APPLied reseArcH 164.3 NTF grANT ProgrAM eXAMPLes 17

5. Financial Summary 196. Looking Ahead 21

ANNEXESAnnex A Nordic Trust Fund Knowledge and Learning Activities in 2015 23Annex B NTF Program Grants Approved in 2015 29

vi Nordic TrusT FuNd Progress rePorT | 2015

Abbreviations & Acronyms

HRBA Human Rights Based Approach

HOI Human Opportunity Index

HR Human Rights

HRDD Human Rights Due Diligence

ICT Information and Communications Technology

K&P Knowledge and Partnership

KPI Knowledge Product Index

MDBs Multi-Lateral Development Banks

NTF Nordic Trust Fund

OHCHR Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

OPCS Operations Policy and Country Services Vice Presidency

PS Performance Standards (IFC)

SF Sustainability Framework

SOGI Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

UN United Nations

UPR Universal Periodic Review

WBG World Bank Group

WBL Women, Business and the Law

WBCKL World Bank Change, Knowledge and Learning

WDR World Development Report

WPA Work Program Agreement

WTO World Trade Organization

1suMMAry oF Progress

Summary of Progress1This report describes progress made under the Nordic Trust Fund (NTF) program in 2015 and also provides a summary of achievements in the previous years since activities started in late 2009. Program activities in 2015 continued to provide a vibrant venue for human rights related debates, discussions and learning among World Bank staff, management and partners. Through the two established program components—an internal grant system and a knowledge and partnership program—work focused on pursuing the NTF’s objective to develop a more informed view of how human rights relate to the work of the World Bank. This report and the five previous annual progress reports are available at http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/nordic-trust-fund.

Following the completion of Phase 1 of NTF in 2014, work in 2015 focused on the establishment and start of Phase 2. This included, first, preparatory efforts such as the finalization of financial arrangements and agreements for technical support (human rights expertise) for the NTF Secretariat with the donors as well as the putting in place of a new NTF Steering Committee to make decisions on overall directions and on which grant proposals to support. Second, implementation started with the preparation and delivery of a number of NTF Secretariat managed knowledge and partnership events and the mid-year launch of a new round of 31 NTF grants for Bank teams seeking to explore the role of human rights in their respective activities.

A total of 22 learning events and 5 studies or reports were supported, delivered or substantively completed during 2015, either by the 31 teams who started implementing NTF grants or by the NTF Secretariat under its Knowledge and Partnership (K&P) program. Grants and activities had a wide reach into most of the operational and analytical units in the World Bank Group.

It is estimated that about 60 percent of the current grants and activities focused on human rights methodology and principles in Bank-supported programs (with government approval when activities took place in-country). One quarter involved the development of human rights related analytical tools and practices designed to inform work in client countries. The final quarter of work carried out formed part of larger analytical or operational programs and supported the exploration of human rights in the respective tasks. Two activities supported policies and procedures in the Bank: the grant for the International Finance Corporation to implement its new performance standards and the grant for the Bank’s team coordinating the review of the safeguard policies.

A total of 22 learning events and 5 studies

or reports were supported, delivered or substantively completed

during 2015.




The NTF continued to reach large internal and external audiences. Past and current grant receiving teams make up a core group of about 350 professional level Bank staff that have worked extensively with human rights aspects of their programs. Earlier estimates show that about half of Washington based staff and a quarter of country offices are familiar with NTF. In 2013 about 1,700 staff had attended a NTF event, and that number is estimated to have grown to about 2,500 by end 2015. NTF also reached large Bank and outside audiences through its support of larger Bank programs such as the 2017 World Development Report on Governance and the Law, and through the continued dissemination of previously supported major reports.

Following agreement in 2014 by the five Nordic donors to support a second (2015–2018) phase of the program, and with Germany joining as a new donor, total funds received grew to US$28.8 million by end 2015 with an additional US$6 million promised by donors. This brings the total amount of funds to US$34.8 million of which US$17.7 million had been spent by end 2015. Of this total amount, 83 percent has been or will be spent

on the NTF grant program, 15 percent on the NTF Secretariat managed K&P program, and 2 percent on administrative fees.

Work during 2016 will focus on supporting the continued implementation of the 31 grants that were approved in 2015, the launch of a new round of grants in mid-2016, and the continued delivery of a comprehensive K&P program by the NTF Secretariat. Work with the 31 current grants will focus on ensuring that the teams implement high quality activities with relevant human rights content and with most of them holding at least one learning event during the year. An additional grant round for 20–25 grants was launched in May 2016 and will included human rights training sessions as prerequisites for applying and for the selected teams. The NTF Secretariat will continue to complement and support the grant program with select events and studies, possibly focusing on synergies among the grant teams, fragile states, the role of the Global South in shaping human rights standards and policies, and the role of human rights in promoting tolerance and combatting extremism and radicalization.

3iNTroducTioN

Introduction2NTF supports a knowledge and learning program to develop a more informed view of how human rights relate to the Bank’s work. This is done in the context of the Bank’s twin goals to end poverty and boost shared prosperity with due regard for the World Bank’s Articles of Agreement (available at www.worldbank.org).

The program draws on recent thinking in both the human rights and development communities. Human rights thinkers have sought to complement the legal architecture with “how-to” and good practice oriented tools and methodologies, including the now well-established principle of progressive realization of economic, social and cultural rights, acknowledging that it can take time for countries to meet agreed-on obligations. Similarly, development agencies, both with and without explicit human rights mandates or policies, have seen the gradual adoption of human rights inspired ideas into good development practice. For example, the World Bank has put in place social and environmental safeguards and other mechanisms to prevent supported programs from causing harm, and many supported operations contribute to the realization of rights through, for example, improved governance and better provision of services. Nevertheless, knowledge remains limited about how a systematic consideration of human rights could influence development outcomes. There is little evidence-based material available on the value added of including human rights in development programs, and agencies continue to explore how to best prevent and respond to alleged and documented violations of human rights.

A World Bank staff survey in 2009 identified institution specific knowledge gaps about how human rights laws, definitions, standards, principles and institutions relate to the Bank’s work, and provided a framework for the design of NTF-supported activities. Activities largely draw on core human rights instruments adopted by the United Nations (UN) and regional entities, widely accepted human rights principles (e.g., nondiscrimination, accountability, participation and transparency) and good practices employed when working with human rights in development programs.

The previous five NTF progress reports provide a summary of program achievements and content from the start in September 2009 until December 2014. They describe the establishment and implementation of the two main program components: (i) the NTF human rights grant program under which task teams across the World Bank Group (WBG) obtain financial and technical support to explore the role of human rights in their particular tasks, and (ii) training, studies partnerships and capacity building activities delivered through a NTF Secretariat managed Knowledge and Partnership (K&P) program. The reports also describe the NTF management and governance structure, including a senior management steering committee that provides overall direction and guidance and takes decisions on the allocation of funding across Bank units, sectors and themes. The NTF Secretariat is responsible for running the program and oversees the financial and technical support provided.

www.worldbank.org


Activities, Results and Outcome Indicators

3

3.1 AcTiViTies

In 2015

After the successful completion of Phase 1 of the NTF in 2014, work during 2015 aimed at launching the second program phase as agreed between Bank management and donors and based on the same two work streams: (i) the NTF Grant Program comprising studies, learning events and other activities carried out by Bank task teams, and (ii) workshops, studies and other work by the NTF Secretariat under the K&P Program.

NTF Grant Program: A Bank-wide call for proposals for NTF financial support was issued in April and more than 80 proposals were received and assessed. Employing the agreed upon selection criteria (i.e. clear human rights link, activities of interest to large audiences within the Bank) the NTF selection committee approved 31 proposals for funding of up to $250,000 each, amounting to US$7.2 million in total. The 31 winning teams then completed the arrangements for the transfer of the funds, held concept note reviews with their respective management, finalized the two-year plans for implementation, presented their plans at the NTF Annual Workshop in November, and started activities. Although implementation was still in the early stages by end 2015, some teams completed deliveries before year end; a total of 22 workshops or knowledge events and five written outputs were completed. Annex B provides a comprehensive summary of the 31 grant proposals, their work to date, and plans for 2016. Table 1 shows the geographic and thematic allocation of the 31 selected grants: the left column indicates that 60 percent of funds support regional/country focused proposals and the remaining 40 percent are for global (not regional specific) work, while the right column shows the thematic distribution and illustrates the dominance of governance, social/urban/rural, and social protection topics.

5AcTiViTies, resuLTs ANd ouTcoMe iNdicATors

NTF: Allocation of US$7.2 million for 31 grants approved in 2015 and to be implemented between 2015 and 2017. (US$ million) across (a) regional/global focus and (b) units/thematic focus

(a) Regional/global focus (b) Units/thematic focus

Africa 1.4 Development economics, WDR 0.25

East Asia 0.6 IFC 0.25

Europe, Central Asia 0.8 Education 0.25

Latin America, Caribbean 0.8 Environment/land 0.25

Middle East, North Africa 0.5 Governance 1.75

South Asia 0.3 Health 0.75

Global 2.8 Poverty 0.35

Social protection 0.75

Social, urban, rural 1.75

Transport 0.09

Water 0.13

Legal and operational policy 0.63

TOTAL 7.2 7.2

NTF K&P Program: The NTF Secretariat delivered 12 workshops or other learning events in 2015, and also organized or attended many other meetings and seminars. The major ones included: (i) the NTF Annual Workshop where the 31 selected grant teams made presentations and had their work and plans critiqued by invited human rights experts from the UN, donors and academia, and (ii) three seminars during the Bank’s Law, Justice and Development week on how to integrate human rights approaches in development work, on research by the Bank-supported Human Rights Community of Practice, and on how international financial institutions work with human rights. Secretariat staff participated in human rights related conferences, met partner institutions and supervised NTF grants implemented in-country. The NTF Secretariat also provided support to human rights related work inside the Bank including in the context of the ongoing review of the World Bank’s safeguards, a Justice Reform project in Kenya and IFC’s implementation of its revised performance standards. Annex A provides a detailed list of select events and tasks during 2015.

Throughout 2015 the NTF Secretariat was hosted by the Inclusive Institutions Department in the Governance Global Practice. At the beginning of the year the Secretariat included the Program Coordinator and one consultant/assistant. In August the team was joined by a Senior Program Officer/Human Rights Expert (funded by Finland) and in October by a Consultant/Senior Human Rights Expert from academia. The expansion of the team made it possible to provide proactive advice to the grant teams and also intensify deliveries of the Secretariat’s K&P program.

Table 1. Allocation of Grant Funds


Since start

Adding the 2015 activities to those carried out during the previous years (since program start in 2009) shows that NTF by end 2015 had delivered over 240 workshops, seminars or similar learning events and about 180 written outputs (including both self-standing pieces and human rights related chapters/discussions in larger studies). Eighty-six grants have been approved.

