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This paper examines, complicates and contests the implicit discourse of children living in poverty as inherently disabled. Challenging the media portrayal of young people living in the favelas in Rio de Janeiro within the neo-liberal discourse of development, the article will draw on the experience of one of the author’s (Ashley Do Nascimento) experience as a child and youth care worker and ethnographer in a favela in Rio. An argument will be made for re-thinking dis-ability in relation to poverty and childhood in the global south.

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

At the Copenhagen Conference, with 170 representatives across 46 countries, the campaign discussed the vital importance of achieving equality across all levels and themes of the post-2015 framework, and through implementation and accountability mechanisms addressing all three dimensions of sustainable development (social, economic and environmental). This Beyond 2015 Copenhagen Statement contains recommendations to contribute to the forthcoming intergovernmental negotiations, and other decision-making processes relevant to the post-2015 agenda, including discussions around the UN Secretary General’s Synthesis Report

Beyond 2015 Copenhagen Conference

November 2014

Copenhagen, Denmark

"This document is an overview aimed at providing an understanding of the economics of the physical and functional rehabilitation system. It is the first part of a study aimed at giving Handicap International’s teams in the field a tool for diagnosing the economic system for physical and functional rehabilitation, starting with West Africa. The proposed diagnostic tool will be the subject of another publication. The study was done in two stages. First, an analysis of the economic system for physical and functional rehabilitation was done and this led to an initial draft of a tool. Starting from that draft, a study done in Burkina Faso then helped to clarify many points and give a concrete picture of the concepts which would be useful in carrying out the analysis. This report is devoted to providing an economic analysis of the physical and functional rehabilitation system"
 

This research focuses on three stakeholders: Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), Persons with Disabilities (PWD), and non-disabled clients. It attempts to highlight the following:

• Understanding of MFIs about disability, their perceptions of persons with disabilities, and their preparedness to include them as potential clients
• Concerns and apprehensions of PWD to becoming potential MFI clients
• Views of non-disabled clients on including PWD in their groups

The study investigates the knowledge and the perceptions about disability among each stakeholder group and attempts to elucidate how that impacts the ability of PWD to access microfinance services. Four microfinance institutions of different geographic areas were studied. The survey inolved 1,000 people of whom 57 were disabled. 

This is a how-to guide for companies interested in integrating youth with disabilities into their workforce. "This guide is based on initiatives that are currently tried out by ten companies to employ youth with disabilities in eight countries (Brazil, Chile, China, India, Norway, Republic of Serbia, Singapore and the United States). Good practices and useful insights are identified and explained through first-hand accounts. First, the business case for employing youth with disabilities is made. This section will highlight how two companies benefited from initiatives to employ youth with disabilities. Next, four reoccurring good practices that were cited in the featured cases are given particular consideration:

• partner with an organization that specializes in disability services;
• provide (when necessary) disability-accessible skills training;
• offer recruitment and job placement services;
• embrace a policy of inclusion and non-discrimination"

The publication reviews the concept of accessibility and its role in achieving inclusive and sustainable development. It propositions that accessibility be, not only a means and a goal of inclusive development, but also an enabler of an improved, participative economic and social environment for all members of society, including persons with disabilities.

Three key issues are addressed in the publication: (1) Accessibility in the context of human rights and development; (2) accessibility in policy and practice; and (3) accessibility and a disability-inclusive post-2015 development agenda.

The publication reviews good practices and lessons learned from both top-down and bottom-up approaches in promoting accessibility in practices and provides a response to the question: “How does accessibility relate to inclusive, sustainable and equitable development?” The publication argues that accessibility must be re-conceptualized as an enabler: a precondition for any progress toward development for all members of society.  It concludes that the full and effective participation of persons with disabilities in decision-making processes would contribute directly to the successful adoption of an inclusive post-2015 development agenda

ST/ESA/350

"There is a general lack of knowledge regarding disability and especially factors that are associated with disability in low-income countries. We aimed to study the overall and gender-specific prevalence of disability, and the association between exposure to traumatic events and disability in a post-conflict setting. We conducted a cross-sectional community based study of four Greater Bahr el Ghazal States, South Sudan (n = 1200). The Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) was applied to investigate exposure to trauma events. Disability was measured using the Washington Group Short Measurement Set on Disability, which is an activity based scale derived from the WHO’s International Classification of Disability, Functioning and Health. The estimated prevalence of disability (with severe difficulty) was 3.6% and 13.4% for disability with moderate difficulties. No gender differences were found in disability prevalence. Almost all participants reported exposure to at least one war-related traumatic event. The result of a hierarchical regression analysis showed that, for both men and women, exposure to traumatic events, older age and living in a polygamous marriage increased the likelihood of having a disability. The finding of association between traumatic experience and disability underlines the precariousness of the human rights situation for individuals with disability in low-income countries. It also has possible implications for the construction of disability services and for the provision of health services to individuals exposed to traumatic events"

BMC Public Health, 13:469