Chapter 1 | Page 3 Although duties on States under the international human rights regime do not necessarily translate into obligations to directly ‘provide’ the necessary conditions for all individuals to enjoy these rights,9 the alarming gaps and high level of deprivation of basic conditions of life should alert human rights advocates and policymakers to the urgency of these challenges and prompt them to work towards a more meaningful level of protection and promotion of these rights. A preliminary review of existing literature on ESC rights suggests that the ability of States to effectively respect, protect and fulfil these rights is significantly challenged by the ‘resource-intensive’ and ‘programmatic’ nature of these rights.10 A better understanding of this situation, therefore, requires deeper analysis of State policy and practice in order to identify the challenges, choices and opportunities that are available to States for improving ESC rights conditions, especially within the context of resources and policy. As a human rights practitioner, my primary motivation in this thesis is to seek theoretically sound and practically relevant insights into the role of resources in the realisation of ESC rights, and to identify policy options for addressing resource constraints from the perspective of human rights policy and practice. The thesis presents an in-depth examination of the dynamics of State policy with the aim of identifying the nature, scope and significance of the resources required for the effective realisation of economic, social and cultural rights. It adopts a cross-disciplinary perspective underpinned by law, economics, public policy and public finance in order to capture multiple dimensions of State policy applicable to the question of resources. This introductory chapter is divided into six sections: statement of the research problem; research objectives, research questions and core arguments; methodological approach; significance of the research and expected contributions to scholarship; and thesis overview. 9 This issue will be addressed in further detail in Chapter 2 and elsewhere throughout this thesis. 10 See for example, E W Vierdag, 'The Legal Nature of the Rights Granted by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights' (1978) 9 Netherlands Yearbook of International Law 69-105; Shedrack C Agbakwa, 'Reclaiming Humanity: Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights as the Cornerstone of African Human Rights' (2014) 5(1) Yale Human Rights and Development Journal 177-216, 187.