World Bank Conference on Disability and Development
By Bruce Curtis, International Department, World Institute on Disability
On a cold and dry winter's day in Washington, D.C., people began to arrive in front of the city-block long, glass and steel sculpted headquarters of the World Bank to attend an historic event in celebration of December 3rd, the UN International Day of Disabled Persons. This event was organized to "bring together World Bank officials, officials from developing and donor countries, representatives of civil society, and representatives from international organizations and our other partner organizations to discuss and debate strategies that the World Bank and other development agencies can implement to address the needs of poor disabled people in developing countries around the world."
(Follow this link for a
complete description by the World Bank of the event.
A complete
PDF document listing of the Conference's speakers, panels and activities over three days is also available).
Slowly the huge lobby area starts to fill up with small groups talking to each other surrounded by coffee and sweet rolls and attentive waiters. Around the edges of the lobby are NGO displays with stacks of paper handouts and photos of specialized equipment and smiling disabled persons active in the world. Past the security guards and all around the ground floor of the multi-level open interior are information kiosks staffed by representatives from NGOs that are working internationally to improve the lives of disabled people. Disabled individuals from Japan, Finland, Canada, Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala, various countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, begin to walk, wheel and guide themselves into the large conference hall. As the seats fill with people and the aisles fill with wheelchairs, the standing-room-only crowd excitedly waits to begin.
Opening session
Finally, James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank and the other conference speakers, enter the room with Judy Heumann in her electric wheelchair, making a pathway for them through the crowded audience like Moses leading her people to the Promised Land.
Ms. Heumann, a U.S. disability rights activist and former head of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services at the U.S. Department of Education under President Clinton, was hired by the World Bank in June 2002. As its first ever Advisor on Disability and Development, she will "lead the World Bank's disability work and highlight its importance, include it in the Bank discussions with client countries, its country-based analytical work, and provide support for improving policies, programs, and projects that allow disabled people to live and work in the economic and social mainstream of their communities." (Follow this link for a
complete description of the World Bank's announcement).
Next to the sign language interpreters and under a huge video screen with her words appearing as she spoke, Judy welcomed the more than 500 participants. "The purpose of this conference," she said, "is to engage in discussions which will allow us to have a better understanding of economic development issues, the links between economic development and human rights, and to help invigorate a greater degree of discussion and pro-active work inside the Bank and outside the Bank." (Follow this link to
listen to a complete audio or watch a video recording of Ms. Heumann's speech).
Judy encouraged everybody to read the editorial printed in the December 3 issue of the Washington Post, which was written by Mr. Wolfensohn. This article titled, "Poor, Disabled and Shut Out", speaks about the 400 million disabled people who live in the world's developing countries all too often in poverty, isolation and despair. He urged everyone "to heed those who are not listened to within their societies, whose disabilities are often used against them to keep them from going to school, finding work or being visible in their own neighborhoods." Mr.Wolfensohn recommended that, "Disability needs to be brought into the development mainstream through a dynamic alliance of the U.N. system, governments, agencies such as the World Bank, nongovernmental organizations, the private sector and other groups worldwide." (Follow this link to lisen to an audio or video recording of Mr. Wolfensohn's speech).
Personal observations
As a disabled person who has been working internationally for 20+ years to develop and strengthen the capacity of organization's of disabled persons and who has helped organize similar conferences that seek to integrate the issues of disabled persons into the policies and projects of U.S. Foreign Assistance agencies and international development NGOs, I find myself suddenly and unexpectedly, hopeful and optimistic. After so many years of polite meetings with low level government representatives that never went anywhere, after years of ridiculously minimal U.S. government funding for international projects that focus on the needs of disabled persons, finally one of the world's largest and most important financial institutions has taken a firm leadership position declaring that disabled persons ARE an important focus of its future work.
