Programme Disability Partnership 2016-21

Annual Report 2017

Development Cooperation Programme of

Disability Partnership Finland

Index

Acronyms and abbreviations ......................................................................................................................... 5

1. Summary .................................................................................................................................................... 7

2. External Framework .................................................................................................................................. 7

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ..................................................................... 7

Human Rights Based Approach ..................................................................................................................... 9

3. Strategy and Theory of Change ................................................................................................................. 9

Strategy.......................................................................................................................................................... 9

Theory of Change ........................................................................................................................................ 10

4. Impact ...................................................................................................................................................... 13

Results 2017 ................................................................................................................................................ 13

Learning ....................................................................................................................................................... 16

5. Programme Outcome 1: Able Organisations ........................................................................................... 17

Learning ....................................................................................................................................................... 19

Output 1.1: DPOs’ administrative capacity has risen .................................................................................. 19

Output 1.2: DPOs follow principles of democratic governance .................................................................. 21

6. Programme Outcome 2: Advocacy for Inclusion ..................................................................................... 22

Learning ....................................................................................................................................................... 24

Output 2.1: Persons with Disabilities in partner countries are active human rights advocates at local,

national or international level. .................................................................................................................... 25

Output 2.2: Mainstream NGOs include persons with disabilities in their programmes ............................. 27

Output 2.3: Policies and guidelines of Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland are disability inclusive. ...... 30

Output 2.4: Persons with disabilities are better represented in local, national and global organisations,

networks and partnerships on disability & development and disability inclusion issues. .......................... 31

7. Programme Outcome 3: Education and Learning ................................................................................... 32

Results 2017 ................................................................................................................................................ 32

Learning ....................................................................................................................................................... 34

Output 3.1: Children and youth with disabilities can access an inclusive, quality and free primary

education and secondary and tertiary education on an equal basis with others in the communities in

which they live (CRPD, Article 24, 2b). ........................................................................................................ 34

Output 3.2: Persons with disabilities have access to non-formal education .............................................. 36

8. Programme Outcome 4: Work and Livelihood ........................................................................................ 38

Results 2017 ................................................................................................................................................ 38

Learning ....................................................................................................................................................... 40

Output 4.1: Persons with disabilities have effective access to general technical and vocational guidance

programmes, placement services and vocational and continuing training (CRPD, Article 27d). ................ 41

Output 4.2: Persons with disabilities have increased opportunities for self-employment,

entrepreneurship, the development of cooperatives and starting one's own business (CRPD, Article 27f).

..................................................................................................................................................................... 42

Output 4.3: Private and public sector internalize inclusive employment practices and employ staff with

disabilities .................................................................................................................................................... 43

9. Programme Outcome 5: Gender Equality as a Crosscutting Outcome ................................................... 44

Results 2017 ................................................................................................................................................ 44

Learning ....................................................................................................................................................... 45

Crosscutting Output 5.1: DPOs take measures to ensure the full and equal participation of women and

girls with disabilities in all their operations. ................................................................................................ 45

Crosscutting Output 5.2: Gender specific rights issues, such as gender-based violence and sexual and

reproductive health are recognized and DPOs take supportive measures for the rights promotion. ........ 47

10. Process monitoring and results ........................................................................................................... 49

Internal Systems and Process Issues: Governance and Internal Stakeholders ........................................... 49

Aim 1.1: Human Rights Based Approach is applied properly within the organisation. .............................. 49

Aim 1.2: Number of member organisations of the Disability Partnership Finland remains at the current

level. ............................................................................................................................................................ 49

Aim 1.3: Organisation is run with principles of good governance. ............................................................. 50

Internal Systems and Process Issues: Administration ................................................................................. 50

Aim 2.1: General Administration system (at all levels) is solid and supports operations ........................... 50

Aim 2.2: Financial administration is accurate and enables good financial planning ................................... 51

Aim 2.3: Personnel at the Member Organisations and the Secretariat have the necessary skills and

motivation to do their job well .................................................................................................................... 51

Aim 3.1: Operational environment in project countries enables effective work of the Partnership ......... 52

Aim 3.2: Operational Environment in Finland and Europe enables effective work of the Partnership ...... 52

Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Risk Mitigation ................................................................................ 52

11. Communications .................................................................................................................................. 55

