Memorandum submitted by the BOND Disability
and Development Working Group
1. The new UN Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) states that international development
co-operation must include disabled people (Article 32). In order
to know whether the UK is meeting this international responsibility,
DFID's annual report must start to provide data on the inclusion
of disabled people within the programmes DFID supports.
2. Disabled people make up a fifth of the
world's poorest people. A third of the children out of school
are disabled. DFID needs to rapidly strengthen and scale up its
efforts to ensure that this group is reached by development assistance
if the MDGs are to be met.
3. Although DFID is making increasing efforts
to address disability in its development assistance, there is
almost no mention of disability in the annual report. Unfortunately,
this gives the impression that DFID is not taking the CRPD seriously.
4. DFID's evaluation system should start
to assess the participation of disabled people and the specific
impact on disabled people of its development activities. All annual,
mid-term and final reviews and evaluations should include disability
within the terms of reference; without this, DFID cannot know
if it is excluding this significant group of people living in
poverty. There is some expertise for this within DFID, and there
are lots of other organisations with disability experience that
could provide assistance and advice if needed (including disabled
people's organisations, NGOs, universities and research institutes,
and other development agencies).
5. Better reporting on disability would
help those within DFID assess their progress and the need for
further action. Further, it would provide an indication to stakeholders
outside DFID of whether the Department is actually meeting its
obligations.
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