NTF: Activity outputs since program start; number of events and written outputs

Phase 1 Workshops, seminars Written outputs

2010 (28 grants approved) 18 3

2011 40 50


2013 34 37

2014 55 40

Phase 2


Total (86 grants approved) 244 180

Table 2. Activity Outputs

A total of US$17.7 million had been spent on activities (since program start) by end 2015. Table 3 showing the allocation of funds spent indicates activities have had a broad and comprehensive outreach to the parts of the Bank doing operational and analytical work. The top of the table shows that the vast majority of funds (US$14.6 million, or 83 percent of the total) was spent on activities in the Grant Program. US$2.4 million, or 15 percent, supported activities in the K&P program. The remaining US$0.5 million, or 2 percent, paid for administrative fees.

The lower part of the table proves a more detailed breakdown of how funds spent under the Grant Program were allocated across the World Bank Group before (left column) and after (right column) the July 2014 reorganization of the World Bank.

First, the lower left of the table shows funds spent under the organizational set-up that was discontinued on July 1, 2014. Here, NTF grants were managed in all six geographical regions, the anchor units for the four main thematic networks as well as the World Bank’s research arm (Development Economics), the Legal Department and the World Bank Institute.

Second, the lower right part of the table shows that grants were held in 11 different thematic units after July 2014, reflecting the fact that most staff (and all grant receiving teams) were assigned to such units. Most activities and spending were by the Governance Global Practice, followed by the Urban, Rural and Social Development Global Practice. Human rights in the provision of health, social protection/labor and in research and the World Development Reports (WDR) (Development Economics) also figured prominently.


NTF: Allocation of disbursed funds, US$17.7 million, as of end of 2015 (US$ million)

A: NTF grant program 14.6

B: NTF secretariat—Knowledge & partnership program, fund management 2.5

C: Administrative fees 0.6

D: Total 17.7

NTF: Detailed allocation of the US$14.6 million disbursed grant program funds across (a) units/themes and (b) regional/global focus

Before July 2015 organization After July 2015 organization

Regions, of which 2.8 Development economics, WDR 1.4

Africa 1.7 Fragility, conflict and violence 0.8

East Asia 0.2 Gender 0.8

Europe Central Asia 0.5 Energy and extractives 0.5

Latin America Caribbean 2.0 Agriculture 0.2

Middle East North Africa 1.5 Finance and markets, IFC 0.9

South Asia 0.7 Governance 3.0

Network Anchor Units, of which 5.0 Health and nutrition 1.8

Poverty, economic management 1.3 Poverty 0.6

Human development 0.3 Social protection and labor 1.4

Financial, private sector, IFC 1.1 Urban, rural and social development 2.8

Sustainable development 2.3

Other, of which 2.6

Development economics, WDR 1.2

Legal department 1.0

World Bank Institute 0.4

Table 3. Allocation of Disbursed Funds


3.2 resuLTs

Results can be summarized in four categories. First, the NTF has established itself as a vibrant forum for interested Bank staff, the NTF donors and other bilateral agencies, the UN, EU and other multilateral and regional agencies, academia and civil society to debate human rights aspects of development and the Bank’s work. A quantitative measurement of this is the large number of development partners taking part in activities, as well as the number of events and written outputs since the start (over 240 events and 180 written outputs). Second, results from activities under the 86 grants span a broad variety of achievements (see “Consideration of Human Rights to Inform Bank Work” below and Annexes B). Third, there has been continued awareness raising and learning among Bank staff on the relation of human rights to the Bank’s work. Finally, the NTF has had a broad influence on Bank policies and programs such as the human rights content in IFC’s Performance Standards, flagship reports such as the WDR, and the consultation process for the Bank’s safeguards. Also, the NTF has pioneered topics that have continued after NTF support ended. Following the NTF LGBT grant in 2012, the Bank established a senior level task force and there are now several initiatives under way and recurring events on LGBT issues. Similarly, activities around gender based violence and the role of politics in development are expanding.

Consideration of Human Rights to Inform Bank Work

The 31 NTF grant funded teams selected in 2015 completed the planning and application process and started work to explore how human rights methodology and principles related to their respective tasks and programs—including in client countries when there was expressed interest from the respective governments. Work was still in an early stage by end 2015 but will pick up during 2016 before the scheduled closure in mid-2017. Some of the teams focused on analytical work and the development of human rights related practices and tools to inform Bank supported work. Others worked to add a human rights discussion or component to a larger program.

Following the NTF LGBT grant in 2012, the Bank established

a senior level task force and there are

now several initiatives under way and

recurring events on LGBT issues.


Awareness and Learning among Bank Staff

The teams implementing the 31 NTF grants approved in 2015 make up a core group of about 125 Bank staff that benefitted from on-the-job learning as they explored how human rights relate to their respective task and work programs. Together with the team members that received the previous 65 grants, they make up a group of between 300 and 350 Bank staff that has received extensive applied training on human rights. It is estimated about 2,500 staff had attended some form of NTF event by end 2015. This estimate is based on the mid-2013 staff survey which showed that about 12 percent of Bank staff or about 1,700 staff, had attended a NTF event at that time.

NTF continued to reach larger Bank and external audiences through its grant support of human rights aspects in larger Bank programs. The IFC continued capacity building among staff and clients on its recently modified Performance Standards and related human rights aspects. Dissemination efforts continued for several NTF sponsored reports published in earlier years, including the WDR on Jobs and its analytical work and discussion on how rights are related to labor issues, the Bank major report on social inclusion (Inclusion Matters: The Foundation for Shared Prosperity) and the report Women, Business and the Law as well as the “Voice and Agency” gender report.

NTF: Early results and planned work for the 31 active NTF grants approved in 2015 (details in Annex B)

Exploring links between human rights and work in Bank country programs

• Increase of Roma participation in preschool education in South East-ern Europe.

• LGBT exclusion data and cost of discrimination in Serbia. Vietnam citizen rights.

• Exploitation of migrants on Mexico’s southern border.

• Participation and accountability in service delivery in Uganda.

• Right to information in South Asia.

• Access to justice among vulnerable groups in sub Saharan Africa.

• Land tenure models in Cameroon.

• Workers’ rights in China.

• Working on indigenous people is-sues in Latin America.

• Disabled people’s access to trans-port in Bhutan.

• Work of Mobile Victims Unit in post-conflict Colombia.

• Gaps between laws and practice in treatment of women and children in the Middle East.

• Social protection of the elderly in Moldova and of the disabled in Egypt.

Development of human rights related practices and tools

• The role of human rights in the work of citizen service centers.

• What works in promoting girls’ and women’s rights.

• Human rights and citizen engage-ment programs.

• Human rights and gender aspects in health development work.

• Human rights in reproductive and maternal health programs.

• Cost of discrimination of sexual minorities.

• Human rights tools and approaches in Europe and Central Asia.

• Collaboration with OHCHR on indig-enous peoples’ programs.

Support to integrate human rights components into larger Bank programs/tasks

• Development of rights related ele-ments in the implementation of IFC’s Sustainability Framework at policy and project level.

• Human rights aspects in the 2017 World Development Report on Gov-ernance and the Law.

• Role of human rights in sector strat-egies for water, social protection and health.

Table 4. Early Results and Planned Work for Fourth Round NTF Grants


3.3 ouTcoMe iNdicATors

Indicator Comments

Dissemination of Annual Progress reports to donors, Bank staff and external audiences to raise awareness of activities undertaken, knowledge gained and results achieved.

The previous (2014) Annual Progress Report was prepared and disseminated, including at the NTF external and internal websites. (http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/nordic-trust-fund)

Number of training and capacity building activities delivered with satisfactory participant ratings.

About five studies or reports and 22 workshops were delivered or substantially completed during 2015. This is in addition to studies and workshops delivered during the previous five reporting periods bringing the total to 180 studies and 244 workshops.

Timely completion of programming and achievement of knowledge product indexes according to work program agreements for individual activities.

The first round of 28 grants was completed and closed in 2012. The second round of 27 grants was completed and closed in 2014. A new and current grant round supporting 31 grants started in 2015.

Frequent traffic on website. Both the internal and external NTF websites were maintained and updated with new publications and learning materials. Traffic on the internal site averaged around 54 visits per month in 2015, with January hosting the highest count with 76 visits. In comparison, the external site received less visits with an average of 43 visits per month, with April showing the highest number of visits at 72 visits that month. The average number of unique visitors on the external site was 41.

Increase of human rights awareness among Bank staff based on ex-ante and ex-post survey results.

The 2009 base survey and 2013 follow-up survey provide data on staff attitudes and knowledge about human rights, the extent to which they work with human rights, and (for 2013) whether staff knows about NTF and have participated in its activities. A further survey with the same questions would be carried out in 2017/2018.

Operational thematic and sector work—Assessment of consideration of human rights in the thematic/sector work of operational teams; outcomes of NTF grants intended for teams to consider human rights in country related work.

See table above and Annex B for the current grants.

Table 5. Outcome Indicators Agreed upon by Bank and NTF Donors


Indicator Comments

Bank policy and procedures—how human rights helped inform the final outcome of adopted processes or procedures.

Two sets of activities continued during 2015: (i) IFC received a new grant and continued its NTF-supported work to assist staff and clients addressing human rights related risk in the context of IFC’s recently reformed performance standards (See Annex B) and (ii) the NTF Secretariat supported the Bank’s Safeguards Team and a grant was awarded to enable human rights consultations and considerations.

Analytical thematic and sector work—how human rights helped inform the final study or learning product, the associated description and, where possible, impact.

See Table 4 and Annexes B for current and previous grants.


Events, Research and Grants

4

4.1 KNoWLedge ANd PArTNersHiP eVeNTs

NTF 2015 Annual Workshop

On November 16–18, 2015, the NTF Secretariat organized its Annual Workshop at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington, DC. The Workshop was attended by 90 participants in total, and brought together the 31 current NTF grant teams, NTF donors, external human rights experts, NTF Secretariat staff, and a large number of Bank colleagues interested in NTF’s work and human rights. Human rights experts from the UN, the Organization of American States, the Danish Institute for Human Rights and donor governments attended the Workshop.

The main objective of the Workshop was to provide an opportunity for the NTF grant teams to present, discuss and get feedback on their implementation plans, and through these exchanges, contribute to internal learning on human rights. The opening plenary session included interventions by the Executive Directors for the Nordic and Baltic constituency, and Germany, respectively, on the importance of the NTF’s human rights work and of continuing the debate on how human rights relate to the Bank’s operations.

