Rights-Based Approaches: A New Way of Doing Development Business?

A Rights Based Approach (to development), like empowerment, participation and social inclusion that pervaded the field of development from the late 1990s onwards, is one of those concepts everyone within multilateral agencies such as World Bank and UN agencies, bilateral donors and International NGOs as well as local NGOs seems to think is a more effective way of conducting development business. As a result of widespread interest in debates around rights issues, mainstreaming of rights into development work has become associated with a set of measures packaged as the rights-based approach that has influenced development agencies to shift their focus in funding policies towards programmes that promote or integrate a rights-based approach. It is this recent rise of rights that has sparked an interesting global debate around rights approaches in the context of development with others complaining that like other fashions it has become the latest designer item to be seen to be wearingand has been used to dress up the same old development. Why now? What is the value added of such an approach? Does it add anything new or different, and if so what is the evidence to support this view?'