About Disability mainstreaming in Development Co-operation

The project ‘Disability mainstreaming in Development Co-operation’ has brought together 12 major organisations of disabled people and development NGOs to develop instruments for EU Member State Governments and also for non-state actors in order to include the disability dimension in their development co-operation instruments. It was implemented from January 2006 to June 2008.

The partners of this project brought together the knowledge and expertise required from the perspective of development co-operation at a practical operational level in the field; from organisations of persons with disabilities with experience in development co-operation and with knowledge and understanding at the policy level of EU Member State Ministries and of the EU institutions.

The overall objective of this project was to ‘promote, transnationally, a coherent and coordinated approach to mainstream disability in development co-operation policies of EU Member States, the European Institutions, and European NGOs working in the fields of development co-operation and humanitarian aid.‘

Achievements

Main achievements and outputs during the project implementation period (January 2006 – June 2008) include:

• Detailed mapping exercise of the existing situation of mainstreaming disability in development co-operation policies was carried out in 10 project countries and at the European level. Based on the results, the priority areas for mainstreaming were decided. 
• Around 500 decision makers and staff members have received training on issues related to mainstreaming disability attending the 12 national trainings and 4 regional trainings in different EU countries
• Around 230 decision-makers and staff members from at least 20 EU Member States have participated in two European Conferences on disability mainstreaming in development co-operation (20-21 November 2006 and 14-15 May 2007) and received the Conference report together with lists of recommendations.
• Awareness raising of Disability & Development among new stakeholders, and in particular, in the New Member States (EU 12).
• An inclusive Project Cycle Management tool, based on the European Commission format, is available as a best practice example.
• 8 training tools for training on mainstreaming disability in development cooperation policies on different sectors and 1 training module to integrate disability dimension in University Courses, related to development cooperation and International studies, are available
• Involvement of new stakeholders (people and organisations) in Disability & Development activities

Disability mainstreaming in Development Co-operation is funded by the European Union