In line with the objective of the Workshop, much of the event was dedicated to presentations by the NTF grant teams on their plans as they embarked on the implementation phase of the work. Group sessions were organized thematically, thereby enabling teams who work on similar themes—health, education, social protection, citizen engagement, accountability, disability, indigenous peoples, and so on—to learn from and provide feedback to each other, and identify synergies in their work. Invited human rights experts attended the grant presentations to provide feedback on the plans and concrete suggestions on how to strengthen the human rights element in the grant work.

Four thematic panel discussions were held. The panel on the first day was on donor approaches and experiences in integrating human rights into development, organized in the context of the World Bank’s annual Law,

The NTF Annual Workshop provided opportunity for rich

discussion and learning on important human rights considerations and their links to the

Bank’s work.

13eVeNTs, reseArcH ANd grANTs

Three human rights panel discussions during the World Bank’s Law, Justice and Development Week

Justice and Development week (see below). The subsequent panels—organized as lunch-time seminars—focused on the Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) to development, on the use of indicators and human rights measurement, and on the work of the UN Office of the High-Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on indigenous peoples and human rights. At the closing plenary session, invited human rights experts reflected on the discussions with the grant teams and provided valuable take-home points on human rights in development programs. Together, the plenary sessions and the panel discussions provided a number of opportunities for rich discussions and learning on important human rights considerations and their links to the Bank’s work.

A survey collected feedback on the Workshop and confirmed that participants found the event to be relevant for their work and overall of high quality. Respondents appreciated both the smaller group sessions as well as interactions with human rights practitioners, and indicated an interest in shorter training sessions on key themes such as the Human Rights Based Approach.

NTF sponsored three panel discussions on human rights and development during the World Bank’s Law, Justice and Development Week in November 2015. Bank staff and external audiences benefited from more than 90 workshops and presentations during this recurring annual event.

(i) Integrating Human Rights into Development: Donor Approaches, Experiences and Challenges

An audience of some 200 people attended presentations from current and former staff from the UN Development Program (UNDP), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR), World Bank, and University of Leuven (Belgium) on how donor agencies could and should take human rights into account in their work. The OHCHR representative noted that human rights are the responsibility of many different development actors, and that the vision of development and human rights reinforcing each other should be put in place as donor policy. Good practices such as assisting countries in implementing their own human rights obligations are at the heart of the UN’s approach to development, but the approach does not imply that donors need to impose sanctions or to engage in policing. UNDP does not set norms or organize the enforcement of human rights, but does set its standards so as to have global relevance in the promotion of human rights. In 2014 the UNDP established new social and environmental standards which were designed to implement a more comprehensive HRBA within the Program. In this way, UNDP acts as a vehicle for operationalizing norms and as a platform for creating policy assurance frameworks.


The (former) UNICEF representative noted that a rights-based approach is a method that “leads with” human rights and provides a broad framework for development to guide programming in all sectors. Once countries adopt human rights laws obligations, their citizens become claim holders, transforming the government into a duty bearer. Challenges include the development community’s focus on outcome rather than on the process which calls for a paradigm shift within donor organizations. The World Bank staff members noted that the Bank does not have an explicit human rights objective or approach in its activities but cited an example of how principles like constructive engagement by all stakeholders (both rights holders and duty bearers), strategic engagement linking human rights to the existing engagement with the government without creating a separate program, and continuous engagement with all counterparts still can achieve good results.

The University of Leuven representative noted that the European Commission’s approach to human rights has come through three main experiences: the integration of human rights as part of the European Union’s policy on aid, the support for a bottom-up approach, and more recently the horizontal integration of human rights into development planning. Issues include measurement challenges (indicators, lack of coordination with other development actors), problems associated with political contexts or the lack of consensus in the development community.

(ii) Community of Practice on Human Rights—recent research and developments

An audience of about 100 attended a two-hour session where researchers and staff from the Universities in Copenhagen and Leuven, the Danish Institute for Human Rights and the Government of Belgium presented and discussed the findings and recent developments related to four human rights topics.

Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) Policies of European Donors

A comparative analysis of select European donors found that the main human rights focus is on activities in the ‘soft sectors’ (social matters, gender and child issues) and less on ‘hard sectors’ (infrastructure, energy and agriculture). Within the former area, children’s rights, women’s rights and rights of persons with disabilities are prioritized. Donors do see a link between HRBA and democracy, have different strategies and no common way of measuring impact, and give a lot of direct support for Rule of Law policies.

Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) and Global Public Goods (GPGs)

A recent study compared the HRBA and GPG approaches and found that they stand for different ways of rethinking the process of development cooperation, are not incompatible, and that donors should feel safe in using them in complementary ways as long as their normative frameworks are understood separately and not overstretched. They differ in three ways. First, while HRBAs constitute a solid normative basis for values and policy choices grounded in international human rights treaties, GPG is based on social constructs. Second, the rationale of the HRBA is normative and rights-based, while the GPGs finds its raison d’être in market failures and is more instrumentalist and utilitarian-driven. Third, while the HRBA is demand-driven and aims at empowering people, the GPGs are more focused on top-down international coordination.


The operationalisation of HRS in development

A recent study examined arguments for why states must uphold their human rights obligations when they become members of international organisations. As representatives on the boards they represent their states as well as the organisation they work in. Member states therefore exercise a power in the organisation’s decisions, and their influential capacity allows for their behaviour to be judged for international law purposes, as development banks’ decisions impact people’s lives. Therefore, member states must make sure that the decisions they influence within the organisation do not undermine their own international human rights obligations. They must thus engage in due diligence processes in their assessment of projects prior to making such decisions. The failure to exercise due diligence is therefore attributable to the States and may engage their responsibility vis-à-vis individual rights holders.

Experiences from Belgian Development Cooperation

Belgian Development Cooperation (BDC) promotes human rights using three approaches. The first tackles human rights with incentive tranches. The second approach creates specific human rights projects such as partnerships with more traditional development interventions like health. The third addresses specific sectors dealing with civil and/or political rights, mostly the justice sector. Challenges include the need to understand the political character of this approach and the endogenous nature of system change dynamics, which cannot only be induced from direct external action. Sound analysis of risks and opportunities of projects needs to be conducted, and there needs to be cooperation between the different actors and stakeholders throughout a gradual approach and long-term donor involvement.

(iii) International Financial Institutions and Human Rights Legal and Institutional Considerations

Representatives from the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Bank for International Settlements discussed human rights legal and institutional considerations in front of about 150 people including World Bank staff and a number of external guests. The emphasis of the discussion was on the different approaches adopted by the respective organizations.

(iv) Operational support for the Kenya Judicial Performance Improvement project

The NTF Secretariat has supported the Bank team working on the Bank-supported Kenya Judicial Performance Improvement Project. In addition to facilitating contacts with key human rights parties in Kenya including the courts system and the Judiciary Training Institute (JTI), support has focused on two initiatives. The first is the public participation process for the selection of the next chief justice, including aspects of transparency for candidates. The second is support to a request from the Judiciary on a study of high court rulings to establish patterns in judicial outcomes, benefiting from the existing online publication of judicial decisions.


4.2 APPLied reseArcH

Human Rights Due Diligence Report

The NTF supported the completion of a report by Shift (a center of expertise on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights) summarizing earlier research, interviews and the outcome of an expert workshop about the emerging practice of human rights due diligence (HRDD), the set of ongoing processes for identifying, preventing, mitigating and accounting for how an organization, public or private, addresses the impacts that it may have on people. The report provides examples and case studies of relevant standards, policies and emerging good practices for HRDD by different actors: multilateral institutions, states, public and private financial institutions, and business enterprises. Examples of the contributions of civil society organizations to HRDD are integrated throughout. The material demonstrates the breadth of recent HRDD efforts across the public and private sectors, and identifies some of the trends, challenges and opportunities for different actors. It also illustrates the overall momentum that is gathering around the framework of HRDD.

Themes where further work is needed include clarifying the multiple purposes of HRDD (i.e. addressing impacts, risk mitigation, organizational learning, capacity building and empowerment), the use of HRDD for understanding both negative and positive impacts on human rights, the need to understand HRDD as more than just impact assessment, the relative merits of both stand-alone and integrated approaches to HRDD, the importance of meaningful stakeholder engagement and participation for effective HRDD, the need to “translate” human rights in some cases to ensure the successful uptake of HRDD, the particular expertise required to undertake HRDD, how transparency and early initiation can heighten the effectiveness of HRDD and the opportunities for and growing interest in multi-stakeholder approaches to HRDD.

The report argues that HRDD can provide a systematic and rigorous way of integrating human rights standards and principles into development policy and programming on an ongoing basis, rather than as an isolated or tick-box exercise. It can also provide a solid foundation for partnerships and multi-stakeholder efforts related to development, particularly as the private sector takes on a greater role in contributing to sustainable development goals. HRDD can also equip development finance institutions to better meet the expectations of stakeholders and society, by helping to ensure that human beings remain at the heart of development efforts. Finally, HRDD is increasingly understood as good risk management and can help avoid delays, opposition, conflict and challenges related to projects that give rise to negative human rights impacts, in part through meaningful stakeholder engagement.

In collaboration with staff from the SUNY Buffalo Law School at the University of New York, NTF supported the finalization and dissemination of Human Rights Standards: Hegemony, Law and Politics1 (Makau Mutua, 2015). It examines human rights law and activism from the perspective of the Global South and asks how human rights norms are made, who makes them, and why. It traces the history of the human rights project and critically explores how the norms of the human rights movement have been created, analyzes key texts and documents published since the inception of the human rights movement at the end of World War II, and critiques these works from the perspective of the Global South focusing on normative gaps and cultural biases. It argues for further norm development and norm-creating processes to be inclusive and participatory to garner legitimacy across various cleavages and divides.

Human Rights Standards: Hegemony, Law and Politics

1 Makau Mutua. 2016. Human Rights Standards: Hegemony, Law, and Politics. SUNY Press: New York, NY.


4.3 NTF grANT ProgrAM eXAMPLes

Evaluating the impact of the Africa Great Lakes Sexual and Gender Based Violence Project

Getting It Right: Learning How to Translate Human Rights Principles into Social Protection Policy

This grant aims to generate more evidence about effective approaches that can be scaled up and mainstreamed to respond to and prevent sexual and gender based violence (SGBV), especially in fragile and conflict affected states. Activities include several impact evaluations of selected project activities in each of the three countries covered by the Bank-funded Great Lakes Emergency SGBV and Women’s Health Project in Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The lessons learned from the evaluations will contribute to ensuring that services provided through the Great Lakes SGBV Project are adequately targeted and delivered and inform future WBG programming of interventions addressing SGBV and women’s rights.

