AUSTRALIAN NETWORKING SITES
If you would like regular email updates on disability in developing countries, you can subscribe to the Disability in Developing Countries Special Interest Group by contacting Joni Law at jycl@unimelb.edu.au.
Australian Disability and Development Consortium (ADDC).
The ADDC is a national network focusing attention, expertise and action on disability issues in developing countries and building a national platform for disability advocacy. It’s mission is to promote the rights and inclusion of persons with disabilities in development activities, advocating that disability be fully integrated into all Australian development programs and policies.
Further information about ADDC plus news and resources relating to disability and development can be found on their website: www.addc.org.au
Or contact the ADDC Coordinator:
Paul Deany pdeany at cbmi.org.au
Ph: 1800 678 069
AUSTRALIAN DPOs
www.afdo.org.au
The Australian Federation of Disability Organisations (AFDO) has been established as the primary national voice to Government that fully represents the interests of all people with disability across Australia.
The mission of AFDO is to champion the rights of people with disability in Australia and help them participate fully in Australian life.
www.pwd.org.au/index.html
People with Disability Australia Incorporated is a national peak disability rights and advocacy organisation. Its primary membership is made up of people with disability and organisations primarily constituted by people with disability. PWD also has a large associate membership of other individuals and organisations committed to the disability rights movement. PWD has a fortnightly E-Bulletin to which any interested person can subscribe.
OTHER AUSTRALIAN ORGANISATIONS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
www.wwda.org.au
Women with Disabilities Australia has great resources on issues relating to women with disabilities. You will find excellent reports and documents on many issues, including Advocacy; Ageing; Human Rights; Education; Employment; Eugenics; Health; Housing; Telecommunications; Leadership; Legal; Motherhood; Sexuality; Sterilisation; Transport; Violence.
WWDA produces regular news bulletins. The latest is the April 2008 editionClick here to download this file
AUSTRALIAN DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATIONS
www.acfid.asn.au/
The Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) is an independent national association of Australian non-government organisations (NGOs) working in the field of international aid and development. ACFID has some 80 members. It administers a Code of Conduct committing members to high standards of integrity and
accountability.
of interest to APIDS are two of ACFIDs working groups:
1) PNG-Pacific-Solomon Islands Working Group
The 57 ACFID members that undertake work in Papua New Guinea and other parts of the Pacific link together in a network called the PNG-Pacific-Solomon Islands Working Group.
These agencies work on a wide range of development assistance activities including: health, education, water and sanitation, literacy, community development, natural resource management, youth support, and HIV awareness.
Capacity-building of Pacific Island partners is the major focus of the working group members and singley and collectively they provide a depth of knowledge and experience about development assistance to Pacific Island countries.
2) Disability and Development Working Group
ACFID’s Disability and Development Working Group comprises 40 member agencies that work on disability issues (which include physical, mental and sensory impairments) mostly in Asia and the Pacific but also in Africa. The group liaises closely with a range of Australian domestic disability groups who are members of the National Disability Services (NDS). Together ACFID and NDS members come together to provide state-of-the-art assistance on disability in developing countries through the Australian Disability and Development Consortium (ADDC).
INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS
The United Nations has many resources relating to disability on its website. www.un.org/disabilities/
One of the most recent is a fact sheet on disability which includes facts such as:
• Around 10 per cent of the world's population, or 650 million people, live with a disability. They are the world's largest minority.
This figure is increasing through population growth, medical advances and the ageing process, says the World Health Organization (WHO).
• In countries with life expectancies over 70 years, individuals spend on average about 8 years, or 11.5 per cent of their life span, living with disabilities.
• Eighty per cent of persons with disabilities live in developing countries, according to the UN Development Programme (UNDP).
• Disability rates are significantly higher among groups with lower educational attainment in the countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), says the OECD Secretariat. On average, 19 per cent of less educated people have disabilities, compared to 11 per cent among the better educated.
• In most OECD countries, women report higher incidents of disability than men.
