Disability and the MDGs
“Inclusion of persons with disabilities in all development work is crucial to achieving the MDGS”
-United Nations General Assembly
Lots of people see disability as a ‘specialist’ health issue that isn’t really relevant to the broader topics covered by the MDGs, such as education or gender equality. While we all realise that helping people with disabilities in poor communities is a good thing, we made not realise just how important it is to successful development. In reality, lack of focus on disability in development programs can actually pose a threat to the achievement of all eight of the MDGs.
20% of the world’s poorest people have a disability
That’s a significant number: anything that affects people with disabilities in poor countries affects one in five of the people whom the MDGs seek to assist.
Disability is not just a health issue – it forms part of the vicious cycle of poverty more broadly
Disability causes poverty, especially in developing countries, because people with disabilities are frequently excluded from community life. People with disabilities have the right to be included and supported in society just like anyone else. However, frequently they are not given appropriate support to enable them to participate in activities such as schooling, and are rejected by other people due to misconceptions and stigma around disabilities. This exclusion means that people with disabilities are often denied their basic rights such as education, rehabilitation, and employment, which in turn deprive them of these opportunities to overcome poverty.
While disability leads to poverty, poverty also leads to disability
This is through many common factors of poverty such as lack of access to good nutrition, health care, clean water and sanitation, and safe working conditions. Thus, a vicious cycle is created where disability is both a cause and consequence of poverty.
In fact this link between poverty and disability is so strong that inclusion of persons with disabilities in all development work is crucial to achieving the MDGs!
When working towards development, we have a responsibility to ensure that we recognise the equal rights of people with disabilities and include them in all the work we do around the MDGs. After all, the MDGs are about equality and poverty alleviation—including for the one in five of the world’s poorest people who have disabilities.
Workinesh’s story can help us understand the importance of disability in achieving the MDGs
Workinesh is a young woman from Fitche, Ethiopia. Her story helps demonstrate the strong links between disability and other MDGs such as education, poverty, gender equality and health.
Workinesh contracted polio as a very small child, which left her with permanent nerve damage causing paralysis in her legs. Workinesh’s family could not afford crutches or rehabilitative care, including physiotherapy. She was unable to walk and only able to move by using her arms to drag herself along the ground. Additionally, due to the lack of understanding in the community about disabilities, Workinesh did not receive an education. She was socially excluded, not only by the general community but also by her own family.
Unable to get help from the traditional healers or medical doctors, Workinesh's family abandoned her to the streets. Workinesh reports that she felt worthless and alone; many times she tried to take her own life. Workinesh became a beggar, and used to beg on the streets of Fitche, near the Fitche Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR). The focus of this project is to work with the poorest people with a disability in the Fitche area. The project framework is built around the CBR domains of health, education, livelihood, social inclusion and empowerment of people with disabilities. The project works to strengthen the whole community to deal with disability, and workers seek to dispel stigmas surrounding disability and to help people with disabilities to access their rights in the community.
Workinesh was thrilled to be able to walk independently to the market, to church and social events after receiving therapy, and crutches and specially adapted shoes from the Community Based Rehabilitation project. Workinesh reports that for the first time in her life she felt socially included; that she belonged and was valued by others. The project also arranged for her to receive a loan and small business training. Workinesh opened a small tea shop in rented premises and was able to pay back her loan, with some savings put aside for the future.
Workinesh has been reunited with her family and pays her younger sister’s school fees with profit from the tea shop. The two now share a home, along with Workinesh’s baby daughter.
(Story provided by CBM Australia).
Micah Challenge is an endorses End the Cycle, a campaign which seeks to raise public awareness of the cycle of poverty and disability in developing countries. To find out more and to sign the pledge to END THE CYCLE, visit www.endthecycle.org.au.
Follow Us