This guide provides information on rights based approach (RBA) and how organisations can apply this approach in their day-to-day work in development . The guide is divided into two main parts, the first merely dealing with what RBA is, providing the history and understanding of the basic thinking behind RBA. The second part provides practical guidelines for how an organisation can begin to use RBA in its work. When putting RBA into practice, four focus areas need to be concentrated on, namely:

1. most vulnerable groups

2. root causes of poverty, deprivation and human rights violations

3. relationship between rights-holders and duty-bearers

4. empowerment

These focus points have an impact on all stages of RBA programming processes. The three basic steps of programming are the following:    

- Programming step 1: Analysing the context

- Programming step 2: Designing the programme

- Programming step 3: Implementation, monitoring and evaluation

This guide is primarily aimed at smaller organisations in countries challenged by poverty. For this reason, the guide has been kept short and simple. The generic format of the guide challenges the organisations to continuously seek to apply this guidelines to the organisations' own context allowing it to reflect the organisations' specific needs, interests and concerns.  

The Eight Step Approach is a comprehensive HRIA framework that provides a cyclic approach to policy development and project management. This toolset covers the following steps:

STEP 1: Assessment of the Actual Human Rights Situation

STEP 2: Political Contextual Analysis

STEP 3: Development of a View of the Desired Situation

STEP 7: Monitoring

STEP 8: Evaluation