• The World Bank estimates that 20 per cent of the world's poorest people have some kind of disability, and tend to be regarded in their own communities as the most disadvantaged.
• Women with disabilities are recognized to be multiply disadvantaged, experiencing exclusion on account of their gender and their disability.
• Women and girls with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to abuse. A small 2004 survey in Orissa, India, found that virtually all of the women and girls with disabilities were beaten at home, 25 per cent of women with intellectual disabilities had been raped and 6 per cent of women with disabilities had been forcibly sterilized.
• According to UNICEF, 30 per cent of street youths have some kind of disability.
• Mortality for children with disabilities may be as high as 80 per cent in countries where under-five mortality as a whole has decreased below 20 per cent, says the United Kingdom's Department for International Development, adding that in some cases it seems as if children are being "weeded out".
• Comparative studies on disability legislation shows that only 45 countries have anti-discrimination and other disability-specific laws.
• In the United Kingdom, 75 per cent of the companies of the FTSE 100 Index on the London Stock Exchange do not meet basic levels of web accessibility, thus missing out on more than $147 million in revenue.
Disability Fact SheetClick here to download this file
www.disabilitykar.net/
A British site, which presents the findings of The Disability Knowledge and Research programme, which sought to examine the issue of disability and poverty, and supported opportunities for disabled people’s organisations to research issues on mainstreaming disability in development.
The main objectives of the programme were to:
• Generate research on international disability issues to influence policy and practice
• Improve access to knowledge and information
• Promote discussion between disabled people, service providers, researchers, and policy makers
• Develop and support sustainable technologies to combat the effects of disability
RI
RI is a global and diverse organization bringing together expertise from different sectors in the disability field, advancing and implementing the rights and inclusion of persons with disabilities.
Find out more about them at www.riglobal.org/
REGIONAL DISABILITY ORGANISATIONS
www.pacificdisability.org
PDF was established in 2002 and officially inaugurated in 2004, to work towards inclusive, barrier-free, socially just, and gender equitable societies that recognize the human rights, citizenship, contribution and potential of people with disabilities in Pacific Countries and territories. PDF promotes and facilitates Pacific regional cooperation on disability-related concerns for the benefit of people with disabilities.
www.forumsec.org/pages.cfm/sustainable-development/social-policy/disability/country-profiles
If you are interested in finding out more about the situation for people with disabilities in Pacific countries, the Forum Secretariat has interesting information contained in individual country profiles. It also has regional information.
www.dpiap.org Disabled People´s International (DPI) is a world cross-disability, self-help, human rights organizations of persons with disabilities established in 1981.The Asia Pacific Region (DPI-AP)has useful resources and links. For example this press release from DPI-AP has a link to a training resource for the Convention. Click here to download this file
PACIFIC NEWSPAPERS
You can learn plenty about day to day life in Pacific countries by reading newspapers on line. Kidon media Link has up to date listings of more than 500 newspapers in Oceania (including Australia and New Zealand) www.kidon.com/media-link/oceania.php
COOK ISLANDS
Cook Islands Herald www.ciherald.co.ck/
Cook Islands News www.cinews.co.ck/
FIJI
Fiji Sun www.sun.com.fj/Fiji_newspaper/Index/index.htm
Fiji Times www.fijitimes.com.fj
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
The National www.thenational.com.pg/
Post Courier www.postcourier.com.pg/
SOLOMON ISLANDS
Solomon Star News www.solomonstarnews.com
RESOURCES
The United Nations adopted in 2007 a Convention on the rights of people with a disability. Governments around the world are being encouraged to sign up to this Convention.
Convention on the rights of people with a disabilityClick here to download this file
SOUTH AFRICA NETHERLANDS RESEARCH PROGRAMME ON ALTERNATIVES IN DEVELOPMENT
This program has produced an interesting report on Including Disability Within the Context of Development. It has relevance to the Pacific also. Click here to download this file
Participants in an three week advocacy course in Suva
Mr Setareki Macanawai speaking at a White Cane Day gathering for United Blind Persons of Fiji
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