Disabled remain marginalised, says report

The secretariat of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and governments in the region have been urged to devise new measures to assist the disabled. A new report, 'Representative surveys on living conditions among people with activity limitations in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Malawi', noted that disabled people in these three countries do not enjoy the same access to education as their able-bodied counterparts. It added that disabled people, generally, do not have any basic-level primary education, nor do they have any vocational skills training or tertiary education. Less than 20 percent of the disabled people in the countries surveyed were receiving the disability grants they were entitled to. "The disabled are also denied access to public buildings and facilities, as they are not disability-friendly," the report said. A comparative study of unemployment trends in households with disabled members and those without revealed glaring inequalities, with unemployment higher among the disabled than the able-bodied. The surveys also revealed that when disabled people did enjoy some form of employment, their incomes were always lower than those of the able-bodied. Fifty percent of the disabled people interviewed in the three countries said they were never consulted before decisions affecting them are made. "The surveys in Namibia, Malawi and Zimbabwe have shown that living conditions among the disabled are systematically lower than among the non-disabled. This implies that people with disabilities are being denied equal opportunities to participate and contribute to their societies. It is in this context that they are denied their rights," the report concluded. Commenting on the findings, the Southern Africa Federation of the Disabled (SAFOD) secretary-general, Alexander Phiri, said the region needed to design and implement programmes that improved the lives of the disabled. "Many countries in the region do not have disability policies. Disability issues are generalised under health ministries and, in most cases, there are no programmes on the ground. We need to have disability issues rated as national priority programmes. This can only be achieved if the SADC secretariat makes it regional policy to prioritise the handling of disability issues," Phiri commented. "The region has to recognise that development cannot take place as long as the vulnerable sections of the population remain marginalised," he added. He said the surveys, which were largely sponsored by the Norwegian Federation of the Disabled, would be expanded to cover more countries in the region. "The fact that we have come up with such revelations in only three countries shows we have only scratched the surface of the problem. We need more information on disability across the region. A similar survey is planned for Zambia early next, with Botswana and Lesotho expected to follow shortly afterwards," Phiri noted. In a bid to improve regional visibility and interaction with the SADC secretariat, SAFOD will be opening an office in Botswana early next year.