Chapter 1 | Page 6 diminishes the immediacy and urgency of action; and identifying ‘all appropriate means’ that can be employed by the State. Of these elements, the issue of ‘maximum available resources’ is the main focus of the present thesis. This concept has also attracted attention from scholars such as Sigrun Skogly, Diane Elson, Radhika Balakrishnan, and James Heintz, among others.14 All these scholars identify the need to develop more comprehensive interpretations and theoretical models for the concept of ‘maximum available resources’ in order to achieve a better fit of the concept with ESC rights theory and practice. Inspired by and drawing on these studies, this thesis presents a detailed examination of the various facets and approaches to the concept of ‘maximum available resources’ within the context of the ICESCR, and seeks to make a constructive contribution to ESC rights scholarship. 1.2.1 ‘Maximum available resources’: Why the concept requires further clarity Resources at the disposition of a State represent both a benchmark by which the State’s efforts in ensuring the realisation of rights can be measured and a source of flexibility in the implementation of human rights obligations based on its existing resources and capacity.15 There are challenges, however, in clearly defining what ‘resources’ are applicable in the context of this article and the nature of the State’s obligation to take steps towards the realisation of ESC rights, given the multifaceted nature of ‘resources’. It is also difficult to determine the quantum, quality, form and nature of resources at the State’s 14 Sigrun Skogly, 'The Requirement of Using the ‘Maximum of Available Resources’ for Human Rights Realisation: A Question of Quality as Well as Quantity?' (2012) 12 Human Rights Law Review 393-420; Radhika Balakrishnan et al, Maximum Available Resources & Human Rights: Analytical Report (Center for Women’s Global Leadership, New Jersey, 2011); Diane Elson, Radhika Balakrishnan and James Heintz, 'Public Finance, Maximum Available Resources and Human Rights' in Aoife Nolan, Rory O'Connell and Colin Harvey (eds), Human Rights and Public Finance: Budgets and the Promotion of Economic and Social Rights (Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2013) 13. 15 See, David Weissbrodt, Joan Fitzpatrick and Frank C Newman, International Human Rights: Law, Policy, and Process (LexisNexis, 2009).