In the DRC work focuses on the impact evaluation of the project’s mental health interventions. The choice of the mental health intervention is based on its policy relevance in low capacity, post-conflict settings as well as on the level of scientific rigor offered by this study. A collaboration with academic partners that are supporting the implementation of Cognitive Processing Therapy and Narrative Exposure Therapy has been engaged to design and implement the study. In Rwanda tentative plans are to collaborate with other academic partners to evaluate the impact of working with men and boys at the community level to promote behavioral change. This may include adding round(s) of data collection to the study at a later date to measure the longer term impact of these activities. Activities in Burundi are currently at a halt due to unrest in the country.

This grant aims to create operational tools to assist bank staff engaged in social protection and labor in incorporating human rights into their work. These ‘how-to’ notes can be used in the dialogue with client countries and development partners. The notes will provide examples of how to design and implement technically sound interventions, providing evidence-based solutions to address common operational and policy challenges. They will prioritize the review of concrete case studies and country application of certain relevant human rights principles, over the review of broad research literature. The proposed activities also learn from the health sector and its expansion of the universal coverage initiative. The notes will cover six different topics: a) How to incorporate human rights principles into the design and implementation of social protection and labor systems; b) How to improve nondiscrimination in the selection of rights-holders in social protection and labor programs; c) How to collect, manage and transfer data for the social protection and labor systems in compliance with human rights standards; d) How to develop and implement institutional and legal frameworks that promote the progressive expansion of social protection


and labor systems; e) How to strengthen accountability to improve social protection and labor systems; and f) How to generate legal incentives for the private sector to support social protection and labor interventions. Knowledge-sharing activities will be carried out to ensure learning and discuss the application of the ‘how-to’ notes.

Human Rights and the World Bank’s Citizen Engagement Framework

Grant: Building Human Rights in a Peace Consolidation Scenario: Colombia Mobile Victims Unit Impact Evaluation

An NTF grant team is undertaking research to explore the links between the Bank’s Citizen Engagement Framework and human rights. This research is being carried out through the development of case studies in three different country contexts: Afghanistan, Paraguay and Serbia. The research looks at grassroots initiatives in these countries to analyze how citizen-led movements and campaigns have led to improved services and accountability, and better collaboration between governments and citizens. The research will lead to the development of an analytical paper, the findings of which will be disseminated through knowledge and learning events at the country level and at headquarters. The Bank team leading this research co-leads the Community of Practice for Social Accountability and Demand for Good Governance (SA & DFGG CoP) and the team members participate in the Bank’s working group to mainstream citizen engagement in Bank operations. As such, the grant represents a strong opportunity to mainstream human rights knowledge into the implementation of the CE Framework.

In 2011, Colombia passed the Victims and Land Restitution Law to support access to justice for victims experiencing crimes due to armed conflict, such as displacement, threats, and violence. In response to the law, in 2012, the Ministry of Justice and the Defensoria del Pueblo (the ombudsman agency) created the Mobile Victims Unit (MVU) to ensure access to justice for all affected Colombians. Together, these three entities support a mobile van that travels throughout Colombia, reaching even the most remote areas, allowing victims to declare and register for reparations. Recent figures show the MVU has served 51,821 people since its creation.

Now, five years after the institution of the Victims and Land Restitution Law and four years after the creation of the MVU, the World Bank is partnering with the three entities to conduct an impact evaluation of the unit and its services. While the general feedback from communities has been positive, an evaluation will take a deeper look at the effectiveness and impact of the mobile van. The NTF grant will be used to fund data collection to increase the understanding of how displaced persons and other victims try to enforce their rights, the impact of enforcement of their rights, and the effectiveness of different service delivery models in helping displaced persons and other victims exercise their rights. The evaluation, in addition to looking at the impact, will also assess cost effectiveness. The grant team has collaborated with each of the three entities to determine which questions would be most effective in its assessment. The results will not only alert the entities on what aspects and services should be adjusted, but also whether the mobile unit structure is useful for replicating it in other contexts and countries. The impact evaluation, as with the services of the MVU, is on the quality and emphasis on human rights, not just the number of victims served.

19FiNANciAL suMMAry

Financial Summary5Funding Contributions

The original five Nordic donors and Germany had, by December 31, 2015, paid in contributions amounting to US$28.8 million. Donor funds received had generated investment income in the amount of US$0.3 million. In addition, the donors and the Bank have signed agreements for a further US$5.9 million to be paid between 2016 and 2018. Accordingly, total funding for NTF, including paid in, investment income and future promised funds, amounted to US$34.8 million at the end of 2015.

Allocation and Use of Funds

All funds had been allocated by end 2015, mainly for the NTF grant program (US$28.9 million, 83 percent of total), for NTF Secretariat activities (US$5.2 million, 15 percent of total), and for administration fees (US$0.7 million, 2 percent of total). US$17.7 million (51 percent of total funds) had been disbursed by end 2015. The balance of US$17.1 million will be used during the next three years, 2016–2018, for future grants, NTF Secretariat activities and administration fees as illustrated in Table 7.

NTF: Activity outputs since program start; number of events and written outputs

Source of funds Paid in as of Dec 31, 2015

Future (unpaid but promised) funds Total

Denmark 4.6 — 4.6

Finland 4.5 1.9 6.4

Iceland 0.25 0.05 0.3

Germany 1.4 0.5 1.9

Norway 9.5 1.1 10.6

Sweden 8.3 2.3 10.6

Total donor contribution 28.5 5.9 34.4

Investment income 0.3 0.1 0.4

Total funds 28.8 6.0 34.8

Table 6. NTF Funds as of December 31, 2015 (US$, millions)


Table 7. Allocation and Use of Funds as of December 31, 2015 (US$, millions)

Category Allocated Disbursed Committed (contracts signed)

Grants Program 28.9 14.6 0.8

- Economic, social and cultural rights 4.9 3.1 0.1

- Governance and empowerment 3.7 2.3 0.1

- Discrimination and vulnerable groups 9.3 6.1 0.5

- Capacity and institutions 3.5 3.1 0.1

- Future grants 7.5 — —

Secretariat activities 5.2 2.5 0.1

Administration fee 0.7 0.6 0.1

Total 34.8 17.7 1.0

21LooKiNg AHeAd

Looking Ahead6

Work during 2016 will focus on (i) supporting the continued implementation of the 31 grants approved in 2015 and launching the new round of grants, and (ii) the continued delivery of a comprehensive K&P program by the now fully staffed NTF Secretariat.

NTF grant program: Work with the 31 current grants will focus on ensuring that the teams implement high quality activities with relevant human rights content and with most of them holding at least one learning event during 2016 and also attend the 2016 NTF Annual Workshop. Available funding also permitted the launch of an additional grant round for 20–25 grants in mid-2016. The NTF Secretariat is working with interested teams to foster strong applications. This is complemented by a human rights training session as a prerequisite for applying for a grant, and future training sessions for successful applicants.

NTF K&P program: The NTF Secretariat will continue to complement and support the grant program with select events and studies. This is mainly demand driven so as to focus on select and emerging issues and also to explore synergies among the grant teams to promote cross-fertilization in their work. Possible areas of focus include human rights in fragile states, the role of the Global South in shaping human rights standards and policies, and the role of human rights in promoting tolerance and combatting extremism and radicalization.

The new grant round follows the open call for proposals approach that was first used in 2015. A senior level steering committee will oversee the call and make the final selection of grant proposals to be supported.

In the review of this progress report during the Spring Meetings, April 2016, donors commented that the results framework should be modified and strengthened and reflect achievements and lessons learned to date. The Secretariat will work on this during the remainder of 2016.

23ANNeX A | Nordic TrusT FuNd KNoWLedge ANd LeArNiNg AcTiViTies iN 2015

Annex A

Nordic Trust Fund Knowledge and Learning Activities in 2015Date/Partner/Theme Audience/Description

2015A: NTF Annual Grant Workshop and Major Partnership Events

November 16–18, 2015: The three-day NTF Annual Workshop was organized at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington, DC. It was attended by NTF donors, human rights experts from other organizations, NTF Secretariat staff, and Bank colleagues interested in NTF’s work and human rights. A fuller presentation of this event is provided in the main text of this report.

90 participants—74 World Bank staff and 16 external human rights experts and representatives from governments and other organizations. The Workshop consisted of plenary sessions, panel discussions and group sessions. Four separate panel discussions looked at donor approaches and experiences in integrating human rights into development, the Human Rights Based Approach to development, the use of indicators and human rights measurement, and the work of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on indigenous peoples and human rights, respectively. In the group sessions, NTF grant teams presented on their implementation plans and received feedback from human rights experts and their peers.

November 16–18: Three panel presentations and discussions on select human rights topics delivered during the World Bank’s Law, Justice and Development Week. Panelists included representatives from UNDP, UNICEF, OHCHR, Universities of Copenhagen and Leuven, the Danish Institute for Human Rights, the Government of Belgium, the Bank for International Settlements, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. A fuller presentation of this event is provided in the main text of this report.

The three events were attended by 200, 100 and 150 participants, respectively, comprising Bank staff and a wide range of external audiences (private and public sector, academia, civil society, development partners).

Integrating Human Rights into Development: Donor Approaches, Experiences and Challenges. Panelists discussed the different approaches employed by donors depending on their human rights mandate. Three UN agencies and the EU compared their work based on explicit human rights policies and mandates to that of the World Bank where human rights typically enters programs through development principles like antidiscrimination, social accountability and meaningful participation.

Community of Practice on Human Rights—recent research and developments. Presentations included experiences on working with human rights among EU donors and in particular Belgium, how work on human rights and global public goods are related, and on how countries deal with their human rights obligations when they are members of international organizations.

International Financial Institutions and Human Rights Legal and Institutional Considerations. Representatives from different international financial organizations discussed the legal and institutional aspects of human rights in their respective organizations. This ranged from EBRD which has an explicit human rights policy, to the World Bank and some regional development Banks that work without formulated human rights mandates but where work often aims at the realization of rights and the prevention of human rights violations, and to the Bank of International Settlements where some activities have been linked to human rights aspects.


Date/Partner/Theme Audience/Description

B: Other Events

February 2015—OAS Policy Roundtable “Regional Agenda for Economic Social and Cultural Rights: A look into the future.”

About 100 participants, mainly government officials, took part in a roundtable discussion in Lima, Peru, on whether human rights could and should guide social protection policies. Many countries in Latin America are considering or putting in place minimum standards for social protection and access to services, and these programs draw on human rights to varying degrees.

March 2015—Meeting with UN OHCHR representatives.

World Bank staff including the Indigenous People Representative and the NTF Secretariat met with UN OHCHR staff to discuss a number of issues of mutual interest, i.e. training for indigenous peoples’ human rights, collaboration through the indigenous people NTF grant proposal (later approved) and more broadly on the work of NTF.

