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Analysing disability policy in Namibia: An occupational justice perspective

CHICHAYA, Tongai F.
JOUBERT, Robin W.E.
MCCOLL, Mary Ann
2018

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Background: The Namibian disability policy of 1997 has not been reviewed for about 20 years, which has raised concerns with persons with disabilities and stakeholders in the fields of disability and rehabilitation. In March 2017, the government publicised its intention to review the policy. Thus, this study’s purpose was to generate evidence that can contribute to the development of a more current disability policy that will promote occupational justice.

 

Objectives: The aim of the study was to develop an alternative disability policy option for Namibia and to present outcomes and trade-offs using a policy analysis approach while applying the occupational justice framework to gather evidence.

 

Method: A qualitative research design and Bardach’s eightfold path approach to policy analysis were used. Critical disability theory provided the theoretical framework. The occupational justice framework was the conceptual framework for the study. Evidence from preceding phases of this study and appropriate literature was utilised to construct possible disability policy alternatives in Namibia, set evaluative criteria, project outcomes and confront trade-offs.

 

Results: Three main disability policy alternatives emerged: access policy, support policy and universal coverage policy. Access policy had the fewest trade-offs, and the support policy had the most trade-offs in the Namibian context. Access policy was projected to foster occupational participation among persons with disabilities.

 

Conclusion: Results have implications for selecting disability policy alternatives that promote occupational participation and justice among persons with disabilities in Namibia. Furthermore, the study has implications for advancing the practice of occupational justice in disability policy formulation.

Challenges faced by parents of children with learning disabilities in Opuwo, Namibia

TADERERA, Clever
HALL, Herna
2017

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Background: Parenting children with learning disabilities requires a high level of knowledge and access to resources, information and services. In developing countries, however, these resources and services are not always available. Parents in Namibia, a developing country, therefore face challenges addressing children’s learning and other developmental disabilities, including challenges related to preventative and supportive interventions.


Objective: This research focuses on challenges faced by parents as they parent children with learning disabilities in Opuwo, Namibia.


Method: In-depth interviews were conducted with eight parents regarding the challenges they face in parenting their children with learning disabilities. Thematic analysis enabled the researchers to identify, analyse and report on themes that emerged from the qualitative interview data.


Results: Analysis of the interviews indicated that some participants had only a vague understanding of learning disabilities, as they did not have access to essential knowledge about this phenomenon. They also lacked an awareness of the availability of programmes, services and policies meant to benefit their children with learning disabilities. Participants voiced that they, their children with learning disabilities and community members have stereotypes and prejudices regarding learning disabilities. In this study, most of the children with learning disabilities were raised by single, unemployed parents who seemed to have access to less support from external sources than married couples parenting children with learning disabilities. These single parents are usually not married and because of lack of financial support from the other parent, the majority of them indicated that they struggle to meet the financial and material needs of their children.


Conclusion: The researchers concluded that the participants in this study experience a range of challenges in parenting their children with learning disabilities. The main challenges emanate from financial instability, as well as lack of knowledge regarding services and programmes for children with learning disabilities. This lack of knowledge on the part of participants could indicate poor policy education by policy implementers at grass-roots level.

Beneath the rhetoric: Policy to reduce the mental health treatment gap in Africa

COOPER, Sara
2015

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In this paper I problematize knowledge on reducing the ‘gap’ in treatment produced by 14 national mental health policies in Africa. To contextualize this analysis, I begin with a historic-political account of the emergence of the notion of primary health care and its entanglement within decolonization forces of the 1960s. I unpack how and why this concept was subsequently atrophied, being stripped of its more revolutionary sentiments from the 1980s. Against this backdrop, I show how, although the 14 national mental health policies are saturated with the rhetoric of primary health care and associated concepts of community participation and ownership, in practice they tend to marginalize local meaning-systems and endorse a top-down framework heavily informed by colonial medicine. The policies thus end up reproducing many of the very Eurocentric assumptions that the original primary health care notion sought to transcend. More specifically, the paradigms of evidence-based research/practice and individualised human rights become the gatekeepers of knowledge. These two paradigms, which are deeply embedded within contemporary global mental health discourse, are legislating what are legitimate forms of knowing, and by extension, valid forms of care. I argue that a greater appreciation of the primary health care concept, in its earliest formulation, offers a potentially fruitful terrain of engagement for developing more contextually-embedded and epistemologically appropriate mental health policies in Africa. This in turn might help reduce the current ‘gap’ in mental health care treatment so many countries on the continent face.

