Double discrimination against disabled women in rich and poor countries
By Marianne Ziesler (Marianne.zeisler@nhf.no)
It does not follow as a matter of course in our society that all citizens are equal. To quote George Orwell in Animal Farm: "Some animals are more equal than others". Disabled people are definitely not part of the "more equal". Discrimination against disabled people is a global phenomenon, and girls and women with a disability suffer even more. They carry a double burden.
Development aid including Norwegian aid is no exception in this field. A review of Norwegian development aid initiated by the NORAD - Norwegian agency for development co-operation - for the period 1985-1995 shows this. Four reports made by Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway respectively as preparations for a meeting on disability between the four ministers for development aid held in Copenhagen November 2000 as well give useful information of the situation for disability projects within development aid.
How is it in Norway?
Some examples from our own country illustrate that the problem of discrimination against disabled people does not belong to developing countries solely. Marginalisation has in other words additional explanations than poverty:
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Disabled people in Norway have a lower level of education than the population at large. The biggest difference is within higher education.
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Access to jobs is about half for people who are disabled compared to the population in general. At the same time 9 out of 10 young disabled individuals on a pension say they would prefer a job.
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31% of persons with physical impairments never visit cafés or restaurants, compared to 9% of the population at large
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5 times as many disabled persons as the population at large report that they have mental health problems
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Norwegian law does not secure disabled people's right to services
How is Norwegian development aid?
Norwegian mentality and traditions are of course an integral part of our cooperation with other countries. In the bilateral aid and state-to-state cooperation disabled people and their organizations are invisible. Development aid to for disability projects is channelled through organisations of disabled persons and charity organisations - usually as small scale segregated projects. A small part is channelled through multilateral UN agencies.
Many believe that disabled persons are naturally included as part of the population within, for example, aid to poverty reduction; education, health, job creation etc. This is however unfortunately not the case. Disabled people are excluded from mainstream services and programmes. The reasons are familiar and well known to disabled persons in any part of the world, connected to lesser value, superstition, lack of knowledge, traditions, lack of power, in short - reflecting discrimination and marginalisation of persons with disabilities.
What about disabled women?
Documentation about disabled people is scarce and largely anecdotal. There are few statistics identifying problems and needs. It is obvious however that disabled women face a double discrimination, since they are both women and disabled. The situation is the same for mothers of disabled children. The society and the family place the burden on her shoulders when a child is born with an impairment. The blame, as well as the responsibility and the practical work are hers. Divorce is not an unusual consequence, or the threat of divorce. The husband wants to be married to "a woman that does not give birth to impaired children".
Poverty leads to disability, and disability leads to poverty. Girls and women with a disability have a higher risk of poor health and a higher death risk, maybe because they often get less attention. But the opposite may as well be a problem. Overprotection may lead to isolation from the society and from social learning. In poor countries, the situation worsens. An example is a blind girl having been carried around all her life. She was not even able to walk at the age of 16. Lack of knowledge combined with overprotective care from her mother and family increased her disability.
Superstition and lack of knowledge about disability add to the complexity of the problem in many developing countries. The largest barrier hindering equal opportunities may be that nobody considers that a disabled person has the potential to learn and develop through learning. All too common is the situation in a village where the neighbours are gathering in the compound where the little girl disabled from her birth now is busy training to walk: "We had no idea that she could learn anything". Isolation and infrequent stimuli are among the most dangerous conditions for any human being.
Disabled children and certainly the disabled girl is under-represented in school. This is the case whether the impairment affects her learning ability or not.
Mostly, all women in developing countries must be fit for hard work. Limitations in working abilities decrease your chances to marry. To be able to obtain your own income is for a disabled woman therefore quite important. But disabled women are seldom included in women projects for micro-finance or small scale business development.
Girls and women with disabilities are facing other problems. There are reports stating that they more often than others are victims of violence. To an even larger extent than for other women, violence towards a disabled women is a "silent act". She is less likely to be believed if she reports violence or rape. The same applies for disabled children. They as well may be victims of sexual abuse more often than others. They are often less capable of defending themselves both physically and by mental strength, and being regarded as of a lesser value, they become "easy prey."
How could an inclusive approach be developed?
It is fully possible to target specific groups within a mainstream programme. The following example from a programme in Palestine shows how women and disabled people are focused on within a community development programme. The programme mobilises existing resources in order to meet needs identified by the village communities. The strategy on focusing on disabled people and women as part of the community development includes:
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The Palestinian organisations in charge of the programme employ mostly women to work as facilitators in the villages
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Disability issues and women's issues are raised in meetings with local councils and open meetings
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Women in the villages are trained and encouraged to take on leadership
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Strong disabled women are identified as potential leaders and encouraged to join the union of disabled persons
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Mothers of disabled children receive extra attention and follow up
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Women in the villages are encouraged to form women groups
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Women groups are mobilised to participate in community development activities
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Extra efforts are put on accepting disabled girls to become enrolled in school
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The programme are networking and cooperating with national women's leagues in Palestine
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Extra efforts are made to include disabled girls into handicap sports
Through this strategy, disability issues and women issues are promoted together with other issues. It does of course not mean that these issues are often seen as priority number one, but women and disabled people have been put on the joint agenda, awareness has increased substantially, and so has inclusion of disabled in the community.
Challenges for Norwegian development aid
Goal number one for NORAD is to fight poverty.
Disabled persons are over-represented among the poor in all countries, and they constitute at least 5 - 7 % of the population. Until marginalised groups such as the disabled people are focused as part of the target group for development support, and mechanisms put to actively include them, they will continue to be left out. As the development aid today functions, it first of all reaches the elite in the recipient countries. The aid does to a very limited extent provide gains to those marginalized. So, NORAD to a large extent directs the aid to poor countries, but not so much to the groups in dire poverty within these countries.
It is a challenge for all stakeholders within Norwegian development aid to include disabled people in their cooperation. We must both recognise ourselves, and as well demand from partners that UN Human Rights efforts includes disabled people. A consequence of this perspective is that disabled children, women and men must be focused on in any programme as part of the target group. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and NORAD have decided this as their policy. Putting it into practice is now their challenge.
The experiences gained so far with including disabled people in the mainstream society are relevant as well for other marginalised groups. My assertion is that there is a need for a shift of paradigm in Norwegian development aid. The overwhelming "normal", homogeneous majority within the populations that sector support or mainstream programmes aim at reaching does not exist. The population in any country should be recognised as more heterogeneous, consisting of a variety of groups, different in opportunities, in their access to benefits and resources. These groups all together represent a problem for governments. Marginalised groups should therefore be identified in order to design the different sectors to include them. Policies and strategies should be developed to focus and targeting them as an integral part of the development aid. Disabled women and girls are such groups, and there are others; immigrants, internally displaced, ethnic minorities are others. The challenge is huge and complex, but necessary to take on. If the development aid does not take on board the realities, it is of little use for the poor.
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