March 2015—NTF workshop on Government Accountability and Integrity in the Digital Age. Participants included the Director General from the National Archives of Australia and the President of the International Council on Archives, the Chief Records Officer for the United States Government, and the Chief Information Officer for the Government of Moldova.

About 20 participants, mainly Bank staff. Discussion on e-government policies in Australia and other countries to provide better services combined with strategies for Cloud, Digital by Default, Digital Economy and Digital Transition Policies. Efforts to transform processes and information systems to “go digital” focus on the use of the Internet and agency ICT platforms to automate processes and services. However strategies and policies to assure the essential integrity and continuity of the underlying information resources, including records, are under-represented. To fill this policy gap, the National Archives of Australia is playing its role in this major transformation and has launched its “Digital Continuity” policy, designed to achieve the benefits of e-Government without compromising core values of accountability, administrative transparency and citizens’ rights.

March 2015—BBL: Gender, Human Rights, and Resilience in Artisanal Mining Towns. The Director for Women in War, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, and representatives from Colby College, Promundo-USA, and independent researchers.

30 participants met to discuss human rights related issues for the estimated two million people working informally in the artisanal and small-scale mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In addition to a variety of labor problems the question of human rights abuses, specifically that of sexual violence, has been the main focus of media and international development concern. Current data from a two-phased research project undertaken in the select areas of the Kivus and Maniema provinces challenge perceptions of the types of discriminations and violence that women face in the mines; particularly the perception that rape is the most common form, and perpetrated predominantly by armed groups. The research results instead revealed a reality of systemic discrimination and violence in mining areas—against segments of the female and male population—linked to livelihoods and economic access. Civilian and political actors were more likely to affect the human rights landscape than armed groups. Lack of education on rights and limited availability of social forms of organization and protection were equally found wanting in most of the areas surveyed.



April 2015—BBL: Foreign dictation of human rights. Implications for fragility and policy. Legal scholars and academia.

15 participants, mainly Bank staff, met with representatives from academia to discuss how states treat their human rights obligations on territories or in institutions outside their own. The conduct of one state’s nationals on the territory of another is coming under increasing legal scrutiny from other states as well as international institutions. What does this mean for state behavior, state fragility and those in extreme poverty? As human rights law and the law of war are enforced by different bodies and in uneven ways, what is driving or constraining whether states use force or support the use of force in other territories, and how armed conflict is fought? These questions have significant implications for governments’, donors’ and other international organizations’ policy and practice.

April 2015—BBL: Human Rights Due Diligence and Development. UNDP, Human Rights Watch and other CSOs, the Danish Institute for Human Rights, Nestle and other private sector firms and organizations, Bank staff. The NTF supported study on this topic prepared after this event if described in the main text of this report.

50 participants met to discuss the role and use of human rights due diligence (HRDD) to provide input to a study commissioned by NTF and carried out by Shift—an expert resource center on business and human rights. HRDD has gained prominence since the Human Rights Council’s adoption of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, but the term remains ill-defined in terms of its content and operational implications. A panel discussed what the term HRDD means, how it has been understood in the context of business and human rights, as well as by bilateral and multilateral organizations, including in the context of development. The importance of an organization’s mandate was explored as a key determining factor as to the relevance and applicability of human rights due diligence. The panelists offered perspectives from theory and practice, placing particular emphasis on practical examples of where HRDD has been applied.

April 2015—Meeting with SOGI activists. Bank Information Center and a number of CSOs engaged in SOGI issues.

30 participants, mainly CSO representatives from a number of countries, met with the NTF Secretariat to discuss the SOGI related work supported by the trust fund and by the Bank in general. The group identified potential areas of engagement and collaboration.

April 2015—Donors Meeting during Spring Meetings.

Donors and NTF Secretariat meet to discuss NTF’s work and next steps, and donors’ thoughts about the program.

April 2015—Meeting with American Bar Association (ABA) Rule of Law Africa initiative.

15 participants including the NTF Secretariat and Bank staff working on NTF grants related to rule of law met with the Regional Director, Africa Center for Justice (Burundi, Rwanda, RDC and Congo) and the Deputy Director, Africa Division, both from ABA Rule of Law Initiatives. The discussion focused on the two sides briefing each other on activities including the scope and content of their respective programs.

April 2015—Meeting with Organization of American States (OAS).

The NTF Secretariat met with the OAS coordinator and director for equity promotion and social inclusion to discuss OAS activities related to the implementation of economic and social rights under the San Salvador Protocol, and the associated work on indicators. OAS agreed to make a presentation on this during the upcoming NTF Annual Workshop.



July 2015—US State Department. NTF Staff attended the U.S. State Department’s launch of the 2015 Trafficking in Persons Report hosted by the Secretary of State. The report is a scorecard and assesses every country based on the 3 P’s (Protection, Prosecution, and Prevention) in regards to human trafficking.

November 2015—Donors Meeting during the NTF Annual Workshop and the WB Law, Justice and Development Week.

Donors and NTF Secretariat meet to discuss NTF’s work and next steps, and donors’ thoughts about the program.

November 2015—United Nations Commission of Inquiry on human rights in Eritrea.

The NTF Secretariat hosted a meeting with the Commission briefing the Bank about its work and the human rights situation in Eritrea.

December 2015—UN Special Rapporteur on Health, OHCHR, and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

30 participants, mainly Bank staff and NTF grantees, attended a workshop with the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, OHCHR staff supporting the Special Rapporteur and the Human Rights Advisor at the Pan-American Health Organization. Bank staff presented the work supported by NTF to the Special Rapporteur and discussed right to health issues as they affect the LGBTI persons and indigenous peoples.

C: Analytical Activities and Dissemination, Attendance of External Events

March 2015—Launch of the Short Documentary Film: Sexual Minorities and Development at the World Bank.

150 participants, mainly Bank staff, attended the screening of “Sexual Minorities & Development: A Short Film,” funded by NTF. The film was introduced by the German Executive Director of the World Bank and followed by a panel discussion moderated by Slate magazine and including the Bank’s Nordic Baltic Executive Director and the Vice President for Climate Change. The film utilizes interviews in many regions to show how discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) has detrimental impacts on development outcomes, and keeps individuals in poverty and excluded from accessing the benefits of development. The film shows appropriate entry points for the World Bank and other development banks, i.e. data collection and support for capacity building.

July 2015—International Bar Association. NTF attended an event entitled “FIFA & the World Cup: Impunity for Corruption and Widespread Human Rights Violations Coming to an End?” sponsored by the International Bar Association and covering both the legal aspects of alleged corruption as well as the human rights and business perspective of the World Cup, particularly in regards to human rights abuses at construction sites. The speakers discussed whether to put pressure on governments or sponsors to push change.

September 2015—Organization of American States.

NTF staff met with the Chief, Equity Promotion Section, OAS, to discuss their respective work programs on human rights and also finalized arrangements around an OAS presentation on human rights indicators at the upcoming NTF annual workshop.



October 2015—Georgetown University. NTF attended the Women, Justice and Climate Change event at Georgetown University.

October 2015—Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.

NTF attended an event with the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, held at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

October 2015—US Institute of Peace. NTF attended an event debating issues related to Women, Peace and Security at the US Institute of Peace.

29ANNeX b | NTF ProgrAM grANTs APProVed iN 2015

Annex B

NTF Program Grants Approved in 2015

Title, implementing unit Objectives, plans and activities

1. Evaluating the impact of the Great Lakes Sexual and Gender Based Violence Project. Africa Region

Grant supported activities aim to generate more evidence about effective approaches that can be scaled up and mainstreamed to respond and prevent Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV), especially in fragile and conflict affected states. This includes several impact evaluations of selected project activities in each of the three countries covered by the IDA-funded Great Lakes Emergency SGBV and Women’s Health Project in Burundi, Rwanda and the DRC. The lessons learned from the evaluations will contribute to ensuring that services provided through the Great Lakes SGBV Project are adequately targeted and delivered and inform future WBG programming of interventions addressing SGBV and women’s rights.

In 2015, the following activities were conducted: (i) Democratic Republic of the Congo: the task team and Congolese counterpart agreed to focus the impact evaluation on the mental health interventions of the project. The choice of the mental health intervention is based on its policy relevance in low capacity, post-conflict settings as well as on the level of scientific rigor offered by this study. A collaboration with academic partners that are supporting the implementation of Cognitive Processing Therapy and Narrative Exposure Therapy has been engaged to design and implement the study. The task team participated in a workshop in July 2015 on the mental health component of the project; (ii) Rwanda: Discussions with the task team and counterpart were conducted to define the most appropriate and feasible research questions. The most promising option is to collaborate with other academic partners to evaluate the impact of working with men and boys at the community level to promote behavioral change. This may include adding round(s) of data collection to the study at a later date to measure the longer term impact of these activities; (iii) Burundi: The project activities in Burundi are currently at a halt due to the unrest in the country; (iv) Two consultants have been hired to support the work in the field, in DRC and Rwanda respectively.

2. Implementation and strengthening of IFC’s Sustainability Framework. IFC.

The NTF grant to IFC’s Environment, Social, and Corporate Governance Department in 2015 supported work related to human rights due diligence and use of security forces, both of which will continue in 2016.

Funds contributed to enhanced capacity building for both internal and external audiences on the aspects of security forces included in IFC Performance Standard 4. Consultants provided project-level support to IFC Environmental and Social (E&S) Specialists and clients, as well as to design and deliver training to HQ staff, Equator Principle and Export Credit Agency partners (through the annual Community of Learning event hosted by IFC), and private-sector companies operating in high-risk contexts in West Africa. For 2016, additional training is tentatively planned for IFC regional staff and for clients in MENA. NTF funds will also allow IFC staff to continue to participate in the annual plenary session of the Voluntary Principles (VPs) on Security and Human Rights.

The following table details the grants approved under the fourth NTF call for proposals approved mid-2015 for a two year period.

(Continued next page)



HNTF funded work includes human rights screening as part of IFC’s Performance Standard implementation. Here, consultants have been registered and work is underway of selecting projects to participate in a pilot project. The objectives are to assess IFC’s incorporation of human rights issues through the Environmental and Social (E&S) due diligence process, and to assist IFC E&S Specialists and clients in ensuring that key human rights concerns relevant to business are covered through application of the Performance Standards (PS).

3. World Development Report—Governance and the Law: The role of rights and aspirational norms. World Development Report team.

