This document is the outcome of the project: Improving Access to the Socio-Economic Right of Housing, which is a joint project of Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute (SPII) and the Open Society Foundation. The project has twin objectives: to pilot the use of desktop research, community based social audits and expert-level social dialogues to produce new methodology to improve people’s access to their socio-economic rights in South Africa and other countries.

South Africa’s Constitution places great emphasis on the inclusion of socio-economic rights, which among other things, seek to ensure that the fundamental needs of the people are meaningfully protected and advanced following generations of colonial and apartheid-era injustices and inequality. The realisation of these rights are necessary for the establishment of a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental rights.

This People’s Guide is based on a larger research project available at www.spii.org.za entitled: Monitoring and Evaluating the Progressive Realisation of the Right to Water and Sanitation in South Africa.

An analysis of the policy efforts, budgeting and enjoyment of the right to a healthy environment in South Africa.

Lessons from the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the South African Constitutional Court.

An assessment of South African government spending on socio-economic rights from 2008/09 to 2017/18.

This policy brief will first, define CBM and outline both its distinct features and the legal and policy basis for it in the South African context, in order to make the case for its inclusion within the broader SER monitoring framework. The second section will consider: what is to be monitored?; How is monitoring done?; and, who should do the monitoring?. In answering these foundational questions, section two will discuss various CBM tools and instruments used in South Africa. Third, this paper will raise a number of key questions and challenges for the SER Monitoring Project in terms of how citizen based monitoring can be supported and incorporated into monitoring at other levels – most
notably the statistical indicators which the project aims to monitor and track over time.

An analysis of the policy effort, resource allocation and expenditure and enjoyment of the right to social security.