By triangulating the findings from the first three steps—outcomes, policy efforts and resources— it is possible to bring to light the obstacles that are preventing commitments made on paper translating into practical action that has a meaningful impact improving the situation on the ground. Much like a diagnostic chart, this approach helps to establish the often opaque causal links between these elements. The analysis may show, for example, that the problem is attributable to inadequate or discriminatory use of resources, inadequacy of policy efforts, a lack of participatory processes, or other factors. On the basis of this analysis, a picture should emerge, from which it is possible to draw conclusions about the reasonableness of the state’s efforts to progressively fulfill the right(s) under review to all sectors of the population without discrimination and employing the maximum of its available resources. By combining all of the quantitative and qualitative information gathered in the previous steps through a wide range of tools and techniques and reflecting on broader contextual factors, step four gives a comprehensive and holistic analysis of a state’s compliance with its obligation to fulfill the right(s) under review. This final step is not a mechanical, formulaic exercise. Quantitative data makes an important contribution to analysis at each step, but the final judgment must be a qualitative one that necessarily relies on a considered evaluation of all the evidence, interpreted through the light of the state’s obligations of conduct and result. In essence, by providing an overarching framework to integrate multiple tools and methods, OPERA enables human rights advocates and activists to build up a wellevidenced argument about a state’s compliance with its obligation to fulfill ESC rights. This can be very powerful for advocacy, whether focused on securing remedies for current violations or on advancing reforms for preventing them in the future. On the one hand, providing quantitative, cross-disciplinary evidence demonstrating the link between poor development outcomes and Making an overall Assessment in the ‘Rights or Privileges?’ Project Overall, a compelling picture of noncompliance with the obligation to fulfill emerged from a triangulated analysis of outcomes, policy efforts and resources. Guatemala had among the highest and most unequal rates of child malnutrition, maternal death and school dropout in the region, despite being a low-middle income country and the largest economy in Central America. In spite of the State´s formal commitments to the rights to health, education and food in its legal and policy framework, inadequate and inequitable levels of resourcing had stunted progress in the realization of these rights, by preventing the roll out of the critical policy interventions needed to ensure the availability, accessibility, appropriateness and quality of relevant public services. Fiscal policy, which plays a critical role in determining how a state puts into effect its human rights commitments, was at the root of the problem, and reflected the capture of the state by economic elites as a key structural constraint. For decades, Guatemala´s budget and tax policies had safeguarded the privileges of the country´s oligarchic families and business leaders, while disregarding the state´s obligations to its population, particularly the most disadvantaged, fuelling deep social inequalities and consigning more than half of the population to living in poverty. Elite capture –examined in the study by conducting secondary research and interviewing relevant actors - had resulted in weak structures for state regulation of the market and redistribution of public resources, as well as an economic and political context hostile to reform. On this basis, CESR and ICEFI were able to conclude that the widespread deprivation of the rights to health, education and food amounted to a breach of the state´s obligation to fulfill these rights progressively, without discrimination and to the maximum of its available resources. Assessing compliance with the obligation to fulfill economic, social and cultural rights 29