12. Administration ..................................................................................................................................... 56

Development Cooperation Operations of Finnish Association of the Deaf in Finland ............................... 56

Development Cooperation Operations of The Threshold Association in Finland ....................................... 57

Development Cooperation Operations of Finnish Association of People with Physical Disabilities in

Finland ......................................................................................................................................................... 58

Development Cooperation Operations of Finnish Association of the Visually Impaired in Finland ........... 58

Development Cooperation Operations of Finnish Association of Inclusion Finland FDUV in Finland ........ 58

Development Cooperation Operations of Finnish Association on Intellectual and Developmental

Disabilities.................................................................................................................................................... 59

13. Finances ............................................................................................................................................... 59

14. Signatures ............................................................................................................................................ 60

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Acronyms and abbreviations

ANAD - Albania National Association of the Deaf

APANH - Asociación de Padres y Amigos de Niños Hiopacúsicos

BIH - Bosnia and Herzegovina

CASLI - Class Assistant and Sign Language Instructor

CBR - Community Based Rehabilitation

DAT - district authorisation team (Malawi)

DDI - Disability Development Initiative

DDP - Maryknoll Deaf Development Programme

DIAK - Diaconia University of Applied Sciences

DIT - Directorate of Industrial Training (Uganda)

DPF – Disability Partnership Finland

DPO - Disabled persons' organization

ECDD - Ethiopian Center for Disability and Development

ENAD - Ethiopian National Association of the Deaf

ENADB - Ethiopian National Association of Deafblind

EWDNA - Ethiopian Women with Disabilities National Association

FAD - Finnish Association of the Deaf

FAIDD – Finnish Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

FBIH - Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

FDUV – Inclusion Finland FDUV

FELM - Finnish Evangelical-Lutheran Mission

FENAPD - Federation of Ethiopian National Associations of Persons with Disabilities

FENCE - Federación Nacional de Ciegos del Ecuador

FFVI - Finnish Association of the Visually Impaired

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FPD - Finnish Association of People with Physical Disabilities

GLAD - Global Action on Disability

HPDO - Help for Persons with Disabilities Organisation

HRBA - Human Rights Based Approach

IDA - International Disability Alliance

IDDC - The International Disability and Development Consortium

IGA – income generating activity

KAD - Kosovar Association of the Deaf

KAIH - Kenya Association of the Intellectually Handicapped

KVTL – Inclusion Finland KVTL, Kehitysvammaisten Tukiliitto

MANAD - Malawi National Association of the Deaf

MBC - Malawi Broadcasting Corporation

MFA – Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

MOLSA - Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (Ethiopia)

MOU – Memorandum of Understanding

OWC - Operation Wealth Creation

PTC - Primary Teachers College (Uganda)

PWD – Person with disability

UNAD - Uganda National Association of the Deaf

UNCRPD – United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

WASH - water, sanitation and hygiene

ZAPDD - Zanzibar Association of People with Developmental Disabilities

ZNAPD - Zambia National Association of Persons with Physical Disabilities

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1. Summary

This is the Annual Report on the development cooperation programme of Disability Partnership Finland

(the DPF). This report covers the programme for the years 2016-2017. The whole two-year programme

period was marked by planning and re-planning due to the budget cuts to development cooperation and

the short duration of the period, which meant that planning for the next period started already in 2016.

The projects, coordinated by the Finnish member organisations and implemented by partner organisations

in the Global South, are at the centre of the development programme. The project planning is done by

Southern partners, and therefore their operations very much shape the programme. In 2017, six member

organisations of the DPF had a total of 21 ongoing projects with the Programme funding: Finnish

Association of the Deaf (Kuurojen Liitto, six projects, total expenditure 799 708 €), Finnish Association on

Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (Kehitysvammaliitto) together with Inclusion Finland FDUV and

Inclusion Finland KVTL (one project with total expenditure 21 453 €), Finnish Association of People with

Physical Disabilities (Invalidiliitto, three projects, total expenditure 318 309 €), Finnish Federation of the

Visually Impaired (Näkövammaisten liitto, four projects, total expenditure 238 538 €), Inclusion Finland

FDUV (one project, total expenditure 32 652 €), and Threshold Association (Kynnys, six projects).

