Promising Practices in Mainstreaming Disability in Development: Case Finland Ronald Wiman

1
Promising Practices in Mainstreaming Disability
in DevelopmentCase FinlandRonald Wiman
2
Government Disability Policy Programme A Plan
of Action

• The Government Report on Disability Policy (2007)
  and the CRPD are guiding the work on the
  national plan of action on disability,
  Government Disability Policy Programme (2010)
  and its implementation
• It assigns responsibilities for disability policy
  to all sectors/ministries to ensure the
  materialization of the rights of PWD in their
  mandated areas of action (sector responsibility)
  including Ministry for Foreign Affairs
• General policy on external relations
• Development cooperation policy

3
Disability - Specific development cooperation
(ODA) Activities

• Of the bilateral Finnish Official Development
  Assistance (ODA) 2.5. goes for
  disability-specific activities
• Channeled mainly through NGOs/DPOs (75)
• Disability projects by NGOs/DPOs require only
  7.5 own funding (others 15)
• Goverment Audit Unit evaluation (2007)
• Disability-specific activities are not
  mainstreaming

4
Finnish 3-track Disability and Development
Strategy (2008)

• Disability, is one of the cross-cutting
  issues/objectives
• (Gender and social equality, rights of vulnerable
  groups, HIV/AIDS)
• that must be integrated in all development
  action through the following steps that
  complement each other
• 1. Mainstream disability in all sectors and
  accommodate people with disabilities on the basis
  of the Human Rights Based Approach
• and
• 2. Complement universal provisions with targeted,
  additional support and services to equalize
  access and opportunities for people with
  disabilities and to empower them
• and
• 3. Include disability in policy dialogue, country
  negotiations and multilateral cooperation and
  information dissemination

5
Good practices in implementation

• (1) Disability Coordination Group at the Min. for
  Foreign Affairs, Human Rights Unit
• Min. for Foreign Affairs
• Min for Social Affairs and Health
• Main DPOs
• Special Representative of the Minister for
  Foreign Affairs for Disabilty and tolerance
• Other experts
• Also at the Institute for Health and Welfare
  there is a Coordination Group for mainstreaming
  the implementation of the Gov. Plan of Action

6
(2) GuidelinesSimple step by step procedures

• 1) Minimum requirements for all activities
• No direct or indirect discrimination
• No increase in health or accident risks
• 2) Checking for disability relevance
• 3) Checking for information adequacy
• 4) Assessing impacts on pwds
• 5) Adjusting the plan according to the level of
  disability relevance
• 6) References to more specific tools
• http//formin.finland.fi/Public/default.aspx?nodei
  d43739contentlan1culturefi-FI

7
(3) Examples of Mainstreaming Investments

• Long history support to the UN in 1990s resulted
  in the Manual on Inclusive Planning (1997,
  2000, 2003)
• Support to the Word Bank to include disability
  aspects to PRSP and sector work e.g. Trust Fund
  for Socially and Ecologically Sustainable
  Development TFESSD (Norway Finland)
• Sector-specific mainstreaming inclusive
  education initiatives (e.g Ethiopia, South
  Africa, the Balkans)
• EFA (Education for All) flagship for inclusive
  education (secretariat at the Univ. of Jyväskylä,
  Finland)
• Support to the UN Special Rapporteur on
  Disability

8
(4) Partnerships

• DPO Umbrella FIDIDA contracted as the partner
  organization for the Ministry for Foreign Affairs
• ABILIS foundation contracted as manager of small
  grants programme
• Global Partnership for Disability and Develoment
  (GPDD), funded first by Italy, Finland, Norway
  and the World Bank, and also been supported by
  contributions by India, Germany and Italian
  Fondatsioni (private sector)

9
GPDD- a Platform for Dialogue and Collaboration

• The Vision GPDD as Network of various
  stakeholder networks. To be owned by the Global
  South, facilitated by the North

South
South
GPDD networks
North
10
(4) Innovative practices

• SIGNMARK
• (Mr. Marko Vuoriheimo)
• A RAP artist who is Deaf

• Nominated as Ministers Special Representative on
  Rights of People with Disabities

• Joins Foreign Minister
• Mr. Alexander Stubb
• on some Missions
• E.g. MDG-summit 2010,
• Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kazakhstan
• Purposes
• Awareness rising
• Encouragement to young People With Disabilities

11
Mainstreaming Challenges

• Relevance of disability in poverty context still
  not understood everywhere
• Not much demand by partner country governments
• Remains NGO business not a main stream
  business
• Mainstreaming needs ownership everyboldys
  business is often nobodys business
• Needs investing in core funding for facilitating
  global public goods for mainstreaming e.g. GPDD
  
• Private sector enhagement needed

12
Lessons learned

• Raising awareness through innovative ways rather
  than by preaching to the converted
• Forming multistakehoder working groups
• Making use of the logic and command chain of the
  Bureaucracy
• Design policy-gtMake the decision-gtInclude in the
  result matrix -gt report -gt evaluate -gt correct
  policies and practices
• Designing binding, but simple, guidelines tools
  on web
• Budgeting also better social quality has a price
  tag
• Nurturing evaluation culture, learning by doing
• Learning from others (e.g. UNIFEM, UN-Women)
• E.g. Finnish Gov. First Report on Gender Equality
  Mainstreaming (2010)
• Sharing experiences e.g. through UN-DESA

13
Thank you!

• Contact details
• Ronald Wiman
• Development Manager
• And External Senior Advisor on Social Development
• to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs
• National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL)
• P.O. Box 30
• FIN-00271 Helsinki, Finland
• Tel [phone]
• Mobile [phone]
• Email ronald.wiman(at)thl.fi