DFID policy project: Small scale research
2. The role and effectiveness of disability legislation in South Africa
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| - 1. DPO capacity building, Mozambique | ||
| - 2. Disability legislation, South Africa | ||
| - 3. Participation and PRSPs, Uganda | ||
| - 4. Participatory rural appraisals, Cambodia | ||
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The small-scale research was conducted by AK Dube, South Africa to study the extent to which policies and legislation, aimed to protect and promote the rights of disabled people, have been implemented in South Africa.
The two key questions that the research aimed to answer were:
- How effective has the legislative and policy environment been in making real changes to the lives of disabled people?
- Are policies being implemented and acted on, or do they loose their impact at the grass-roots level?
The methodology included questionnaires and interviews with key respondents in government departments in two urban provinces (Gauteng and Western Cape) and two rural provinces (Eastern Cape and KwaZulu/Natal). The author also conducted an extensive desk research and literature review to identify key information relating to the delivery of services to disabled people through implementation of policies and legislation.
The report analysed a number of specific policies and reports, such as the Employment Equity Act, and the Skills Development Act and the Commission for Employment report 2002/03.
During the period 1994–2004, legislation, policies, interventions, and programmes were formulated with the aim of positvely influencing the attainment of equity goals over the medium- to long-term, and also for addressing immediate goals in ensuring that more people with disabilities could access government services.
Overall, the author feels, the national government has been successful in creating an enabling environment for policy development work in the field of disability. However while support for the formulation and adoption of policy has been excellent, policy implementation remains a challenge. Of particular note were the issues of:
- Capacity contraints at a programme level, which may limit the implementation of policy
- Lack of consistancy when implementing policy at different government levels
- Lack of clarity over disabled people's participation in policy forumulation and implementation
- Lack of allocated resources and commitment.
The report concludes that the current legislation, which includes; The Employment Equity Act, The Social Assistance Act, The Skills Devlopment Act, and The Skills Development Levy Act have helped create a new sense of awareness of the needs of disabled people. However, the author states that: "With the execption of a few policies, implementation has had a marginal impact on the lives of the majority of disabled people in South Africa."
He continues: "The development of disability policies within government departments at both national and provincial levels is in its infancy, with the majority of departments having only draft policies. Such policies are generally not backed up by funded strategies, hence no meaningful implementation of these policies has taken place."
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the Executive summary as a Word document (6 pages, 387 KB)
