NSIAD-91-82 Foreign Assistance: Assistance to Disabled Persons in Developing Countries

This book's aim is to advance understanding and to promote accessibility and inclusion of people with disabilities in foreign assistance programs funded by the United States. This book reviews U.S. federal disability laws, the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) Disability Policy, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and discusses their application to U.S. foreign assistance programs. Over one billion people, 15 percent of the world's population, have a disability. The number continues to grow as a result of aging populations, poverty, armed conflict, and AIDs. Post-conflict and developing countries have a significant proportion of people with disabilities. Although people with disabilities make up a large segment of the population in many countries, they continue to face horrific forms of discrimination and segregation throughout the world. This book examines the work of USAID, the U.S. Department of State (DOS), and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), and provides recommendations that will strengthen the operation of these agencies by ensuring U.S. Government funding is used in a manner that is accessible to and inclusive of people with disabilities.

The World Report on Disability suggests more than a billion people totally experience disability. They generally have poorer health, lower education and fewer economic opportunities and higher rates of poverty than people without disabilities. This report provides the best available evidence about what works to overcome barriers to better care and services.

Disability-inclusive development is an essential condition for a sustainable future. In 2015, the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, pledging to leave no one behind in the global efforts to realize the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Without the world's one billion persons with disabilities - 15% of the world population - being included as both agents and beneficiaries of development, these Goals will never be achieved. Yet, persons with disabilities are still invisible and often left behind. This United Nations flagship report is the first publication to address, at the global level, the nexus between disability and the Sustainable Development Goals. It is also the first global analysis based on an unprecedented amount of data, legislation and policies from over 100 countries to understand the socio-economic circumstances of persons with disabilities and the challenges and barriers they face in their daily lives. This report examines new areas, like the role of access to energy to enable persons with disabilities to use assistive technology, for which no global research was previously available. And explores the linkages between the Sustainable Development Goals and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as well as other international relevant norms and standards relating to disability. Against the backdrop of all the available evidence, the report identifies good practices and recommends urgent actions to be taken for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by, for and with persons with disabilities. The e-book for this publication has been converted into an accessible format for the visually impaired and people with print reading disabilities. It is fully compatible with leading screen-reader technologies such as JAWS and NVDA.

One of the greatest challenges facing modern global health is how to include the most marginalized and impoverished people in international efforts to promote social and economic development. In Disability and International Development disability rights are situated within the broader context of global health and the need for much greater inter-sector collaboration. Reports from a broad cross-section of low- and middle-income countries—locales as diverse as Zimbabwe, Bolivia, Kyrgyzstan, and Papua New Guinea—move beyond surface discussions of "what is working" and "what shows promise" to discuss political and governance contexts, the roles of disabled persons in research by outsiders, concurrent struggles (e.g., women’s or children’s rights), and instructive inroads made by community activists and national Disabled People’s Organizations. The results are provocative, and offer new lenses for viewing both the issues and the populations they affect. Each of the book’s chapters spotlights a topic as representative of the enormity and immediacy of challenges to inclusive global health, including: The impact of international human rights law on domestic law and local traditions. The effect of failed states on the lives of people with disabilities. Empowerment and advocacy: disability organizations and movements. HIV/AIDS interventions with disabled persons. Assistive technologies in low-income countries. Strategies for improving the lives of children with disabilities. Cross-disciplinary as well as cross-cultural, Disability and International Development will attract a wide audience of professionals in rehabilitation, social welfare and human rights; governmental and non-governmental organizations and disabled people’s organizations; researchers and practitioners. It will also be relevant to those working in health and welfare administration, health policy, international aid and development, and human rights. In addition, graduate students in disability studies, public and global health and international development should find this an important guide to the future of these fields.