In 2017, out of the 21 projects, three were new, three were in the exit stage (cooperation ended at the end

of 2017), and 15 were ongoing. Two projects by FAD were merged into one as the project GLO3013 became

part of the project ALB3006.

Apart from the disability specific projects implemented by member organisations, the DPF was active in

advocacy for disability inclusion in all development policy and developing and implementing disability

inclusion initiatives with development NGOs and businesses. The DPF also continued to promote the global

education material and carried out communications work.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA) evaluated the programme-based support funding in three parts. The

evaluation assessed the performance of the funding instrument and the development cooperation

programmes of all 22 organisations receiving programme support. The DPF was evaluated in the third lot

(CSO3 evaluation), the report was published in September 2017. The evaluation was quite critical of some

of our work modalities. However, it recognized the basic values and goals of our work with positive tones.

Planning work for the next funding period 2018-21 had started already in mid-2016 with our members and

our partners in the South. We received the preliminary recommendations of the evaluation in spring 2017,

so there was not much time to work through the recommendations before the Ministry’s deadline for

submissions in June.

2. External Framework

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which entered into

force in 2008, serves as the normative foundation for the DPF’s work. The DPF Programme builds upon the

Convention and ties together all our work. Each article of the Convention is a practical tool for our Southern

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partners in their advocacy for the human rights of not only their members but all people with disabilities in

their countries.

In May 2016, Finland finally ratified the Convention as one of the last countries in Europe and it came into

force on 10 June 2016 and started the preparation of the first national report in summer 2017. The pivotal

articles for international work are article 11, which deals with situations of risk and humanitarian

emergencies, and article 32 on international cooperation. In Finland, the DPF with its member

organisations are key actors in these sectors, and accordingly the Board of the DPF assumed the

responsibility for the preparation of a parallel report in issues pertaining to the two articles.

Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan remained the only programme countries in 2017 that had not ratified

the UNCRPD. However, Tajikistan was preparing for joining the UNCRPD and ratified the convention in

March 2018. Central Asia Women with Disabilities Network supported by the DPF through Threshold has

been closely involved in the preparatory work, for example by organizing an international conference on

exchange of experience in joining the UNCRPD in Dushanbe on 15-16 November 2017. The event was

organised with support from Tajikistan's government, the United Nations Department of Economic and

Social Affairs and other partners.

Chart 1: Ratification of UNCRPD in the programme countries

Country Signed Ratified

Albania 22.12.2009 11.2.2013

Bolivia 13.8.2007 16.11.2009

Bosnia & Herzegovina 29.7.2009 12.3.2010

Cambodia 1.10.2007 20.12.2012

Ecuador 30.3.2007 3.4.2008

Ethiopia 30.3.2007 7.7.2010

Finland 20.3.2007 11.5.2016

Kazakhstan 11.12.2008 21.4.2015

Kenya 30.3.2007 19.5.2008

Kosovo Not recognized as an independent nation by the UN

Kyrgyzstan 21.9.2011 –

Malawi 27.9.2007 27.8.2009

Tajikistan – –

Tanzania 30.3.2007 10.11.2009

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Turkmenistan – 4.9.2008

Uganda 30.3.2007 25.9.2008

Uzbekistan 27.2.2009 –

Zambia 9.5.2008 1.2.2010

Update: 30 July 2018, source: https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-15&chapter=4&clang=_en

Human Rights Based Approach The DPF takes a strong Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) to its work. Human rights standards, as laid

out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UNCRPD, guide

1) the programming (goal setting), and

2) the processes conducted by members of the programme.

The programme has a system to monitor and develop the systems and processes so that they fulfil the

human rights based transformative standard. Sustainability, local ownership and meaningful participation

are issues that are given attention during all stages of the project management cycle. Persons with

disabilities (PWDs) design and implement the projects themselves. This ensures that PWDs are not objects,

but subjects in their own development. The aforementioned CSO evaluation regarded our HRBA system as

human rights progressive, not transformative, which gives us a strong incentive to develop our system

further. In 2018, a survey will be made to screen the current state of all partners regarding the depth of

their human rights-based approach to development.

3. Strategy and Theory of Change

DPF is a disabled people’s organisation (DPO) that as per 31 December 2017 had six full members that are

all DPOs and committed to promoting the human rights of PWDs and disability and development issues. In

addition, the DPF in 2017 had two associate members - Abilis Foundation and the Association of the

Swedish Speaking Hard of Hearing, Svenska Hörselförbundet. Finnish Epilepsy Association seceded from the

DPF during 2017.

