PHA-Exchange> Food for a violated thought (2)

[claudio at hcmc.netnam.vn]

from George Kent <kent at hawaii.edu> -----

 I agree with you that budget analysis can be  
very useful, but at the same it can be very risky. Budgets can be  
viewed as indicators of effort toward some sort of goal, but often that  
goal is not explicitly specified. Similarly, if there are no clear  
entitlements spelled out in national law, the relationship of concrete  
budgets (dollars allocated to a specific budget categories) have only  
remote connections to the goals that are implied (they usually are not  
spelled out) in international human rights law.

As we see from the country reports to the treaty bodies, countries  
typically claim compliance with their obligations by showing that they  
are taking SOME action through this or that program. They rarely  
discuss how many people remain unserved by these programs, or how large  
or small is the overall movement toward reaching the goal. For example,  
many countries boast about their school lunch programs, but do not  
acknowledge that such programs do not produce much real movement toward  
the goal of ending hunger in the country. The programs are not really  
viewed as means toward a goal.


Governments themselves do little  
serious policy analysis in shaping their budget allocations. Government  
budgets generally are highly political, with incremental changes based  
on whose political influence is greatest. There is little clear goal  
setting or rational analysis about how limited resources can best be  
used in the pursuit of the goals. Budgeting in practice rarely takes  
serious account of real needs, or of human rights obligations.

Aloha, George


------------------------------------------------------------------
This mail sent through Netnam-HCMC ISP: http://www.hcmc.netnam.vn/
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: unnamed
Type: text/enriched
Size: 14529 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20050411/ac538397/attachment-0007.bin>