Sharing experiences, developing goals

Since November 2004, the Disability KaR 'roundtables' - three highly successful international discussion forums - have taken place in Africa and Asia. This article presents some of the main points raised and outcomes from activities.

The three Disability KaR roundtables - facilitated discussion spaces for people to share their experiences and perspectives - took place in Malawi, India and Cambodia, organised by Healthlink Worldwide and a disabled people's or disability organisation in each country. Each had a theme but the idea was to allow the forums to develop according to the needs and priorities of participants, without a strict agenda. Before, during and after each roundtable, a moderated electronic discussion forum enabled an extended debate.

Why were they held?

The roundtables were designed as one way to bridge the communication gap between stakeholders at grassroots level and policy makers - providing an opportunity for decision makers to hear and learn from the views and experiences of people with disabilities, disabled people's organisations and others. They were geared towards defining research priorities for the Disability KaR programme to take forward, looking at how to link disability policy and practice, in relation to mainstreaming disability in development, and the links between poverty and disability.

The roundtable themes were: disability, poverty and the Millennium Development Goals (roundtable 1); mainstreaming disability in development (roundtable 2); and mainstreaming in practice - the case of inclusive education (roundtable 3). Participants came from DPOs, NGOs, bi-lateral agencies, UN agencies and national governments.

Although each roundtable had a different theme and mix of participants, certain key issues came up across the three roundtables; for example, it was apparent that challenging the attitudes of society towards disability is considered of high importance, as well as getting policy makers to recognise and address the challenges and issues facing disabled people. Other key discussion points from each forum are summarised below, followed by a selection of the main outputs.

Highlights

1. Disability, poverty and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Lilongwe, Malawi, 2-4 November 2004
The Federation of Disability Organisations in Malawi (FEDOMA) hosted the first roundtable, which was attended by 39 participants from Africa, India, South East Asia and Europe. Among them were representatives of government ministries, international NGOs, and regional, national and grassroots DPOs.

Participants identified a number of challenges to getting disability on the policy agenda. These included: disability being seen as a low priority by decision makers; lack of DPO capacity and unity; policies not being communicated down to the grassroots level; disability issues still being regarded in isolation.

A number of solutions were suggested, involving capacity building for DPOs, development of networks, increased lobbying, awareness raising of the effect of policies, and skills-building for DPOs. These suggestions were developed into a framework for action for use at national and international levels.

See our Framework for Action document (WORD document)

In discussions on the MDGs themselves, it became clear that although many participants had not previously thought about their work in relation to the MDGs, many DPOs were contributing to the achievement of the goals, and much of the work was already being done before the goals were 'created'. One participant said: "Take away the 'M' and you are left with Development Goals - and we all work to those."

People identified four MDGs in particular to which their work is directly contributing:

• Goal 1 - eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
• Goal 2 - achieving universal primary education;
• Goal 3 - gender parity; and
• Goal 6 - combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

2. Mainstreaming disability Ahmedabad, India, 24-26 February 2005
The Blind People's Association (BPA) hosted the second roundtable, which was attended by 49 participants from South Asia, Africa and Europe, including the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities of the Indian government - so the potential was there to target the highest level of policy-maker.

Participants shared their experiences of mainstreaming and inclusion, both personal and from their work. Some of the challenges they identified were to do with: access and accessibility - one comment from the group was that "access is more than constructing a ramp at the entrance to a building", education and employment, attitudes and culture, and policy and legislation.

Suggested strategies to overcome these included:

• Sensitisation and awareness-raising activities;
• Capacity-building for government personnel involved in implementing disability legislation;
• Inclusion of issues related to the education of disabled people in teacher training curricula and materials
• Skills-training for disabled people relevant to the employment market.

3. Mainstreaming disability in practice: the case of inclusive education Phnom Pehn, Cambodia, 4-6 May 2005
The third and final roundtable was hosted by Cambodia's Disability Action Council (DAC) and drew 64 participants, including members of the inclusive education team within the Cambodia Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, parents of children with disabilities and DPOs.

Participants shared practical examples of working with inclusive education in resource-poor settings. Among issues discussed were the appropriateness of inclusive education for all children with disabilities, and the role of special schools. The group made the following key recommendations for implementing inclusive education:

• Capacity development should not be limited to education. For example, in Laos capacity development has involved the health sector enabling children with disabilities to access key health services.
• Life skills are essential to all children and should be included in the general curriculum.
• Awareness raising among teachers, parents and children should be done in conjunction with the development and implementation of any policy.
• Working with parents is essential to promote positive attitudes and perceptions about the abilities of children with disabilities.
• Teacher training should attempt to reach a variety of teachers with different backgrounds and experience.

