Samaita Associates, South Africa with the Disabled Womens Support Organisation (DSWO), Zimbabwe and Lang Consulting, UK

The research was conducted in South Africa and Zimbabwe by Andrew Dube, Managing Director, Samara Associates (South Africa) and Gladys Charowa – Consultant and Executive Director of Disabled Women Support Organisation (DWSO) Zimbabwe. The research was undertaken from February 17 to the end of June 2005.

Four questionnaires for governments, donors, DPOs and disabled people were designed and tested in South Africa and Zimbabwe. United Kingdom and Northern Europe had its own questionnaire, targeting DPOs only, and the literature on disability and disability policies of these countries was also reviewed.

Generally, in Zimbabwe and South Africa the development and implementation of disability policies within government departments, at both national and provincial levels, are at a very early stage with the majority of departments and municipalities having draft policies, or no policies at all. Where policies exist they are generally not backed up by funded strategies hence no meaningful implementation of these policies has occurred. Therefore, the voices of disabled people in the South are not heard and acted upon. In the North disabled people’s voices are starting to be heard but more still needs to be done.

Most donors in Zimbabwe (67%) and South Africa (70%) indicated that they do not fund disability issues. Those funding disability issues are concerned with advocacy and human rights on a very small scale and this funding is small and comes with conditions. There are no donors targeting income-generating projects so as to empower people with disabilities. Donors interviewed admitted that there is differences in the way disability issues are being handled. They suggested that all development processes should include people with disabilities.

But the paper concluded that Disabled People’s voices are not being heard as they are living in poverty. “They do not want to be dependent. They want to be involved from the planning to implementation of disability programmes. Government and DPOs should disseminate user-friendly information to rural areas and ensure that all types of disabilities are reached,” said the researchers.

The research found most of DPOs (85%) in both countries are not happy with policies being put in place by the world bodies. “It was disappointing to note that disabled people are not aware of the UN Programmes in place such as the Africa Decade and the MDGs. They felt that their concerns could only be addressed if donors could target them directly.”

They also felt that they should be empowered by being engaged in income-generating projects; vocational training for adults, education for all, and the environment should be user-friendly for all types of disabilities.

Read the Full Report as a Word document (77 pages, 750 KB)