Disability and inclusion -
Breaking the cycle of poverty and disability in development cooperation
Overview
The European Union (EU) is one of the largest providers of development aid, with about 55% of all Overseas Development Assistance being provided by European Union Member States and the European Commission.
However despite the clear link between disability, poverty and development people with disabilities are not included in most of the development activities of the EU. Often they are neither explicitly mentioned in policies nor considered in development programmes and projects.
The EU and its member states are all committed to the Millennium Development Goals, which aim to eradicate extreme poverty by 2015. This commitment, however cannot be achieved unless the EU takes action to include disabled people in its development activities. The World Bank states: “Unless disabled people are brought into mainstream development it will be impossible to cut poverty in half by 2015.”
The ‘Breaking the cycle of poverty and disability in development cooperation’ project brings together 12 EU organisations to promote a coherent and coordinated approach to mainstreaming disability in development across the 25 European Union Member States, the European Institutions and European NGOs working in development and humanitarian aid. The project started in December 2005 with funding from the EU.
The project targets two main areas:
- Public institutions in the field of development at a policy level as well as a planning and implementation level. It includes decision makers as well as staff members from Ministries and government development agencies.
- Non-government organisations and disabled people’s organisations. NGOs which are active in the field of development to help them mainstream disability into their development programmes and to promote an inclusive approach to development cooperation. DPOs that are interested in getting more involved in development and who want to share their experiences.
All twelve partners are working to identify existing good practice on mainstreaming disability into development at both policy and implementation level. At a national level partners are developing methodology and practices in different areas to include relevant activities in their plans, which are shared with other countries and across the EU.
Project activities include:
Mapping, analysis and development of tools
A comprehensive mapping exercise across EU countries and data analysis
to enable partners and target groups to decide on priority areas for
mainstreaming. A number of training materials and tools will be collated
and made available on the project website. The themes identified will
be tailored to the needs and interests of policy makers and development
practitioners across the target countries and institutions concerned.
More about the training tools and mapping report (project website)
Networking
A project network that includes expertise and information exchange and
contact with other networks at international and regional level.
Training strategies
National training workshops on topics such as; disability, equality and
human rights, advocacy and mainstreaming. Pilot training workshops for
staff members of development departments in ministries, non-governmental
organisations, disabled-peoples organisations and other organisations.
Healthlink Worldwide worked on the mapping report for the UK as well as facilitating national training in February 2007. We are also identifying, gathering and signposting good practice on mainstreaming disability into development both at policy and implementation level. This is working with our International Information Support Centre (Source).