Discussion article: People with disabilities excluded from Millennium Goals?
There is a great debate taking place as to whether the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be reached or not. In general, criticism dominates. What is certain, however, is that if disabled people are excluded from development processes, then the Millennium Development Goals will only ever be words on paper. According to World Bank figures, 17% of all people with an income of less than one dollar are disabled or suffer from a chronic disease. However, none of the indicators mentions people with disabilities. It cannot be proved that there is a mainstreaming effect for people with disabilities. A so-called inclusive approach will not work if no specific attention is given to this group of people who are in a disadvantaged situation. If development included disabled people as well, the world would have a much better chance of reaching the goals that were set for 2015.
Discussion statement: “Without specific attention being paid to people with disabilities the Millennium Development Goals will not be reached.”
The Millennium Development Goals cause great debate worldwide. Also in some of the articles of DCDD newsletter 11 (October 2005), in which this article published. This article is a collection of eight responses to a discussion statement on the MDGs, from Asian countries and from Dutch development NGOs.
Exclusion will become a greater burden
Poverty reduction and improving the quality of life for all the people in Asia and the Pacific has become the overarching objective of the World Leaders. Unfortunately this goal is unlikely to be achieved because disability, which is both a cause and a consequence of poverty, has not been included in the Millennium Development Goals. People with disabilities are among the poorest of the poor, especially women and children with disabilities. They are also among the most vulnerable, deserving special attention because their standard of living falls far below the poverty line and their capacity for participating in economic activities can be severely limited by disability. To exclude people with disabilities from the Millennium Development Goals will have a negative effect on social and economic development. It will place a burden on every country throughout the world. A development, in which all groups, especially people with disabilities, are not mainstreamed in economic, social, political, and cultural development activities, will make people disillusioned and frustrated.
Ngy San, Program Manager for Disability Action Council in Cambodia. Contact by email: ngysan@dac.org.kh
The wearer of the shoe knows where it pinches
The Millennium Development Goals are quite ambitious and broad-based and thus have a tendency to tackle issues halfway. Unless specific attention is paid to people with disabilities, the threat remains that these goals will not be realised. Whilst the goals talk about eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, we, the disabled, remain the poorest of the poor all over the world. It is ironic to try and achieve these goals without paying attention to us. It is only the wearer of the shoe who really knows where it pinches, hence the need for our support. Let the disabled take a leading role in finding lasting solutions to their own problems. We are still discriminated against in educational systems. Infrastructure and social systems make it hard for us to participate actively in the development processes. No focus has been paid to fighting HIV/AIDS amongst disabled people. Giving specific attention to people with disabilities in the implementation of the millennium goals will inject expert knowledge from us to scale up the efforts towards meeting the target goals by 2015. Nothing about us - without us!
Fredrick Ouko, Co-ordinator at Kenya Disabled Action Network. Contact by email: kenyadisabled@hotmail.com
Do the disability check
When the Millennium Development Goals were formulated by the United Nations, the member states were looking for minimum standards of the quality of life of poor people. Unfortunately in these millennium goals, people with disabilities are not mentioned at all. This means discrimination from the development process by the UN and its member states. For me it really is a shame to see these thought patterns in world leaders, policymakers and peace builders. There is a vicious relationship between poverty and disability. Addressing this should have been one of the main tasks of the Millennium Development Goals. No-one’s life should be turned into a disabled one because of poverty, and no-one should become poor anymore because of disAbility. The millennium goals should be for all, otherwise a whole group of people will be excluded. disAbility experts or disabled people should be involved in all the steps, so that, in the Millennium Development Goals, special attention can be given to the mainstreaming of disadvantaged groups. Documents like the millennium goals need be judged or checked as to whether they are disability sensitized or not.
Shahidul Haque, Chief Executive of SARP (Social Assistance and Rehabilitation of the Physically Vulnerable) in Bangladesh. Contact by email: shaque@bd.drik.net. Read a more extensive version of the reply by Shahidul Haque in the document to be downloaded from the bottom of this page.
People, not averages
Without improving the lives of disabled people, achieving the Millennium Development Goals is not possible. But the problem with the millennium goals is that they are about averages and do not differentiate between different groups of vulnerable people. For governments and donors eager to show results to their tax payers, it is tempting to go for the quick wins. But if averages may then rise, this by no means implies that the situation of the worst-off has improved. Those who are amongst the most difficult to reach and who need the most attention, such as many disabled people, are often not visible in the Millennium Development Goals graphs. From a human rights perspective – which is, after all, where the millennium goals originated from - this is totally unacceptable. So the millennium goals are helpful, as they show the urgent need to reduce poverty, to provide more and better aid, to promote fair trade and to increase debt relief, but policy makers need to be constantly reminded that Millennium Development Goals are about people, not about averages.