The NTF grant is supporting the inclusion of human rights in the World Development Report 2017, Governance and the Law. The following activities are planned: (i) a Symposium on the role of law in governance on April 12–13, 2016, bringing together 18 scholars of law, economics and sociology to discuss how law is related to power and norms in its efforts to order behavior, order power, and order contest. The Symposium will examine, among other things, how international human rights norms translate into local contexts in ways that empower citizens and constrain the powerful. It will also examine how the language of rights is used in efforts to hold rulers accountable and to shift the configuration of power; (ii) engagement with leading experts on law and rights to review and provide input into the report itself; (iii) a background paper that provides quantitative evidence of the diffusion of human rights norms and their implementation.

4. Inclusion of vulnerable groups such as Roma in preschool education. Education Global Practice.

This grant focuses on measures to increase access to Early Childhood Development (ECD) for young children, i.e. children below primary school age, from vulnerable families in Serbia. Initially, three sets of activities had been foreseen: awareness raising workshops, small grants to municipalities to develop programs/actions plans to increase access to ECD and analytical work summarizing key learnings from the first two activities. However, the government has recently announced parliamentary elections, in addition to local elections—a development which would make designing and implementing the small grant program during the next months very difficult. The team is thus reworking the concept with the first and third activity (workshops and analytical work) still being part of the proposal, while instead of the grants to municipalities, the NTF would tentatively support parenting programs targeted at vulnerable families which would also be expected and designed to ease access to preschool for young children from vulnerable families.

The dialogue on design and implementation of the grant-supported project has become an important aspect of the team’s policy dialogue in Serbia and helped put further emphasis on the importance of Early Childhood Development for the inclusion of vulnerable groups. The discussion on the NTF grant goes in parallel with the design of a new ECD and Inclusive Education Project, supported by an IBRD loan and key learnings related to human rights and preschool education from the NTF grant will feed into project preparation.



5. Development and Testing of Community-based Land Tenure Models for Vulnerable Groups in Rural Cameroon. Environment and Natural Resources Global Practice.

The grant team developed a more detailed implementation plan based on consultations with the Bank’s country management unit for Cameroon. Terms of Reference for a consultancy and study on indigenous people and land reform measures under way and proposed were prepared and a consultant selected.

6. Effective Citizen Service Centers and Human Rights: Mutually Reinforcing Dynamics. Governance Global Practice.

A comprehensive database of Citizen Service Centers (CSCs) across the world that contains information about CSCs in 70+ countries (services provided, implementing agencies, level of service delivery, etc.) has been created. Further, a wide range of documents (case studies, toolkits, etc.) related to CSCs have been collected and uploaded onto a special tab created on the DFGG&SA online library to serve as repository for these resources. A survey destined to CSC implementing agencies and a detailed case study template have been designed in cooperation with U4 who is our external project partner U4.Two client countries, i.e. Vietnam and Kenya have been identified for the writing of in-depth case studies on CSCs and the case studies have been commissioned. A well-attended brainstorming session featuring short presentations of CSCs in Albania and Malawi was held, during which the great majority of participants (from 5 Bank GPs) signaled interest to become part of the planned community of practice (CoP) on CSCs. Contact has been made with other development partners to identify additional CSC clients and expand the CoP. The team has also reached out to the Institute for Citizen-Centered Service (ICCS), Canada and is planning the first event in April–May, 2016, a BBL, in which representatives from ICCS will share their experiences on CSCs.

7. Building Human Rights in a Peace Consolidation Scenario: Colombia Mobile Victims Unit Impact Evaluation. Governance Global Practice.

Key advances have been made in preparation for the 2016 implementation of the impact evaluation of Colombia’s Mobile Victims Unit. An in-depth literature review on human rights and identification of how the Victims and Land Restitution Law gives victims back their dignity, memory and truth, and creates conditions that deter future perpetuation of conflict, was completed. Several missions to Colombia were carried out, allowing for the organization of workshops with the three participating entities (Ministry of Justice, Defensoria, and the Victim’s Unit) to discuss the process through which municipalities would be selected for the unit’s 2016 route, and ultimately agree upon the municipalities to be included within the IE. Additionally, fieldwork to improve the data collection process was conducted in the municipalities of Ayapel and Puerto Libertador. The team also had the opportunity to participate in the annual Nordic Trust Fund for Human Rights and Development event in Washington, DC.

The following products were completed: i) data for 133 municipalities identified for potential inclusion in the Route 1 or Route 2 (including key informant interviews, existing census, administrative, and monitoring data used by the collaborating entities) was collected and organized in cooperation with the collaborating entities, ii) a municipal level victims’ needs and institutional coverage index was constructed to help inform the municipal selection process, and iii) pair-wise matching and identification of the 30 municipalities that will be visited in the first round (treatment municipalities) and in the second round (control municipalities) of the IE was finalized.



8. Developing Quantitative Data on the Economic Dimensions of LGBT Exclusion. Governance Global Practice.

The grant team has produced a draft working paper summarizing existing research experiences (attached) which is now guiding the activity.

The team is currently in discussions with two consortia to undertake different parts of the research. One consortium is likely to implement the individual survey that will replicate the Fundamental Rights Agency Europe-wide survey, and will also include questions from the Serbia living standards survey. The second consortium will undertake the experimental study which will likely involve ‘mystery shoppers’ (some LGBT some not) accessing public services (e.g., employment agencies, public health centers, municipal documentation). We hope to conclude negotiations in the next few weeks and then begin. Work completed includes a virtual review of the concept note.

9. Don’t Mind the Gap: Why the MENA region has good laws on marginalized women and children but does not enforce them. Governance Global Practice.

The grant team identified three countries where the grant would fund case studies forming the analytical basis for the subsequent analysis. Terms of reference for the work/study in Jordan, focusing on gender issues and inheritance were completed and the study carried out. Findings were discussed during a workshop in Washington DC following a presentation of the selected consultant. Preparatory work was carried out for the other two country studies—Egypt and Jordan—with work planned to be done in 2016.

10. The grant would reinforce existing Bank efforts to promote the right to information especially in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Governance Global Practice.

The grant team prepared the groundwork for a regional workshop in Sri Lanka planned for 2016 to feed into the ongoing work in Right to Information (RTI)—the government recently presented a bill on which the team provided extensive inputs. Discussions were also held on the substance of the policy notes and associated terms of reference for grant funded studies in 2016. The team also reached agreement with Sri Lanka on the development of a strategic plan for RTI implementation which the grant will support. Some of this work has been a delayed due to different opinions about specific provisions of the RTI bill but the bill is expected to pass in early 2016.

11. Voices of the Vulnerable and Human Rights: Promoting Stakeholder Learning on Access to Justice in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)—A Proposal for Scale-Up. Governance Global Practice.

The grant follows an earlier NTF grant that focused on access to justice of vulnerable groups in Ethiopia and Sierra Leone. Following grant approval, the grant team worked with Country Management Teams in Africa to select countries for the follow-on work. Tanzania, Cameroon and perhaps Madagascar and Mozambique were among the candidates. Preparatory work was done to link the grant activities to the proposed and World Bank supported Citizen Centric Judicial Reform project expected to be approved in 2016.

12. Enhancing Citizen’s Rights in Vietnam. Governance Global Practice.

A concept note review was held for the Vietnam grant for which the grant team received many useful suggestions in carrying out the grant activities in 2016. Building on the early support of the NTF which helped desensitize and open up more discussions on the subject of human rights in general in the Vietnam press, among public officials and citizens, in 2016, the NTF grant will focus on a number of specific rights areas, including the right to information, the right to associations, and the freedom of doing business. Not only do these rights areas fit with the current legislative making agenda of the country, but they also




contribute to modernizing institutions that could help Vietnam prosper further in the years to come. The grant team will work with policy makers, civil society actors, as well as with media groups, including social media to improve their knowledge and help them practice the rights that have been prescribed for in the Vietnam’s existing legislation. The grant will also cross-fertilize with other NTF grants to operationalize the citizen engagement requirements in Bank’s projects in the context of Vietnam.

13. Operationalizing Gender in Health. Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice.

Analytical work aims to define the World Bank Group’s (WBG) engagement on gender from the health, nutrition, and population (HNP) perspective and provide a framework for gender responsive health interventions for WBG investments/operations within the context of universal health coverage (UHC). Specifically, this work (i) assesses the WBG’s performance in supporting gender responsive and inclusive health systems; and (ii) provides a comprehensive framework for gender mainstreaming within health interventions supported through WBG lending. The grant is linked to the ongoing Sahel Women’s Empowerment & Demographics Project (P150080).

During 2015, the team drafted a position paper that aims to define the links between gender and health, and outline the broad terms of engagement on gender within health projects. This work has also supported inputs into the new gender strategy through discussion and written feedback. In addition, the team has also commenced a review of the World Bank Group’s lending operations, focusing on HNP lending and grants to access how gender has been mainstreamed in health, where gaps remain, and what are the challenges to address these gaps. A draft report based on this review is expected to be completed by the end of this fiscal year (FY16). This will also give feedback into the final position paper. The team also expects to deliver at least one learning event within FY16 based on the findings of this work.

14. Monitoring for maternal and reproductive health results in World Bank projects: what human rights can offer. Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice.

The program Concept Note review was conducted in September 2015 and approved by management on September 9, 2015. The proposed work was presented at the NTF Annual Event 2015 on November 19 and benefited from feedback of participants and human rights experts. In the months immediately following Concept Note approval, the task team has conducted consultations with task teams to feed into the deepening of knowledge on the nexus between reproductive and maternal health and human rights; this knowledge is informing various analytical products currently under preparation. A database with relevant RMH project data has been completed and cleaned for analysis. The database contains information on projects tagged with the “Population and Reproductive Health” thematic code, including financing amounts, project development objectives, and results framework indicators. The external partner, the Global Health and Human Rights department at University of Southern California, are being contracted for analysis of this data. The first knowledge product—Deepening knowledge on the nexus between RMH and human rights—is on track for completion in FY16. A substantial amount of progress is expected for the second knowledge product—Monitoring RMH with a human rights lens—in FY16 as well.



15. Producing Standards of Practice in Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Projects: Adding a Human Rights Perspective to the Bank’s Operations. Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice.

The team has held a concept review meeting on the scope of the work and expected outcomes. This was very helpful in sharpening the grant’s focus and streamlining the thinking about activities, identifying various types of stakeholders, and potential partnerships at the global and country level, and defining selected countries and country teams with which the team will be working with on operationalizing Adolescent SRHR within health investments. Preliminary reviews on existing evidence has been initiated and the team is in dialogue with multiple experts on key topics such as human rights, and health equity for joining the team. Contracts with experts has started to do work in integrating the concepts of equity, multi-sectoral interventions and Human Rights Based Approach. The team has planned for and organized a series of BBLs in FY16 on the evidence base and its operational implications, with participation from key stakeholders including Bank staff, experts, civil society, and other external partners.

