Development and human rights at the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank

The connection between development and human rights is often overlooked by development experts and institutions. This project emphasizes the indivisibility between development and human rights. It also explores the link between the policies and actions of development institutions. What follows is an analysis of the rhetoric of the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank. The author searched for the inclusion or exclusion of human rights in each institution's development policies, asserting that human-rights rhetoric in policy formation is conducive to development initiatives that make human welfare a priority.; This work visits the theoretical constructs of development and human rights; then delves into a variety of arguments that support the conclusion that the two phenomena are interconnected and indivisible. It also contains an examination of the causal link between policy (rhetoric) and behavior; namely, how policies guide the behavior of development institutions. Using methods of quantitative and contextual analysis of the institutions' policies, mandates and project evaluations, the author found the United Nations Development Programme to be highly supportive of human-rights policies, placing human welfare as its main priority in its development initiatives. The World Bank, however, was found to fall short of promoting and protecting human rights, as is evident in its policies and mandates. It also falls short in its projects of putting the welfare of people before economic success.; The link between policy and behavior of each institution is illustrated in the consistency between the goals and objectives in the creation of development policy and the implementation of initiatives. After collecting and analyzing each institution's policy papers, mandates and major publications, this author illuminated their development objectives and ideals. Project evaluations from both the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank were then systematically polled to reveal the priorities of their evaluation staffs as well as the objectives of each development program. If the purpose of a development institution is to elevate human welfare, the promotion and protection of human rights is a key ingredient in the formulation and implementation of its development policies.