Ellen Verheul, Project Leader at Wemos, The Netherlands. Contact by email: ellen.verheul@wemos.nl
Averages lead to deterioration
Cordaid does not entirely support the discussion statement because there are many different factors which play a role in attaining the millennium targets, not just giving specific attention to people with disabilities. We believe that a specific focus on people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups of people is necessary to enable these groups to participate equally in society. Unfortunately there isn’t a specific Millennium Development Goal aimed at improving the living conditions and the position of vulnerable groups in society. Generally, the Millennium Development Goals have been formulated as improvements of the national averages. This can even make the situation of the poorest and most vulnerable groups deteriorate, because policymakers may decide to exclude the groups that are most difficult to reach in their attempts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. It is an important shortcoming of the millennium targets that they can be achieved without giving any specific attention to handicapped people. It is, therefore, necessary to reformulate the millennium targets so that these targets must also be achieved for at least half of the poorest and most vulnerable groups of people.
Rens Rutten, Policy Officer of Cordaid, The Netherlands. Contact by email: rens.rutten@cordaid.nl
Supporting policy is required
There is nothing wrong with the way that the millennium targets are formulated in themselves. They focus efforts made in the development sector and make the concept of poverty alleviation more concrete and tangible. This makes it clear publicly that there is still a lot to do. But time and time again it becomes clear that there are groups of people who are not reached by regular poverty alleviation programmes. These groups may be older people, minority groups or women but also, and all too often, people with disabilities. Where the millennium targets speak of ‘halving’ of ‘reducing’, it is the most vulnerable groups who will lag behind. That is why VSO Nederland believes that interventions aimed specifically at these target groups also must be supported. It is only in this way that they can be reached and can profit from the intended improvements. However relevant it is in itself that the millennium targets can be realised for people with disabilities, without supporting policy aimed directly at these groups, they will not profit from the outcome of all the efforts made.
Henk Hofsté, Head of the Programme Department at VSO Netherlands. Contact by email: info@vso.nl
Education, disabled women and child mortality
It was probably assumed by the architects of the Millennium Development Goals that combating hunger and disease, illiteracy and child mortality, HIV/AIDS and gender empowerment would somehow also include in its net the 1 billion people with disabilities who escape all other development programmes because of their lack of a voice. Logically it would seem that if hunger was eradicated, if health was for all, if education knew no discrimination, then the disabled would automatically receive their just place in society. The risk of poverty is the tip of the iceberg and not the base of the pyramid! A social protection framework would thus have to be set in place to ensure that support is equitably provided for society's poorest and most vulnerable members. Suggested inclusions: education, since approximately 98% of children with disabilities in developing and/or poor countries are out of school, women with disabilities who face dual discrimination, and infant and child mortality since the risk of death ‘in utero’ and after birth is greatest for those with disabilities. Without specific mention, this would escape the attention of implementers.
Madhumita Puri, Director of the Society for Child Development in India. Contact by email: madhumita@disabilityindia.org. Read a more extensive reply by Madhumita Puri in the document to be downloaded from the bottom of this page.
Disabled children and positive attitudes
In the whole process around the Millennium Development Goals, the focus of attention has not always been on those people who are the most difficult to include with regard to the goals. Extra effort is needed to reach out to the most marginalised, and more importantly to help to change this imbalance for them – now and also after 2015. This can be reached by giving them special attention during the years leading up to the attainment of the millennium goals, and also by making the global society aware of the fact that some groups are easily overlooked. One of the most important groups which is easily overlooked is disabled people, and especially disabled children. Plan Nederland recognizes the importance of including all children, and especially the most marginalized, in development processes. In our programmes we are starting to recognize the importance of paying special attention to the access of disabled children, to the development of a positive attitude towards handicapped and disabled people and to enhancing the capacity of communities to include people with a disability.
Carlien Huijsmans, Programme worker for policy development and project work at Plan Nederland, The Netherlands. Contact by email: carlien.huijsmans@plannederland.nl. Read a more extensive reply by Carlien Huijsmans in the document to be downloaded from the bottom of this page.
This article has been published in DCDD newsletter 11.