Programming on the Right to Be Heard: A Learning Companion [Revised Edition]

"The Right to Be Heard encompasses many elements, including voice, participation, rights, governance, accountability and transparency..."

This Learning Companion explores the foundation of Oxfam's work to enable people to claim their right to a better life. The Right to Be Heard is key to this organisation's focus on urban poverty, building the ability of marginalised urban economically poor people - especially women and youth - to organise and demand effective and responsive governance and recognition of their entitlement to critical services, social protection, and livelihood opportunities. "Our work is based on the understanding that unequal power relations (between individuals, between men and women, and between different groups in society) underpin and perpetuate poverty. These need to be addressed both at the institutional level and within the complex norms and customs of each society." (For examples of Oxfam's Right to Be Heard programming, see Related Summaries below.)

The Learning Companion is designed to help the reader think through the complexity of the Right to Be Heard and make decisions about the combination of approaches to use to achieve their goals. It is designed primarily for programme staff but may also be useful across humanitarian operations and campaigning. It is made up of 4 sections:

1. Section 1 provides an introduction to the Right to Be Heard.
2. Section 2 outlines the different types of analysis that can help you better understand the context you are dealing with and make choices about where to focus your work.
3. Section 3 gives an overview of the different approaches to Right to Be Heard programming described in the Oxfam International Strategic Plan. The approaches are examined according to these 5 main strategies: organising civil society, access to information and technology, public decision- and policy-making spaces, access to justice, and global citizenship. This section provides numerous tools and resources that can be used to support programme implementation.
4. Section 4 looks at how Oxfam can strengthen its own ways of working to improve the effectiveness of Right to Be Heard programmes. This includes Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL), as well as some sample indicators for Right to Be Heard programmes.

Each section includes case studies to illustrate key points and provides links to additional tools and resources. Offline users can find a full bibliography at the end of the document. The Companion is not a step-by-step instruction manual, but has been designed so that you can choose the level of information that you need, depending on your experience, context, and stage of programming.