16. Exploitation of Female and Child Migrants on Mexico’s Southern Border. Poverty Global Practice.

The Government of Mexico’s first ever Special Migration Program places a human rights approach in the center and focuses on effectively managing migration to improve the well-being of migrants and the communities in Mexico. Issues include labor market exploitation and access to basic services among the migrant population. A growing and vulnerable sub-population are female migrant workers, the number of which has more than doubled over the last 15 years. Many work in the agriculture and domestic sectors, are from Guatemala, and engage in cyclical migration. There is little data on the conditions under which these women work. Legally protected and eligible for basic services, qualitative studies show these workers suffer from various forms of labor exploitation and face significant barriers to service access, partly due to irregular migratory status and their relative invisibility. The government is interested in better understanding the labor exploitation and the associated risk factors and is looking to create a Migration Observatory and design a guest worker program for Guatemalans (bilateral agreement between Mexico and Guatemala, August, 2014). The lack of data limits the ability of policy makers to address these issues.

In collaboration with the Interior Ministry (SEGOB), the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection (STPS), the National Institute of Women (INMUJERES) and the National Council to Prevent Discrimination (CONAPRED) and with technical assistance from the University of California, San Diego, the team has begun the design phase of a quantitative study of the labor status of female migrants in the agriculture and domestic work sectors in southern Mexico. An inter-institutional working group that was formed for the qualitative first phase of the project will continue and will design, super-vise implementation and analyze the resulting data. At present the Working Groups is exploring various sampling options. The sample is the most difficult phase of the work, especially for domestic workers. Other studies that have tried to create a probability sample of hard to reach populations in Mexico (a respondent-driven sample of sex workers done in Tapachula; a survey of household servants in the north of the country, for example) are being examined for replicability. A sampling expert has also been hired. Some pilot testing of samples will most likely need to be undertaken. The actual field work dates will be driven by the seasonal flows of migrants as identified in the qualitative phase of the study.



17. Social and economic security for the elderly in Moldova. Poverty Global Practice.

A Concept Note review for the work on Economic Security of the Elderly in Moldova was carried out on September 2015. In addition, a workshop on Aging Challenges in Moldova and Economic Security of the Elderly was held in Chisinau on November 2015, allowing for establishing partnerships (with UNFPA in Moldova and the NGO HelpAge International) and increasing the visibility of the work. All sections of the proposed report are underway, and first drafts on the sections on labor markets, old age poverty, social protection and demographic trends are expected at the end of January 2016. Moreover, a review of the international and country-specific literature and framework on aging and human rights has been commissioned and will be ready at the beginning of February 2016, to enhance our knowledge on the challenges and legal tools available around aging and human rights. Importantly, preliminary analysis has already informed the Concept Note of the Moldova Systematic Country Diagnostic, a key technical diagnostic that will inform the World Bank engagement in the country.

18. Balancing workers’ protection and labor market flexibility in China. Social Protection and Labor Global Practice.

In 2015, the NTF helped with shaping a country work program. A concept note review on a programmatic task “Strengthening China Social Protection and Labor Systems” was held. A component of this programmatic task on informing labor market policy reforms was also reviewed and the combined work program financed by Bank budget and the NTF was endorsed by the meeting. A systematic search and tabular desk review of the relevant empirical literature on labor regulations in China were finalized and TORs for further work were drafted. The task team discussed the work program with counterparts in China and identified potential local collaborators.

There was improved understanding among Government officials and Bank staff of the significance of labor rights and the importance of balancing workers’ protection and labor market flexibility.

19. Understanding Fairness in Assessment and Classification of Disabilities in Egypt. Social Protection and Labor Global Practice.

The Grant builds on the Minister of Social Solidarity’s (MoSS) Takaful and Karma Program (Cash Transfer) objective to reach persons with disabilities who are in poverty and enroll them in the cash transfer program. The program procedures require identification of a) poverty and b) disability and MoSS has requested assistance to help improve the disability identification to move away from purely medical model to more of a social model, and to help institute a more simple operational procedure, for the purpose of fair and less cumbersome procedures.

The Grant supports: (i) an assessment and stock-taking of current system and operational processes for identification and certification of disability; (ii) benchmarking of Egypt’s current system and processes against other models from international experience; (iii) providing recommendations for improving the Egyptian model and/or the Cash Transfer model.

Progress to date: (i) a team composed of a MoSS disability specialist, international consultant and national consultant (hired by the Grant) and a Bank specialist staff has been established and has started discussions and data collection; (ii) in-depth data collection and desk review of the current processes for disability certification/classification is in progress through desk reviews of policies, guidelines and manuals; meetings and discussions with a range of




stakeholders; and field analysis/stocktaking; (iii) a Task Force committee has been established under the auspices of MoSS to serve as an advisory, coordination, and policy dialogue forum. The Grant team supported the development of the ToRs of the TF which has been endorsed by MoSS, and TA is provided to the TF’s functions; (iv) a 2016 Bank mission will advance the stock-taking and assessment work. A draft report of the first deliverable (assessment of the current system and processes) is expected by February 2016; (v) MoSS is developing the national strategy for Disability and the grant activities will assist the MoSS team with concepts and frameworks related to streamlining the human rights aspects in the National Disability programs.

20. The impact of citizen’s civic participation and social accountability on Service Delivery and Quality of Development Project in Uganda. Social Protection and Labor Global Practice.

The impact evaluation of transparency, accountability and anti-corruption seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of strengthening social accountability. Based on randomized study, the evaluation seeks to generate evidence on the value-added of strengthening citizen’s participation in local decision making on the quality of development projects. It will contribute to the evidence on how promoting human rights, citizen’s voice and civic participation can accelerate the development process.

The team has collected data on the quality of approximately 1,000 sub-projects implemented as part of the program, and will next turn to analyzing the extent to which social accountability training affected the quality of these projects. Information collected will be shared with a subset of communities through a scorecard pilot which has been designed. The team has also started the preparation of a community-level survey to understand the effects of social accountability training on access to information, beneficiaries’ voice and behaviors. The survey will provide an opportunity to seek selected human rights indicators at a disaggregated level.

21. Human Rights and Development in Europe and Central Asia. Urban, Rural and Social Development Global Practice.

Grant activities seek to deepen understanding of how rights relate to core development issues in the ECA region and to promote sensitivity to regional rights issues. It focuses on building staff awareness, knowledge and capacity around rights issues and on mainstreaming rights issues within existing/planned activities rather than creating stand-alone initiatives. It is a direct follow-up to a 2012–2014 NTF Grant which included work on land rights, gender rights, indigenous peoples, fragility and conflict and SOGI inclusion.

To date this grant has launched 3 activities: (i) Support to preserve Indigenous Culture in the Russian Federation—support for the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Karelia to develop a strategy for the promotion of Finno-Ugric culture. Currently underway are a mapping of existing policies and programming for indigenous people’s rights and language and culture preservation, and data collection on Finno-Ugric culture development. A validation workshop with local experts and World Bank representatives is planned for March 2016; (ii) Qualitative Study on the situation of Roma migrants in Western Europe—research to collect the voices of Roma migrants on their motivations for migration, aspirations, survival strategies and integration challenges and successes—recognizing the uninformed and often inflammatory discourses on Roma migrants in many parts of Western Europe. Work will include analysis of political reactions to the settlement of Roma migrants in Belgium at the level of the local community, media, public services,




social workers, and local and national policy makers in the host community; (iii) resettlement and gender: examining land rights, livelihoods and outcomes for women in ECA—the World Bank policy involuntary resettlement pays particular attention to the needs of vulnerable groups, such as women, the elderly, the landless, etc. during resettlement planning and implementation. This activity will review international best practice with a view to produce a guidance note on integrating gender considerations into projects. An in-depth desk review of the gender-sensitivity of existing resettlement instruments, as well as qualitative data collection (key informant interviews and focus group discussions) will be undertaken in two countries (Georgia and Bosnia and Herzegovina). Dissemination of the guidance note will include a presentation to Bank staff and relevant clients, and use in staff training events (e.g., safeguards boot camp, resettlement trainings). To date, the TOR for this assignment has been finalized and the recruitment of an international consultant to undertake this review is underway.

22. Promoting Women and Girls’ Rights: Collecting Evidence on What Works to Prevent Sexual and Gender Based Violence. Urban, Rural and Social Development Global Practice.

Activities aim at assessing the impact of Engaging Men through Accountable Practice program (EMAP), an innovative pilot tool designed to prevent Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV). This evaluation will inform future Bank programming on what works to prevent violations of human rights, in relation to SGBV against women and girls. It will inform and possibly be replicated in the US$107 million IDA-funded Great Lakes Emergency Sexual and Gender Based Violence and Women’s Health Project (P147489). The NTF grant is contributing to the baseline data collection activities for this impact evaluation to be conducted from February to April 2016.

In 2015, the following activities were conducted: (i) The research team was identified, and the study will be conducted by a World Bank team from the Gender Innovation Lab, including two economists, one qualitative lead researcher, one qualitative research assistant, and one field coordinator based in eastern DRC, in collaboration with the International Rescue Committee, and the London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; (ii) The task team conducted two missions to Bukavu, DRC, respectively in June and July 2015, to discuss and explore the study design and implementation plan with the implementation partner; (iii) The study design was finalized, and the study sites were assigned to treatment and control status using a pair-wise randomization methodology; and (iv) The study protocol was submitted to an International Review Board and conditional approval for the survey was obtained.

23. Sectoral Good Practice Notes on Indigenous Peoples rights and their practical application for inclusive and sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean. Urban, Rural and Social Development Global Practice.

Activities include preparation of good practice Notes on Indigenous Peoples rights and their practical application for inclusive and sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean. To date the detailed work plan has been developed in conjunction with the Latin American Indigenous Network, Foro Indigena Abya Yala and the Coordinating Consultant and Research Assistant have been hired. These consultants are currently working on the template for the good practice notes. They are also systematizing the specific relevant rights for each of the six sectors to be covered and identifying relevant international experts and experiences in the Latin American region where Indigenous peoples rights have been effectively applied. Expert roundtables to develop each Note’s content are foreseen to commence in April–May, 2016.



24. Enhancing Operational Knowledge on Indigenous Peoples’ Human Rights. Urban, Rural and Social Development Global Practice.

This grant is implemented in collaboration with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). A joint workshop was held in mid-2015 to plan activities for the global level, regional level in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and country level in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Two knowledge sharing events were held at the global level, titled “How to operationalize Indigenous Peoples’ rights? An Exchange with OHCHR” and “Land Legalization and Tenure for Improved Living Conditions of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities.” In LAC, several meetings have been held with the Victims Unit of Colombia to define the TORs of the study and the international event to take place in 2016. A contract with the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL) is likely to be signed in early 2016. UNAL has started working on the first products of the study, intended to identify best practices nationally and internationally in reparation processes aimed at ethnic minorities, and prepare a long list for the event and for the systematization of repertoires of reparation. In DRC, a study on Indigenous Peoples’ rights related to land tenure is being designed (procurement stage to hire the consultant). The study will be implemented in partnership with national and local IP organizations.

