Utopia or Reality?: The Implementation of a Human Rights-Based Approach to the New Partnership for Africa's Development

It has been shown many times that SAPs lead to the violation of people's human rights in developing countries. The intention of this book is to assess the World Bank's SAPs as the principal economic impediment to implementing an RBA to NEPAD. This assessment is sought to contribute to calculating the feasibility for implementation. It is assumed that the RBA is the best approach currently available to further the significant cause of sustainable human, social and economic development in developing countries generally, and in Africa in particular. NGOs, development institutes and scholars have argued that NEPAD lacks an RBA to development. However, while the critics are many, the obstacles Africa and international society face in applying an RBA to NEPAD have not been addressed. In an attempt to narrow this gap, the World Bank's SAPs are analysed. This is followed by the examination and application of David Held's regime of liberal international sovereignty to this case; an interesting excursion for students and scholars alike. Both investigations discover independently of each other that the implementation of an RBA to NEPAD is unrealistic under the current circumstances.

Britt Kalla, MA: Studied Political Science at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Worked for 1 1/2 years at the German Institute for Human Rights in Berlin, Germany. From January to December 2008 participant of the Centre for Advanced Training in Rural Development at Humboldt University Berlin, Germany.