Chronicle - 16 March 2006
GOVERNMENTS and development agencies have failed to
implement good policies aimed at mainstreaming disability
in the development process, leaving the majority of
disabled people marginalised in society, research carried
out in several countries has revealed.
Presenting the findings of the Knowledge and Research
(KaR) programme on disability at an international
disability conference here yesterday, the leader of the
research team, Mr Mark Harrison, said the study
established that most of the countries that were surveyed
had good policies on disability issues but failed to
implement them.
"Governments and development agencies need to tackle
the problem of policy implementation, which has meant
that good policies on mainstreaming disability in
development remain trapped on paper," Mr Harrison
said.
"The research findings show that there is need to turn
the policies into action."
Mr Harrison said his team had also established that
most funds raised in the name of disabled people did not
reach the intended beneficiaries. The research programme
carried out by the University of East Anglia in the
United Kingdom and funded by the Overseas Development
Group covered several countries in Africa and Asia.
The project described by the researchers as the "most
ambitious, wide ranging and innovative project on
disability and development ever carried out" was led and
managed by disabled people from developed and developing
countries.
Speaking at the same conference, the Southern Africa
Federation of the Disabled chairperson, Mrs Rachel
Kachaje, said the findings of the research programme were
a reflection of the challenges facing disabled people in
the region.
"For many years our Southern Africa Development
Committee member states have been discussing plans and
policies without success as no one has the political will
to turn them into action," Mrs Kachaje said.
"Therefore there is need for us to move from this era
of promises to action and more action. This can only be
done if we get the appropriate information to turn our
dreams into action."
Officially opening the threeday conference, the Malawi
Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Technology, Mr
Davie Ngulinga, said lack of information on the needs of
disabled people was hampering their empowerment.
"In most countries especially the least developed,
data is usually in short supply because of the lack of
resources for the collection of information and its
analysis," Mr Ngulinga said.
Mr Denis Caine, a representative of the UK Department
of International Development (DFID), who commissioned the
KaR programme said the world would never achieve the
United Nations sponsored Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) until countries implement socially inclusive
policies.
Representatives of the disability movement in Southern
Africa, research institutions, journalists, political
leaders, African Union specialised agencies, disability
campaigners and Non Governmental Organisations are
attending the conference.
The conference organised by SAFOD and the Federation
of Disability Organisations in Malawi is meant to promote
and disseminate the findings of the KaR programme carried
between 2003 and last year to contribute to the
empowerment of people with disabilities in Southern
Africa.
Source
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