By Susan Sygall

As part of the international development community, InterAction and its member agencies are intimately involved with the struggle to ensure effective development assistance.  As a community we have grown in terms of the scope of our work and we have matured in terms of our willingness and ability to hold ourselves up to scrutiny in assessing our effectiveness.  The PVO Standards adopted by the InterAction membership signal our commitment to ensuring that the work we do and the organizations we manage are effective and ethically grounded. 

A commitment to effective development assistance requires that the work we do includes marginalized groups in the communities in which we work.  This commitment must also be reflected in the diversity of our workforce and our governing bodies.  In policy (both USAID Disability Policy and InterAction PVO Standards) we recognize the inclusion of people with disabilities as integral to our commitment to diversity and as a vital aspect of effective development assistance.  In practice, however, we clearly have a long road yet to travel. 

Disability, like gender, is a critical crosscutting development issue. Today, the link between gender and development is well recognized, and gender inclusion measures are usually incorporated into mainstream development practice.  As yet, however, there is little acknowledgement of the link between disability and development within the InterAction community.  For instance, the AIDS pandemic is having a devastating affect in disability communities around the world; however, Ekaete Umoh of Nigeria noted at the 2004 InterAction Forum that

“Although great work is being done the world over on HIV/AIDS, the impact [of this work] is yet to be felt in the disability community. [People with disabilities] still face great problems accessing public awareness campaigns, nor are we able to access the medical and counseling services for people living with HIV/AIDS. Deaf and blind people are at great disadvantage in accessing public awareness campaigns on HIV/AIDS; for example, in Nigeria I have yet to see information on HIV/AIDS in Braille nor have I seen HIV/AIDS related messages interpreted into sign language.  Furthermore, literacy rates for disabled people are very low making communication of messages about HIV/AIDS more difficult. Meanwhile, the few of us who are educated are deprived of access to medical facilities and services because clinics and health/resource centers are inaccessible, lacking sign-language interpreters, ramps and support services for individuals with intellectual impairments and mental-health disabilities.  We are not considered when it comes to sexuality education programs and almost no general campaigns about HIV/AIDS target us as disabled people."

People with disabilities have not been effectively included in  poverty reduction measures, in spite of the fact that, worldwide, people with disabilities represent approximately 17 percent of those who live on less than $1 a day. As Madezha Cépeda from Peru noted in her discussion of employment issues at the 2004 Forum:

“Disabled young people and adults don’t have educational opportunities [ed. Only 2% of children with disabilities attend school in the global south]. Most of the limited job training programs directed to the disabled population are based on prejudices about our abilities and about the kind of employment that is, supposedly, appropriate for all people with disabilities, without taking into account the different types of existing disabilities, our previous qualifications, our real potential capacities and our individual aspirations. People think that there are specific types of jobs for all of us, that is, very simple and mechanical jobs. Well, that’s not the dream job of all disabled women or men. We can not feel satisfied because our potentialities are not recognized and because we, usually, earn the lowest salaries of the market…Disabled women and men know that in economic crisis we are the first to be fired and in times of prosperity the last to be hired. Structural poverty is a source of permanent exclusion and development initiatives must look at the contextual situation of disabled people. We don’t want privileges; we want our rights to be respected”.

Although people with disabilities are present in every community and ethnic group, they remain largely invisible to the development community.  For instance, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) there are 50 million uprooted people in the world.  Seventy-five to eighty percent of them are women and children.  However, at the 2004 InterAction Forum, Beatriz Satizabal of Colombia, discussing the situation of displaced persons in Colombia, noted that no one from the government, from the UNHCR or from the NGO community working with displaced people in Colombia knows how many people with disabilities are displaced.  The needs of disabled refugees are primarily the same as the needs of all refugees, but in order for disabled refugees to benefit from assistance programs for displaced persons, their very presence must first be recognized. 

In 2000, InterAction adopted amendments to the Private Voluntary Organization (PVO) Standards that provide guidelines on inclusion of people with disabilities in governance, management practice, human resources, programs, material assistance, and child sponsorship.  InterAction’s Disability Standards represent a landmark achievement for the international development field, and acknowledge the inclusion of people with disabilities as good development practice. 