Main outputs from the roundtables

1. The Malawi roundtable identified research areas that would help support their work; the Disability KaR programme's 'Research Prospectus' has been based on their list. Ten areas for priority were identified.

The participants also created the following list of guiding principles for research and policy development:

• Include democratic and accountable voices of disabled people
• Reflect diversity of disabled people
• Resource voices of disabled people
• Facilitate equality of power relationships
• Conduct emancipatory research/policy development - be empowering
• Have active and equal participants
• Professionals should be 'on tap, not on top'
• Disabled people should be seen as experts in own lives/situation
• Have equal value of expertise - recognise power relations within expertise
• Benefit disabled people
• Include knowledgeable and skilled disabled people relevant to the topic
• Be inclusive of all disabilities within the range of research topics
• Be gender sensitive

2. Participants in India produced a petition about the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and disability to be sent to the United Nations. The petition suggests modifications to the MDGs, stating: 'The sheer number of Persons with Disabilities in developing and/or poor countries makes them the largest group of people vulnerable to extreme poverty and hunger. We urge the UN to acknowledge that disability is one of the key indicators of poverty.'

Read the full draft petition (WORD document).

There are also details of how you can comment on it. It has also been posted on the Disability India website, where up to July 19 there had been 320 signatures
www.disabilityindia.org/
mdgsign.cfm

3. A checklist of suggestions of how to engage mainstream development organisations in disability issues was also produced at the India forum. The suggested principles are:

• See disability as a broad development issue
• Converse with development organisations in a language that they understand. For example, when talking to the World Bank talk about economics, when talking to DFID talk about the MDGs
• Identify key entry points and contacts
• Be specific - use evidence (qualitative and quantitative) that is relevant to the context, and document actual experiences
• Adopt a broad-based approach, demonstrating how inclusion will benefit all society
• Engage with generalist development networks
• Identify strategic partners and strategic opportunities
• Be positive, identify areas where you can support the development organisation, do not only criticise it
• Document and disseminate models of inclusion and the process
• Focus on the things that unite, not the things that divide.

Participants determined the key barrier as disability being seen as a separate 'special' sector requiring a technical and welfare approach.

4. Indicators for identifying whether disability has been mainstreamed were produced at the India roundtable, for both the micro and macro levels.
Micro-level indicators include:

• People with disabilities included in local governance structures
• Numbers of people with disabilities represented in the target communities of NGOs match the demographic profile of the country or community
• Majority of girls, boys, women and men with disabilities receive a quality education in mainstream, local schools and institutions (except those who need special education)

Macro-level indicators include:

• People with disabilities secure employment on merit, not as a result of quotas
• Public buildings, spaces and transport are accessible for all persons with all types of impairments
• Teacher training includes components on educating children with disabilities
• All ministries have a budget allocation that reflects the demography of people with disabilities and utilises this allocation effectively

See the full list (WORD document).

5. The Cambodia roundtable produced good practice guidelines for inclusive education, which looked at issues of teacher training (from awareness raising to curriculum development), the physical aspects of the learning environment, making the learning environment appropriate for all, involving parents, peer education (students teaching each other), encouraging study tours and exchange visits, assessment and evaluation checklists, adaptive devices and aids for children with disabilities to enable their education, collaboration and exchange of experiences and learning, and linking education and community based rehabilitation.

See the full list (WORD document).

6. A framework for action to good implementation of inclusive education was also produced at the Cambodia roundtable. The titles of the five steps, which each have explanatory notes, are:

Step I - Be aware of good frameworks on which to base work
Step II - Develop and review policy (national and provincial)
Step III - Develop a strategic plan
Step IV - Let people know the importance of the implementation of the plan
Step V - Just do it!! (implementation)

The contributors noted that Steps I to III require the participation of policy-makers, teachers, principals, donors, parents, children and people with disabilities, and Steps III to V require regular meetings by stakeholders to monitor and evaluate and research the implementation of inclusive education. Throughout the development of policy and legislation transparency and good governance are vital. Steps I to V form a cyclical process whereby what is learnt over the cycle may lead to revisions in policy and strategy to take account of experience and lessons.

See the full list (WORD document).