A rights-based approach to monitoring is distinctive: it seeks to measure not only the number and kinds of people reached by a certain action, but the extent to which people at large are being educated about the relevant right and empowered to demand its realization, and whether the right is appropriately secured in legislation.

  It focuses especially on the most vulnerable, and its data disaggregation tracks inequalities not just in income but also in basic service access and health and education status. Together with the CESCR and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, FAO is elaborating practical methods to monitor the realization of the right to food at country level. This will both serve countries' needs and improve international reporting on compliance with the ICESCR.

  The monitoring process itself must also be consistent with human rights principles of transparency, participation, non-discrimination, and empowerment. For example, indicator development should directly and genuinely involve stakeholders such as programme managers, legislators and representatives of food-insecure and vulnerable groups.

  Rights-based monitoring means monitoring not just outcomes but also structures and processes. Structural indicators measure the adequacy in a rights-based perspective of legal, regulatory and institutional structures, registering for instance the legal status of the right to food, and the mandates of relevant institutions. They should also include information regarding land ownership and tenure rights, food safety laws and consumer protection agencies.

  Process indicators provide information on activities that have a bearing on the implementation of the right to food, such as programmes for land reform and micro-credit, provision of safe water, transfer of agricultural technology, income generation, food-for-work and provision of health care for communities. Lastly, outcome indicators register the results of right-to-food measures, particularly in terms of individual and collective enjoyment of the effective right to adequate food.