President Wolfensohn's remarks
When Mr. Wolfensohn began speaking, he described the World Bank's previous work with disability as "somewhat episodic " and stressed his intention that the future work of the World Bank would integrate disability issues and the viewpoints of disabled persons into every aspect of its development activity. Recognizing the importance of a capable leader, he expressed gratitude that Ms. Heumann was now assisting him to successfully implement this new initiative. Mr. Wolfensohn noted that while meeting with the leaders of the 120 countries he has visited, rarely have they raised the issues of disabled persons as a priority. He also noted that often when international agencies are discussing educational policies, disabled persons are not identified as equally important as all children. "On the issues of access (to Education)... all too often schools and institutions that service the public are being put up with little or no regard to the most basic elements of access. I have to say to you, that the international community has broadly let down the disabled community by not insisting, as we go forward with the plans for construction of buildings, on accessibility which is so essential to having the disabled community get, which is their right, the opportunity to work, the opportunity to be self-supportive and the opportunity to contribute."
Coincidentally, at a follow-up meeting that week in Washington on efforts to promote the integration of disability concerns into U.S. foreign policy, an excellent point was made by U.S. disabled leaders with international expertise. They commented that they had witnessed U.S. Foreign Assistance dollars being administered by U.S. International Development NGOs to rebuild schools and buildings in Kosovo without incorporating accessibility features or in Honduras after Hurricane Mitch's devastations, rebuilding communities without consideration for the needs of disabled persons in wheelchairs. This kind of exclusion and maintenance of institutional segregation by USAID-funded NGOs continues even after the adoption by USAID of new policies in 1997 articulating the U.S. Agency for International Development's "commitment to pursue advocacy for, outreach to, and inclusion of people with physical and mental disabilities, to the maximum extent feasible, in the design and implementation of USAID programming, and provides guidance for making that commitment operational. " (
Read the full USAID policy statement).
Mr.Wolfensohn concluded his remarks by promising that "What I want to pledge to you today is frankly very simple, it is first, that we haven't done as good a job as we should have but that secondly, we are now anxious to ensure that we do the best possible job, as a leader at the center, regarding issues of disability, not as a gloss, not as a luxury but as something that is central to our function of trying to deal with the question of poverty......We are hoping for a greater recognition by you that our door is wide open to try and build new links, new understandings and new initiatives where together we can make a difference in the lives of people who want a normal life, an opportunity to get employment, an opportunity to be self sustaining, an opportunity to contribute." He closed with a promise that the Bank would hold a second conference in two years to review its progress with the disability community.
Some of the other featured speakers during the day were, Bengt Lindqvist, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Disability, Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan, Patron and Honorary Chair, Landmine Survivors Network, and a concluding speech by U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy. Disabled experts in development projects were well represented on panel sessions held throughout the day. A short video, Unheard Voices: Including Disabled People in Development Programs, made by Disabled Peoples' International at its October world congress in Japan, was also shown to the audience. (All of the speeches and the video are available on the web).
While speaking with the other participants at the conference, over and over again I heard very positive comments about the strong message of inclusion being promised by the President and the other representatives of the World Bank. During the public dialogues with members of the audience, many persons while speaking of their past experiences with institutional discrimination and exclusion, also balanced their comments with a cautious note of optimism based on the comments of Mr. Wolfensohn and other World Bank representatives. As Mr. Wolfensohn said, "This is not for us a 'Hollywood Day'. This for us is a central commitment and under Judy's leadership we are looking forward to working with all of you to try and bring about some real progress over the next two years."
Optimism
I believe that many if not all of the participants left the Conference feeling that they had witnessed a breakthrough in the field of international development for persons with disabilities. How deep and substantive the commitment by the World Bank to become a world leader in promoting the inclusion of disability issues and the expertise of disabled persons in its efforts to alleviate poverty in the world, we will all have to wait and see. Unfortunately, a worldwide legacy of discrimination and exclusion has taught us to be cautiously guarded about promises. I find myself among those who are optimistic, because I could see Judy Heumann sitting next to the President of the World Bank and like so many other persons in the audience who have first hand knowledge of Judy's expertise and tireless activism, we all know that if anybody can get the World Bank to deliver on its promises, Judy can!
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