 

Disability and the Global South (DGS), 2015, Vol. 2 No. 3

Core Concepts of Human Rights and Inclusion of Vulnerable Groups in the Namibian Policy on Orthopaedic Technical Services

VANROOY, G
AMADHILA, E
MANNAN, H
MCVEIGH, J
MACLACHLAN, M
AMIN, M
2012

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Purpose: Despite a highly progressive legislation and clear governmental commitment, living conditions among persons with disabilities in Namibia are systematically lower than among persons without disabilities. This implies that persons with disabilities are denied equal opportunities to participate and contribute to society, and consequently are denied their human rights.

 

Methods: EquiFrame, an innovative policy analysis framework, was used to analyse Namibian Policy on Orthopaedic Technical Services. EquiFrame evaluates the degree of stated commitment of an existing health policy to 21 Core Concepts of human rights and to 12 Vulnerable Groups, guided by the ethos of universal, equitable and accessible health services.

 

Results: A number of Core Concepts of human rights and Vulnerable Groups were found to be absent in the Namibian Policy on Orthopaedic Technical Services, and its Overall Summary Ranking was assessed as Moderate.

 

Conclusion and Implications: The Namibian health sector faces significant challenges in addressing inequities with respect to its policy on Orthopaedic Technical Services. If policy content, or policy ‘on the books’, is not inclusive of vulnerable groups and observant of core concepts of human rights, then health practices are also unlikely to do so. This paper illustrates that EquiFrame can provide the strategic guidance for the reform of Namibian Orthopaedic Technical Services policy, leading to universal and equitable access to healthcare.

Addressing violence against women in HIV testing and counselling

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)
2006

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This is a summary and recommendations from an international consultation co-convened by the WHO departments of Gender, Women and Health (GWH) and of HIV & AIDS to identify and review promising strategies or good practices to support women who may fear or experience violence as a consequence of HIV testing and/or HIV status disclosure; and develop recommendations to guide programmes and policies related to HIV testing and counselling, in light of current strategies to expand access to these and related services

WHO’s multi-country study on women’s health and domestic violence against women : summary report of initial results on prevalence, health outcomes and women's responses

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)
2005

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"Violence against women by an intimate partner is a major contributor to the ill-health of women. This study analyses data from 10 countries and sheds new light on the prevalence of violence against women in countries where few data were previously available. It also uncovers the forms and patterns of this violence across different countries and cultures, documenting the consequences of violence for women’s health. This information has important implications for prevention, care and mitigation... The high rates documented by the Study of sexual abuse experienced by girls and women are of great concern, especially in light of the HIV epidemic. Greater public awareness of this problem is needed and a strong public health response that focuses on preventing such violence from occurring in the first place...This study will help national authorities to design policies and programmes that begin to deal with the problem"

Gender mainstreaming and disability : sensitization in civic and voter education for USAID/Namibia

SOMACH, Susan D
LEBEAU, Debie
MINDES, Jerome
May 2004

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"This report examines the USAID-funded Civic and Voter Education Program's effectiveness in gender and disability mainstreaming in Namibia...It examines the relative strengths and weaknesses of the Electoral Support Consortium (ESC or Consortium), which was established to encourage voters to participate in the elections and to help voters make informed voting decisions. Although the focus of this consultancy was specifically to determine to what extent the ESC has been integrating gender mainstreaming and addressing disability and socially marginalized populations, this report, out of necessity, gives an overview of the ESC and the Namibian social environment within which the ESC operates"

Orphans and vulnerable children : taking action, building support. 2004 regional conference report back

VOLUNTARY SERVICE OVERSEAS REGIONAL AIDS INITIATIVE OF SOUTHERN AFRICA (VSO-RAISA)
2004

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This is the report of an annual conference entitled 'Tomorrow’s future, today’s choices. Orphans and Vulnerable Children: Taking action, building support'. The conference included youth delegates from Malawi and Zambia and over three days focused on: care and support; rights, psychosocial support, education and networking; skills building

The Africa campaign on disability and HIV & AIDS

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The Africa Campaign is a unifying umbrella under which disabled people's organisations, organisations of people living with HIV & AIDS, non-governmental organisations, AIDS services organisations, researchers, activists, and other citizens work collectively to achieve two main objectives: a coordinated response involving persons with disabilities in African countries to achieve inclusive national HIV & AIDS policies and programmes; and equal access for persons with disabilities in Africa to information and services on HIV & AIDS. This website contains information about the campaign and key documents

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