This chapter of the Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) Development Toolkit — a document that aims to help address the role of human rights in development — looks at the full spectrum of the rights invoked by HRBA in relation to development, and fleshes out their concrete implications on the work that development planners undertake.

It also examines how human rights-based approaches to development planning operate in regional and national settings, and maps the multiple factors that affect the implementation of HRBA in development.

It includes diagrams that illustrate the pathway of each particular human right within the developmental infrastructure, with a view to revealing the deep social impacts found at each step of the pathway. The chapter illustrates how rights are not simply abstract principles, but normative mechanisms with profound effects on the way that development is practised on the ground.

This paper from the Association of Commonwealth Universities outlines the commitments and activities made by major international partners — specifically the G8 countries — to developing African higher education between 2000 and 2004.

Projects are analysed by topic — from human resources development to HIV/AIDS to science and technology — and region. The authors highlight trends in donors' strategies for supporting African higher education, presenting development portfolios and case studies from France, Germany, Scandinavia, the United Kingdom and the United States, among others. They suggest improvements in aid delivery, including collaboration between donors and increased communication about individual donor strategies. They also call for more networking and collaboration across higher education institutions within Africa, while noting that these face financial constraints.

The authors conclude that there is a particular need for donors to provide more support to science and technology projects — as a crucial driver of socioeconomic development.

This paper, written by researchers at the Universities of Pennsylvania and Columbia in the United States, examines various aspects of higher education in developing countries including its impact on economic development.

The authors discuss the growing demand for higher education in developing countries, analysing the contributing factors and presenting examples of different country responses. In particular, they examine the trends in China, India and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Some broader challenges facing developing countries, including governance, brain drain, equity and access, and regulation and accreditation are outlined. They also examine the role the international community — including major donors such as the World Bank — has played in supporting higher education in the developing world.

The authors highlight the general lack of data on higher education and call for more research on how, and even whether, higher education works in developing countries.