New US legislation points to a growing understanding of the importance of disability inclusiveness.  Legislation recently passed by Congress under the leadership of Senator Tom Harkin, will have a direct bearing on the way in which international development organizations plan, carry out and report on relief and reconstruction work in Afghanistan and Iraq, and bring attention to the importance and timeliness of the InterAction PVO Standards on inclusion.  For example:

• In 2003, in the Iraq supplemental bill H.R. 3289, Congress passed legislation requiring organizations that receive USAID funds for relief and reconstruction efforts in Iraq to comply with the 1997 USAID Disability Policy (the 1997 USAID Disability USAID articulated a commitment to equalization of opportunities and to promote the inclusion of people with disabilities within USAID programs, in countries where USAID sponsors programs, in foreign assistance program goals).
• In January 2004 in the FY04 Omnibus Appropriation, Congress directed USAID to “ensure that programs, projects, and activities administered by USAID in Afghanistan comply fully with USAID's `Policy Paper: Disability',” and that standards for disability access be developed and implemented for USAID-funded construction projects.  (Section 587 of Public Law No. 108-199, January 23, 2004)
• The Millennium Challenge Act of 2003, establishing the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), prescribes in Sec. 607(b)(1)(B) "respect [for] human and civil rights, including the rights of people with disabilities” as one criterion for a country's eligibility for funds through the Millennium Challenge Account.

The urgent development, relief and reconstruction situations in Afghanistan and Iraq today present InterAction member organizations with critical opportunities to put the Disability Standards into practice.  InterAction members must take practical steps such as collaborating with and strengthening local organizations led by people with disabilities, incorporating disability into diversity and gender training programs and increasing the number of people with disabilities in staff and management positions, to ensure that people with disabilities participate fully in the process of development.

MIUSA offers free technical assistance to InterAction member organizations, to implement inclusive policies and practices, to comply with the Disability Standards of the PVO Standards, and to foster diversity and inclusion. For the last three years, MIUSA has partnered with the American Friends Service Committee, Church World Service, Holt International Children Services, Mercy Corps and Trickle Up Program, in an innovative project to assist in the implementation of the USAID Disability Policy and InterAction’s PVO Standards.  With technical assistance from MIUSA, each organization is implementing strategies to ensure that people with disabilities are included at every level, as administrators, implementers and participants of programs and services that they support.  

"Holt has always made it a priority to find families for children with disabilities, and to provide a safe and welcoming posture for all disabled individuals. Through our partnership with MIUSA, we've improved staff awareness, expanded our network of international disability rights organizations and most importantly for Holt, increased our capacity to determine what is best for the children we serve." Gary Gamer, CEO, Holt International

"The biggest factor in the success we've had in including people with disabilities in our programs has been the quality of the partnership with MIUSA in terms of their support, guidance and keeping us focused. Without that, while this issue is critically important, our attention could have easily been swayed." Sarah Buckley, Civil Society Program Officer, Mercy Corps.

MIUSA’s USAID-supported resource, Building an Inclusive Development Community: A Manual on Including People with Disabilities in International Development Programs offers InterAction members practical, indepth information for implementing PVO Standards on disability inclusion. This 658-page book addresses topics such as how to make programs and services accessible, budgeting for inclusion and international law and policy affecting inclusion of people with disabilities.  Leading voices from the development and disability communities provide regional and international perspectives on issues related to inclusion and disability, in such areas as disaster and emergency relief, gender equity, rehabilitation, education and microfinance. In the words of Janet Connatser Allem of the Management Policy Division of USAID

“The Manual provides tools for analysis, things to consider, lessons learned and a wealth of resources to help program managers to bring people with disabilities into the development arena.  With this Manual, USAID staff and other development professionals will have the tools they need to begin including people with disabilities in all of their efforts.”

MIUSA looks forward to working closely with all InterAction members, including those whose work takes them to Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond, toward the achievement of human rights for all the world’s citizens, and a truly inclusive international development process.