Planned activities for the second half of FY 2016 and FY 2017 include: (i) Global level: staff training based on good practices and lessons learned from operational work, including presentations of NTF project work from both LAC and DRC—LAC: An international event on reparation strategies for ethnic minorities affected by conflict and violence, and the final draft of the study on reparation processes—DRC: completed study and a country level workshop on Indigenous Peoples’ rights related to land tenure in DRC. Planned outcomes include: Improved understanding of the World Bank staff about the Indigenous Peoples’ Human Rights and how to apply these rights in the operational work of the World Bank; specific project support related to activities in the Latin American region and at the country level in DRC; improved knowledge and systemization of repertoires on reparation strategies aimed at addressing the special needs and points of view of ethnic minorities afflicted by conflict and violence. Close collaboration with OHCHR has been an asset in enhancing staff’s knowledge and awareness of Indigenous Peoples’ rights.

25. Citizen Participation is a Human Right: A Human Rights-Based Approach to the World Bank’s Citizen Engagement Mandate. Urban, Rural and Social Development Global Practice.

Grant objectives include increased awareness among World Bank staff of the link between citizen participation and human rights and the relevance of the citizen engagement agenda for development beyond the corporate goals; and improved understanding of the importance and value of citizen-led initiatives demanding their rights and improved development outcomes.

During 2015 a lead researcher and two consultants were hired, completing the research team. A draft research design and an extensive set of interview questions for the case studies were developed. A partnership with Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA) has been set up and processes are under way for partnerships with a youth-led movement in Paraguay and a citizen initiative in the Balkans. A panel on citizen participation and human rights in Afghanistan will take place at the FCV Forum in March 2016, featuring IWA representatives and other experts. In addition, the research project will be presented to World Bank staff and external participants through a BBL.



26. Global Adaptation of “In Her Shoes” to Illustrate Discrimination against LGBTQI people. Urban, Rural and Social Development Global Practice.

This grant will adapt the “In Her Shoes” training to illustrate discrimination against LGBTQI persons. Funds were used to procure the license for “In Her Shoes” as well as a technical assistance agreement. The team presented the grant concept to local civil society organizations (CSOs) and teams in the World Bank for collaboration and consultation purposes, including the World Bank’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Task Force. The team also coordinated with various international actors, such as ILO, UNDP, and USAID, to understand complementary projects and to better define the methodology based on existing data. The grant team provided input into the Systematic Country Diagnosis (SCD) for Thailand, and committed to Thailand as the pilot country for data collection. Data collection will be conducted in four countries throughout the course of the grant. Multi-stakeholder consultations are being prepared and finalized with LGBTI groups in Bangkok to enable a focus on LGBTI rights in the SCD as well as for consulting on the methodology of the “In Her Shoes” adaptation. The methodology and questionnaires for focus groups and key informant interviews are being prepared for data collection.

Through presentations within the World Bank and externally, the team is strengthening the connection of LGBTI rights and development. Outreach and communication with the World Bank’s SOGI Task Force and CSOs are enabling future consultations and collaborations for this team and LGBTI research in general. The SCD in Thailand also improves the Bank’s role on LGBTI work in development. Thailand’s SCD is only the second in which the World Bank has included an LGBTI focus.

27. Improving public transport access for persons with impaired physical motility in Thimphu. Transport and ICT Global Practice.

The concept review for work under this grant took place in Nov. 2015. A design adviser (an architect) is engaged and developing bus infrastructure concepts to address accessibility challenges based on international examples. His assignment focuses on adapting good practice to what is feasible in Bhutan given local materials, contractor capabilities, affordability, etc. An accessibility Specialist and Transport Expert (individuals) are engaged and developing data collection instruments/methodologies to gather information on travel needs for persons with physical impairments that affect their ability to use bus services.

A Bank team will be in Thimphu in early 2016 to progress field work. Some work such as scoping of bus stop locations at places that we already know to be critical for access (e.g., the national trauma hospital, and the central market) has already taken place. The team will also kick off the primary data collection activities which are critical to the whole assignment.

28. Beyond Good Governance—A Human Rights Based Approach to Shared Prosperity in Water and Sanitation. Water and Sanitation Global Practice.

Work Description: The NTF funding will leverage the Governance and Political Economy component of the Multi-country Programmatic Approach WASH Poverty Diagnostic (WPD). The WPD is a shared initiative between the Water, Governance and Poverty practices to help in building evidence to identify the gaps in access faced by the poorest and the institutional constraints for adequate service expansion. The challenge is to obtain a detailed diagnostic in selected Country Case Studies on the options that are needed to bring the same standard of quality, reliability and access across the population, with special emphasis on those who are predominantly poor and have access to water under substandards of service. The NTF resources are being used to




garner useful information to answer a key question: What are the water supply, sanitation, and hygiene service delivery constraints and solutions for the poor and bottom 40 percent to realize their progressive rights to water? Mozambique has been rolled out as a case study and another two to three countries are in the process of rolling out WPD that can be incorporated into the case studies based on pre-identified information and criteria.

Planned Activities for FY 2016: i) Report identifying political economy and institutional bottlenecks in rights to water in WASH subsectors with a focus on services for the poor and bottom 40% of population; ii) Field research in selected case-study countries; iii) Knowledge sharing events focused on Bank staff on how to operationalize the identified issues from reports; iv) workshops with country counterparts and Bank staff to discuss lessons and findings to reinforce the dialogue with country-based water sector institutions.

Work Completed in FY 2015: i) Improved understanding of methodological tools to apply a human rights based lens to study water-governance linkages; ii) Internal Workshop on methodology and scope of work; iii) Literature review of governance and political economy bottlenecks; and iv) Development of preliminary field instruments.

29. Getting It Right: Learning How to Translate Human Rights Principles into Social Protection Policy. Legal Department.

The Project’s objective is to deepen Bank staff knowledge about the role of human rights standards in the process of designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating social protection systems. The grant finances the preparation of ‘how to’ notes for Bank staff providing very practical guidance on how to incorporate human rights standards into their work. The notes will be complemented by training on the topics covered by the notes.

In 2015 the team organized a series of meetings with regional and global managers and staff to understand their priorities in terms of human rights topics to be covered by the ‘how to’ notes, and identify partners that could support the team and consultants in the identification of case studies to be included in the notes. The team concluded that the main knowledge gap is related to the role of national legal frameworks, including human rights standards, in the process of designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating social protection systems. Teams and managers acknowledge that human rights legal standards are a key factor to take into consideration in their work and about what they will like to know more.

Based on the meetings, the team developed terms of reference for five studies: (i) Study on the development of a conceptual framework to assess social protection legal frameworks’ compliance with human rights standards. (ii) A comparative study of best practices related to the collection and management of personal data in social protection, in light of the right to privacy of social protection beneficiaries. (iii) Study on assessing whether national legal frameworks can generate incentives for the private sector to partner with the public sector supporting the progressive realization of the right to social protection, in particular through on-the-job training and apprenticeship interventions. (iv) Study on assessing the different models of grievance redress mechanisms used in social protection interventions and whether there is a correlation between the type of information that beneficiaries receive about social protection programs and their ability to use the GRMs effectively. (v) A comparative analysis of best practices in different countries that customized their social protection interventions in a way to prevent or overcome discrimination of different vulnerable groups, including indigenous communities, LGBTIs, minority groups, etc.



30. Law for development: equity and inclusion in health and education. Legal Department.

In 2015 the Bank team presented the project at the NTF workshop and initiated three desk reviews aimed at understanding: (i) the meaning of “minimum core” under the ICESCR generally; (ii) the meaning of “minimum core” under the ICESCR with respect to Article 12 (right to health); (iii) the meaning of “minimum core” under the ICESCR with respect to Article 13 (right to education). In 2016 the Bank team has scheduled a concept review of the desk reviews, and then will proceed to their finalization and integration into a single report to be presented at knowledge event(s) at the World Bank, and further disseminated to Bank staff in the form of simple explanatory notes

31. Implementing the Environmental and Social Framework. Operational Services and Policy Support Vice Presidency.

As part of the ongoing review and update of the World Bank’s safeguards policy, four events focusing on nondiscrimination and inclusion are planned.

The first will take place in Tokyo on February 4 and will focus on disability issues as well as gender issues. For this event, 17 participants from East Asia and South Asia have confirmed their attendance. A High-Level Dialogue on Indigenous Peoples is planned for February 11–12 in Addis Ababa. Invitations have been issued to members of Indigenous Peoples groups, multilateral development institutions, government officials from Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia, officials from the African Union, as well as Executive Directors of the World Bank representing constituencies with Indigenous Peoples. This event will work toward finding common ground on a number of challenges regarding the implementation of the proposed Environmental and Social Standard on Indigenous Peoples. An expert focus group on nondiscrimination is planned for March 3 in Brasilia. This event will focus on children and the elderly (topics to be confirmed) and will include experts from Latin America and the Caribbean. The World Bank will also host an expert focus group on Religious Considerations in the context of nondiscrimination. This event is planned for March 8 in Washington, DC, and will bring together specialists from different faith traditions and intra-faith initiatives.

43Nordic TrusT FuNd Progress rePorT | 2015

Photo creditsPage IV: © Simone D. McCourtie/World BankPage V (left to right): © Imal Hashemi/Taimani Films/World Bank © Dominic Chavez/World Bank © Jonathan Pavluk/World BankPage 2: © Graham Crouch/World BankPage 3: © Simone D. McCourtie/World BankPage 4: © Chhor Sokunthea/World Bank Page 5: © Curt Carnemark/World BankPage 6: © Dominic Chavez/World BankPage 8 (left to right):

© Curt Carnemark/World Bank © Julio Pantoja/World Bank © Arne Hoel/World BankPage 11: © Gerardo Pesantez/World Bank/World BankPage 13: © Simone D. McCourtie/World BankPage 14: © Khasar Sandag/World Bank Page 15: © World BankPage 17: © Stephan Gladieu/World BankPage 18: © Dominic Chavez/World Bank Page 20: © Mohamed Azakir/World BankPage 22: © Nugroho Nurdikiawan Sunjoyo / World BankPage 28: © Imal Hashemi/Taimani Films/World BankPage 42: © Khasar Sandag/World Bank

knowledge and learning for human rights and development ... · knowledge and learning for human...

Documents