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International Day of Disabled Persons: Raising the profile of disability and development

What we do | Our partners | Key facts | Links


Procession of Thai children, some of whom are disabled

Image courtesy of UNESCAP

Did you know that 10% to 20% of people around the world are disabled? Too often their freedoms are restricted - and their potential overlooked. 

To encourage more people to think about and act on the issues facing disabled people, in 1992 the United Nations observed the first ever International Day of Disabled Persons. It's been taking place on 3 December ever since.

External linkThis year's campaign strapline is 'Nothing About Us Without Us'. The focus is on the active involvement of persons with disabilities in the planning of strategies and policies that affect their lives.   

What is DFID doing on disability?

Indian lady in a wheelchair

Image courtesy of Photovoice

Mainstreaming: DFID is working towards mainstreaming disability throughout all areas of our work, so that the needs of disabled people are taken into account at all stages of planning and implementing our activities - and ensuring that disabled people are consulted about issues that affect them.

DFID published the issues paper Disability, Poverty and DevelopmentPDF document(462 kb) in February 2000. 

The paper highlights the links between poverty and disability and advocates a twin-track approach to disability:

  • Addressing inequalities between disabled and non-disabled people in all strategic areas of our work;
  • Supporting specific initiatives to enhance the empowerment of disabled people.

Wider framework: Our policy division, which is responsible for developing DFID policy on disability in development, locates disability within the wider framework of its work on human rights and in particular social exclusion. 

New work: New work is currently being developed to improve how DFID addresses issues relating to social exclusion, such as disability. We fund a Knowledge and Research (KaR) Programme (£1.4 million), which is developing a focus on disability mainstreaming. KaR recently completed a disability mapping studyPDF document(1.25 mb), which revealed that DFID is already supporting a range of activities focused on disability issues, which include:

Partnership with Action on Disability and Development

In 2002, a 5 year Programme Partnership Agreement with Action on Disability in Development (ADD) was agreed. The PPA is worth £1,725,000 over 3 years (with the last 2 years being decided at the end of the 3rd year: 2004)

This partnership revolves around the support of the work of disabled people's organisations and to influence policy makers and development practitioners. In turn, ADD work in partnership with networks of disabled people in some of the poorest communities in the world, to help them to campaign for the rightful inclusion of disabled adults and children in society.

India

  • The Andhra Pradesh Rural Livelihoods Programme (£45.5 million) has an element of enabling economic opportunities for disabled people;
  • The District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) (£176.5 million) has been successful in some states in integrating disabled children as part of its inclusive education approach. DFID is a major donor to this initiative;
  • DFID India is also planning to cooperate closely with the planned World Bank study on disability and is committed to working in partnership with key UK-based International NGOs, including VSO, to access and support Indian networks addressing rights of those who suffer discrimination;
  • Hilary Benn to participate in VSO roundtable discussions involving NGOs and institutions working on disability issues in India, disability activists and leaders.

Ghana

  • DFID'sExternal linkImfundo team are working with disability groups in the UK and Ghana to develop ICT solutions to the special needs of visually and hearing-impaired children, to help the Ministry of Education realise its commitment to children with special educational needs;
  • An objective of the comprehensive Education Sector Plan is to prioritise the disadvantaged in society. A specific component focuses on children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) to be implemented by the Ghana Education Service's Special Education Division.

More on the Disability Knowledge and Research Programme (KaR)

KaR, with a budget of approximately £1.4 million, represents DFID's most significant research commitment to disability. The programme seeks to address disability issues both at the strategic policy level and the grassroots. Key components of the programme include:

  • Research into the links between poverty and disability
  • Support to policy development through the placement of a technical advisor on disability within DFID headquarters
  • Support for training on disability issues for DFID personnel
  • Regional roundtable discussions in Asia and Africa

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Who are our partners?

Two patients at the Rehabiliation Centre for Paralysed Patients in Dhaka, Bangladesh, playing chess

Image courtesy of the United Nations

"Disability is a human rights issue. So long as people with disabilities are denied the opportunity to participate fully in society, no one can claim that the objectives of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have been achieved."

Bengt Lindqvist, UN Special Rapporteur on Disability

There are many organisations working towards raising the profile of disability within development. 

They include the the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the European Union, World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), and Voluntary Service Overseas which are all working to prevent disability and ensure that disabled people enjoy equal opportunities in their communities and schools. 

For details of these organisations' websites, see the Links section

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Key facts

Protest march in Bangladesh, on foot and in wheelchairs

Image courtesy of Photovoice

While theExternal linkWorld Health Organisation (WHO) predicts that by 2050 the number of people with a severe disability and dependent on help from others for basic living tasks will soar by 400% in countries such as Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Somalia and Palestine.

It is clear that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) cannot be achieved if the rights and needs of disabled people are not taken into account. Much more needs to be done.

Women and disability

  • Nearly 20 million women every year suffer disability through complications in pregnancy - which better maternal health care could have prevented.
  • Disabled women are twice to three times more likely to suffer sexual abuse but are often ignored by authorities, who view them as "sexless".
  • Disabled people, particularly women, lack access to information and services for HIV and AIDS.
  • Many disabled people, especially elderly disabled women, lead isolated lives - unable to go out of their own homes or even move around adequately inside them.

Disability and the Millennium Development Goals

Which Millennium Development Goal is aimed at improving the lives of disabled people? The answer is all of them, because:

  • The World Bank estimates that between 10% and 20% of any population has a disability.
  • Disabled people are disproportionately represented amongst the poor. 
  • UNESCO estimates that more than 90% of disabled children in developing countries do not attend school.
  • In Tanzania households with a disabled member are likely to consume 60% less than other households and are 20% more likely to be poor.
  • Disability affects an individual's chance of going to school, working for a living, enjoying family life and participating as equals in society
  • We cannot achieve any of the goals by leaving out a significant sector of the population. Primary education for all for example can only be achieved by including - and not excluding - disabled children.

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Links