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Researching disability to unpack MDGs
Southern Africa Federation of the Disabled (SAFOD)
January 26, 2010

It is summer, October, 2009. Twenty persons with various disabilities are winding up data management training in Lusaka, Zambia. These are 10 young women and 10 young men selected from 10 Southern Africa countries to learn generic, self-directed research on disabilities. This research training will continue in 2010.

Researching disabilities anywhere in the world has proved a big challenge even to conventional researchers. But this unique SAFOD Research Programme (SRP) marks the beginning of the end to that challenge as stated by Director General of SAFOD, Alexander Phiri:

"For some of you out there who may not be aware, the objective of the SRP is - to build capacity (among DPOs) to design, drive, own and use research to influence policy and practice that responds to the particular needs and interests of disabled people in Southern Africa."

Two persons, one woman and one man each with a disability were identified from all SAFOD member countries. SAFOD stands for Southern Africa Federation of the Disabled. SAFOD has member federations in 10 countries of Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In one of the reports to DfID, the programme sponsors, SAFOD writes that: " . . . in terms of research, it is SAFOD's experience that disabled people have invariably been the subjects but not the owners of research processes and outputs. Therefore, through the SRP it is anticipated that the exclusion of disability will be tackled, not only in poverty research issues and through the generation of new knowledge attained through research activities, but also through an empowering process of taking the lead in setting the research agenda and participation throughout the research process."

While the world observes the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3, this year the, UN says many persons with disabilities continue to face barriers to their participation in their communities and are often forced to live on the margins of society.

"They often face stigma and discrimination and are routinely denied basic rights such as food, education, employment, access to health and reproductive health services."

Actually the theme this year is: "Making the MDGs Inclusive: Empowerment of persons with disabilities and their communities around the world".

"The Day provides an opportunity to mobilize action to achieve the goal of full and equal enjoyment of human rights and participation in society by persons with disabilities," the UN says in part.

It also says it is essential to ensure that persons with disabilities are integrated into all development activities in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) because although many commitments have been made to include disability and persons with disabilities in development, the gap between policy and practice continues.

Globally, the UN says one in ten people is a person with disability and that persons with disabilities constitute up to 20 per cent of the population living in poverty in developing countries.

The data management training, a process to impart research skills in Southern Africa's 10 countries marks a turning point in the lives of disabled persons. A turning point because this data management training process kick-starts the unpacking of the MDGs.

The UN says MDGs can only be achieved if persons with disabilities and their family members are included to ensure that they benefit from international development initiatives.

As part of unpacking the MDGs, already four trainees from the team of 20 are part of the research groups that won tenders to carry-out research projects for SAFOD. At the time of writing this story, three trainees were preparing to make their ever first presentation at an international research conference, the African Network for Evidence and Action in Disability (AFRINEAD) in Cape Town, South Africa.

"Come 2011, we will be having a core group of our own researchers that will be working at national level, providing leadership in terms of emancipatory research," says Phiri.

The man who is taking these persons with disabilities through the research process, Professor Leslie Swartz, states that there is an enormous amount of resources among people with disabilities. Leslie says because people with disabilities have been excluded and because they know that this exclusion is injustice, they have always questioned why the world treats them the way it does.

"These are people who have learnt to ask questions about why the world treats them the way it does," Leslie says and adds that "the more these people are included, the more everyone gains."

Although these people have been trained for a year, their training process is not conducted on full-time basis. They have been exposed to training for almost four times in a workshop format. There is an enormous amount of work ahead as the training continues in 2010.

But as the challenge to learn research skills remains true even to people without disabilities, this team of people with disabilities are upbeat about what they have covered so far. They are a determined lot and have shown that even through difficult circumstances, it can still be done as Stuart Chauluka, one of the participants from Malawi says:

"What I thought I know about research, I realize now that I didn't know. Had it been I was driving, I could have said that I have been given a license to drive a car. It's up to me to drive and be a good driver; even teaching others how to drive," Chauluka who has partial sight disability states.

At the beginning of any programme, different people hold different opinions and questions about its success. One of the trainees, the oldest in the team, Sibonisiwe Mazula, concedes to have held low opinions about the programme but her view has now changed.

"My expectations of the programme were very low, but after the training in Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia, I learnt that the more you communicate with other people, the more you learn," she says.

This sentiment is representative of the 20 participants with various disabilities who now have the opportunity to research on their own issues. They prove that disability is better experienced than explained.

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