Creating a Disability and Development Coalition in Albania
Grantee: Albanian Disability Rights Foundation (ADRF)
Location: Albania
Grant Amount: $3,720
Project Dates: November 2007 - April 2008
Project Title: Building a Disability and Development Coalition
Project Details: ADRF’s mission is to promote equal opportunities and protect the human rights of people with disabilities in order to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities and their family members. This project supported the development of the “Albanian Disability and Development Coalition” (DDCA). The coalition brought together representatives from development and disabled peoples’ organizations to exchange information and training in best practices for disability inclusiveness. The coalition included representatives from diverse organizations, including USAID, Save the Children and the World Health Organization. Coalition members focused on team building and networking strategies. They met to develop a long-term structure and working format for the coalition. To build capacity in the area of networking and coalition building, members of the coalition organized a study tour to Ireland to participate in a World Learning Forecast/USAID supported training program. Later, a workshop on “Inclusive Development Practices” was held to exchange ideas and strategies among coalition members and draft an action plan.
Results:
- The Disability and Development Coalition was created, which includes 25 member organizations
- Two advocacy actions of the DDCA were completed and sent to all responsible institutions on electoral reform, including the Electoral Reform Parliamentary Commission, the Central Election Commission, the Organization for Security and Cooperation Europe (OSCE), and the Ministry of Order:
1) DDCA members signed a request for the approval of the status of mentally disabled people be addressed by the government
2) DDCA members signed a request for the “Appeal/or Open Paper on the right to Electoral Access for People with Disabilities” - The institutions on electoral reform committed their full support for the issues of electoral access for people with disabilities and promised to focus more on disability in their programs.
- Two articles were published that increased visibility of the coalition’s activities:
1) An informative article about disability was published in the Municipalities Association periodical (800 copies)
2) An article was published in the ADRF magazine “Challenge” (500 copies)
- The coalition prepared and analyzed an electronic questionnaire to create an electronic database containing information on all its members.
- The coalition drafted and approved an Action Plan with the input of all members.
