On 16th May 2011, the United Nations Association of the United Kingdom and the International Disability and Development Consortium held an event to launch the UN, ILO, UNESCO, IDDC  Community-Based Rehabilitation Guidelines first unveiled at the Fourth CBR African Network Conference in Abuja, Nigeria, at the end of October 2010.

This launch is part of the IDDC’s Making Development Inclusive Project, the aim of which is to strengthen IDDC as a hub for the provision of expertise on mainstreaming disability in development to national and international non-state actors. The CBR Guidelines are specifically about making development inclusive for persons with impairments to help break cycles of poverty-disability-poverty in which they are often trapped.

Andrew Mitchell, the Right Honourable Secretary of State for International Development, in a message to the organisers said: “It is clear that disabled people are among the poorest and most marginalised and that lifting them out of poverty is essential if we are to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.” In another correspondence the Under Secretary of State for International Development Stephen O’Brien noted that the Coalition Government is committed to the inclusion of disabled people in development.

Round table debate centred on three questions that focussed debate on why disability should be included throughout policy and programming in the international development sector:

 Why is disability not yet taken seriously by the international development sector? What are the main barriers?

 How can the CBR Guidelines help to raise the issue and be used as a tool for inclusive poverty reduction?

 What are the key recommendations or next steps for the international development sector on how to include disability?

25 leading experts on disability and development, including ILEP General Secretary Mr Douglas Soutar, discussed these in depth. They reached consensus on a range of recommendations, including a plan to mainstream disability across the MDGs, from which it was excluded at their conception, which are summarised in the Report of Round Table Discussions (link).

Mr Soutar noted the CBR Guidelines are a vital tool for those seeking to promote a rights-based approach to inclusive development. They also provide an additional resource to ensure the effective implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In the Round Table discussion it was stressed that it is important that we recognised the fact that there remain issues of segregation within the community of non-governmental organisations working in disability and inclusive development. These need to be addressed through greater collaboration and a shared, more outward-facing focus.

See also event write up on the UNA-UK website:
Report of UK Launch of CBR Guidelines 

Also of interest
Recommendations for African Countries Making Use of CBR Guidelines
 

Categories: Technical information