1. Overview of the programme

Introduction

The Disability Knowledge and Research Programme (Disability KaR), funded by the UK's Department for International Development (DFID), is one of the most ambitious, wide-ranging and innovative projects on disability and development ever carried out.

In 2000 the Knowledge and Research Programme on Disability and Healthcare Technology was launched and ran until 2003. A budget of £1.2 million was spread over 20 projects. See www.kar-dht.org

An evaluation report commissioned in 2002 recommended that a second phase focus less on healthcare technology and more on disability as a human rights issue in development.

Although a number of healthcare technology projects continued to be supported, the main emphasis of Disability KaR Phase II (The second phase received £1.4million for two years from September 2003 and was managed by the Overseas Development Group at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Healthlink Worldwide) shifted to issues to do with disability, poverty and development. With this change came the more direct involvement of disabled people's organisations (DPOs) in both the UK and the 'South', or developing countries.

This section introduces this 'lessons learned' publication, outlining the main components of the second phase of the Disability KaR Programme and a few of its more significant outputs.

Competition projects

Six projects took place in this phase of the Programme, having bid successfully in a competitive process at the end of the first phase. Their focus was on sustainable new technologies that combat the detrimental effects of disability on the lives of
poor people in developing countries. See projects for more information >>

The largest single proportion of the Programme budget (38%) was allocated to these projects, which were:

• Low-cost technologies for accessible information on public transport
• Dissemination of a series of practical health care technology management procedure guides
• Development and sharing of wheelchair design knowledge in Africa
• Improving access to disability information
• Developing membership recording, tracking and management systems for disability organisations
• Research into health information systems, processes and technologies
  

One of Motivation's new wheelchair designs, developed with DisabilityKaR funding

The Policy Project

A Disability Policy Officer was appointed, which was pivotal to the entire
Programme. The post provided expert technical policy analysis and support to
DFID on disability issues, while ensuring that the other parts of the Programme
were responsive to DFID's needs.

The Officer's first task was a detailed mapping of DFID and disability issues, the report of which (Ref. A3) concluded that although there were scattered disability initiatives, disability had not been mainstreamed within the Department. This finding corresponded with that of another report commissioned by the Programme at around the same time: Disability KaR: assessing connections to DFID's poverty agenda (Ref. A2). Subsequently the mainstreaming of disability became a central concern of the entire Programme and underpinned the Policy Officer's three country-level research reports on disability and development in Rwanda, Cambodia and India.

A final report by the Policy Officer, Disability, poverty and the Millennium Development Goals: relevance, challenges and opportunities for DFID (Ref. A7), brought together all this work as well as findings from other parts of Disability KaR in a comprehensive set of recommendations on the way forward for DFID on disability.

The roundtables

Three roundtable discussion forums, held in Malawi, Cambodia and India, were organised by Healthlink Worldwide and a national DPO or disability organisation in each country. They were preceded and followed by an electronic discussion forum which have gave participants the opportunity to develop ideas to discuss at the meetings and keep the discussions alive after the events.

The overall aim was to share learning and research about the relationship between disability and poverty, and mainstreaming disability in development. The meetings provided an opportunity for decision makers to learn from disabled people, DPOs and organisations and institutions working on disability in the South. Participants also came up with practical ideas for taking forward a disability agenda. For example, the Malawi roundtable (Disability, poverty and the Millennium Development Goals) developed guidelines for research as well as a list of priority research topics on disability and development. These then fed directly into the Disability KaR commissioned research projects. In India the roundtable (Mainstreaming disability in development) set in motion an international campaign to get disability included when the Millennium Development Goals are reviewed in September 2005. Finally, the roundtable in Cambodia (Mainstreaming disability in practice: the case of inclusive education) came up with a series of recommendations and action plans for taking forward inclusive education.

Full reports of each roundtable and their outputs >>

Commissioned research

A number of specified research projects were part of the initial contract for the Disability KaR Programme, Phase II. These included substantive studies on poverty, disability and development and a comparative analysis of disability and gender mainstreaming. There were also briefing notes prepared on the social model of disability and the disability policies of national and international development agencies.

After the UK disability movement became more directly engaged in Disability KaR, and supported by the Programme Advisory Group (PAG), in which disabled people were in the majority, a new research agenda was formulated. This was firmly rooted in the research priorities and modalities of Southern DPOs, as expressed at the Malawi roundtable. It resulted in the production of seven short-term but ambitious projects, all of which were characterised by collaborative working between disabled people in the North and South and the active involvement of Southern DPOs. Reports were delivered on the following subjects (Refs D1-7):

• Research gaps on the topic of disability and development
• Disability policy and legislation
• Mainstreaming disability in development cooperation
• Whether disabled people's voices are being heard in the development process
• The collection and use by disabled people of statistical data
• Inclusive education in Asia and Africa
• Disabled people in conflict and emergency situations
  

A further four research projects were commissioned by the Policy Officer. The first three of these were carried out by disabled researchers in the South and the fourth involved disabled people in every aspect of the work. These projects (Refs B1-4) looked at:

• Capacity building of disabled people's organisations in Mozambique
• The role and effectiveness of disability legislation in South Africa
• Participation of disabled people in the PRSP/PEAP process in Uganda
• Developing participatory rural appraisal approaches with disabled people in Cambodia
  

Training course on mainstreaming disability in development

A two-week training course was held at the University of East Anglia, UK, which brought together leaders from the disability movements in Kenya, Fiji, Namibia, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Cambodia, the Netherlands and Malawi, as well as those working for international non-government organisations in Uganda and Bolivia. All aspects of mainstreaming disability were explored, practical tools and guidelines were developed and participants devised action plans to take forward what they had learned.

Communication strategy

Healthlink Worldwide produced a communication strategy for the Programme. The aim was to disseminate information, knowledge and research generated by Disability KaR, as well as to encourage dialogue between the Programme and other national, regional and international programmes, projects, institutions and organisations with an interest in disability. By drawing on the Disability KaR research findings and the outcomes of the three roundtables, it promoted practical ways of mainstreaming disability and highlighted best practice techniques and strategies.

Conclusion

The Disability KaR newsletter, produced by Healthlink Worldwide, has helped to make an international audience aware of what the Programme was doing, but neither it nor this section can do justice to the richness and variety of the activities carried out under the second phase of Disability KaR.

The face-to-face events, including the roundtables and training events, brought together representatives of DPOs and others not only to share experiences and formulate new ideas but also to put those ideas into action. The Policy Project made a major impact within DFID and helped initiate a more informed and purposeful disability agenda within the Department. Finally, the scope and quality of the research carried out under Disability KaR is truly remarkable, as is the fact that it drew on a novel emancipatory approach, was for the most part carried out by disabled people, and was informed by the basic unifying notion of disability as a fundamental human rights issue.