The following are extracts from a presentation made to the Seminar
on Integrated Rehabilitation according to the Social Solidarity Principle:
the Danish Example, held in Copenhagen in March, organized jointly by RIECA
and the SAHVA Fonden, Denmark. It is presented here not only as an example
of a major disability development aid project, but also as illustration
of Danish social policy applied on the international level.
My organization has a membership of 13,500 out of a population of 5
million people..... In Denmark we are fortunate to have politicians with
a positive attitude towards aid to developing countries. Before I describe
our aid project in Nepal, I would like to give you a brief rundown of Denmark's
approach to aid.
At the end of the 1980's the Nordic umbrella organizations for the disabled
met in Finland, and this inspired the participants to increase their efforts.
One result was a 1990 meeting of Nordic ministers responsible for the aid
programs in their respective countries. The ministers agreed to the formulation
of an aid policy and today, Norway, Sweden and Denmark are the largest
contributors of aid to developing countries, paying out 1% of their gross
national products.
In practice, about 50% of financial aid is spent on multilateral assistance
and 50% on bilateral assistance. In 1995 the total flow of aid is budgeted
at approximately 9 billion Danish kroner. DANIDA, a department of the Danish
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is responsible for this program and has selected
20 of the world's poorest countries as suitable recipients. Recipient countries
must have a democratic government or be well on their way to democracy.
Our Government wishes an increasing number of projects to be handled
by non-governmental organizations (NGOs). These may be humanitarian organizations
or they could be organizations for the disabled. The financial and administrative
arrangements are that the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs finances 100%
of project costs plus 7% for administrative expenses. Not many of the disability
organizations have been active in this field until recently.
But, about two and a half years ago, the Danish Council of Organizations
for the Disabled employed a consultant who is to be responsible for involving
a larger number of our 25 member organizations in aid programs and strategies.
Today, almost half of our member organizations are involved in small or
large projects, particularly in Africa, Central and South America and Albania,
and a few in progress in South Asia.
One tenet which applies to all DANIDA projects is that they should preferably
involve Danish industry. As the Danish hearing aid industry accounts for
20-25% of world production, it has been natural to involve this section
of our industry in our project.
The Nepal Project
First and foremost, we owe our commitment to Mr. Hans
Wulffsberg, the
consultant who got us going on this project. We began by sending two people
to Nepal for three weeks and in cooperation with five NGOs in Nepal, they
worked out a project proposal and budget. From a hearing aid project, it
developed into a full-scale operation, comprising the establishment of
nationwide organizations, sign language courses and the supply of hearing
aids. The result was a four year aid project to the tune of 14 million Danish
kroner, designed specifically for the deaf and hearing impaired in Nepal.
Our project requires very close collaboration between the Danish NGO
and the five NGOs in Nepal. This is crucial to the success of the project
and also extremely exciting. Exciting because the project must proceed
under Nepalese conditions, and while we of course consider the culture
of Nepal, we also seek an understanding for our wishes that half the hearing
aids should go to girls and that we want to spread the project to all regions
and not just to the capital and other urban areas.
The direct contact between NGOs has one major advantage - namely that
we avoid the bureaucracy which seems to mushroom in developing countries.
We can transfer funds direct to the Nepal NGOs, which are answerable to
us and the Danish project manager. He is the only permanent staff member
from Denmark, since the costs of wages and stationing one Dane there can
pay for a staff of 30 Nepalese..... We handle staffing problems through
an exchange scheme: we are sending Danish instructors to Nepal and Nepalese
doctors and technicians to Denmark. In addition we are beginning an exchange
focusing on the younger members of our organizations.....
Now, we certainly do not think we can revolutionize Nepal or the world
overnight, or manage within the foreseeable future, to create a tolerable
life for the many disabled people who are poor and often have to resort
to begging or prostitution in order to survive.
But, even a drop in the ocean is water - and we believe that an effort,
however modest (although our aid project in Nepal is said to be among the
largest in the world focusing entirely on disabled people) can make roots
feed and trees grow and thereby help politicians and decision makers slip
out of their old grooves and adopt new attitudes.
A Window on Danish Social Policy
In the spring of 1993 a unanimous recommendation was passed by the Danish
Parliament (Folketing) to urge all public and private authorities and business
enterprises to comply with the principle of equal treatment of disabled
and non-disabled citizens. At the same time the Folketing decided to establish
the Equal Opportunities Center for Disabled Persons and it began operations
in the spring of 1994.
The fundamental ideas of the center are volunteerism and change through
dialogue and cooperation, as an alternative strategy to that of general
anti discrimination legislation and as an alternative to the heavy use
of legislative instruments to enact special legislation for disabled persons.
For many years now, a fundamental element in Danish disability policy has
been that it should not be based on special legislation, but rather that
within legislation applying to all Danish citizens, it should be possible
to provide the compensation necessary to ensure not only formal equality
but real equality of treatment.
The Equal Opportunities Center:
-
collects and communicates information about the circumstances of disabled
persons, through, for example, leaflets, articles and lectures;
-
provides consultancy services to public authorities, private companies
and individuals who wish to ensure equal treatment of people with disabilities;
-
follows closely legislative development, both nationally and international,
especially on the European Union level;
-
analyzes and documents relevant trends of social significance;
-
reports incidences of discrimination to the National Handicap Council
for further political discussion;
-
informs the Ombudsman of discrimination against people with disabilities;
and
-
provides an appraisal of the equal treatment of disabled people in
its annual situation report to the Minister for Social Affairs and the
Folketing.
Details: Morgens Wiederholt, Director, Equal Opportunity Center for
Disabled Persons, Center for Liegehandling, Bredgade 25 F.4, Sankt Annae
Passage, DK1260 Copenhagen K, Denmark. Tel: 45 33 11 10 44; fax: 45 33
11 10 82; text tel: 45 33 11 10 81.
(Summarized from Integrated Rehabilitation according to the Social
Solidarity Principle: The Danish Example, report of a seminar held
in Copenhagen, March 7-8, 1995, organized by RI European Community Association
(RIECA) and SAHVA Fonden in the framework of the HELIOS II program).