Strategy Disability Partnership Finland’s strategy for 2013-18 defines its values as follows:

1) Human rights, justice and equality 2) Global responsibility 3) Participation of persons with disabilities 4) Solidarity between persons with disabilities 5) We are able! 6) Courage

Based on the values, the DPF’s vision is described as:

https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-15&chapter=4&clang=_en

https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-15&chapter=4&clang=_en

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Disability Partnership Finland’s vision is a world where the human rights of people with disabilities are fulfilled and where people with disabilities work themselves to develop their own communities at local, national and international levels.

Disability Partnership Finland is a nationally and internationally renowned and respected expert in Disability and Development issues in the fields of development cooperation and development policy.

Based on the vision, the mission of the organisation is:

Disability Partnership Finland works for the realization of the rights of persons with disabilities in developing countries. The work is realized in the Global South through development cooperation projects and in Finland through communications, expert services and advocacy.

Theory of Change As per the DPF’s theory of change, the best way to reach the vision, i.e. create a world where the rights of PWDs are realized and PWDs are active members of their societies can be achieved by work towards these five outcomes:

1) Able Organisations 2) Advocacy for Inclusion 3) Education and Learning 4) Work and Livelihood 5) Crosscutting outcome: Gender

These outcomes are global. They encompass all work done by all organisations receiving funding through the Programme in the Global South, in Finland and globally.

The theory of change and the underlying assumptions are described in more detail in the DPF’s programme document updated in June 2017. The theory of change was further elaborated in the updated programme document as part of the new funding cycle by the MFA for 2018-2021.

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Disability Partnership Finland theory of change

In terms of the approach of the programme, it is important to understand that in addition to sharing

common overall objectives and interests each disability group has substantially different key areas that are

crucial for the fulfilment of the rights of that group. These varying key challenges of persons with different

disabilities form the base for the development cooperation strategies and prioritizations of the Finnish

A world where the human rights of persons with disabilities are fulfilled and persons with disabilities work themselves to develop their own communities at local, national and international levels.

Convention on the Right of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) 2006

Agenda 2030

Collaboration with government bodies

Collaboration with the private sectors

Collaboration with mainstream NGOs

Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948

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member organisations. The special value added in the programme is generated by transmitting the

expertise of the Finnish DPOs and the peer to peer support of the Finnish organisation to their sister

organisations in the South. The program method concretely builds up civil society and enhances democratic

development in partner countries.

Whereas the development cooperation projects of the Threshold Association target all PWDs, regardless of

the type of disability, the rest of the DPF’s member organisations are organisations with the aim of

advancing the rights of a particular disability group. Their projects are directed at their peer organisations

in the Global South.

Deaf people’s biggest challenge to inclusion is lack of access to information and basic education in their

own language, national sign language, that leads to exclusion from society and labour market. Sign

language research, advocacy for and training of interpreters and bilingual education is therefore in the core

of work of the Finnish Association of the Deaf (FAD) in addition to empowerment and basic organisational

training. Advocacy work leading to changes in national legislation benefits all deaf persons in the partner

country, not only project direct participants. The FAD was implementing six projects with a total

expenditure of 799 708€ in 2017.

Persons with physical disabilities are faced with challenges of accessibility of the physical environment and

do not have access to work. The Finnish Association of People with Physical Disabilities (FPD) is therefore

promoting accessibility issues with their partners and promotes the right to work and livelihood for people

with physical disabilities in its development cooperation. The FPD was implementing three projects with a

total expenditure of 318 309 € in 2017.

Persons with visual impairments are challenged by access to information. The work of the Finnish

Federation of the Visually Impaired (FFVI) focuses largely on the improvement of the education for the

visually impaired. The total expenditure of the FFVI was 238 538 € with four cooperation projects.

Persons with intellectual disabilities are faced with a heavy stigma and therefore largely denied access to

education and work, and even the basic human rights. Inclusion Finland FDUV and Finnish Association on

Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (FAIDD) focus on these issues in their work with their sister

organisations. FDUV had one project with a total expenditure of 32 652 € in 2017. FAIDD together with

Inclusion Finland FDUV and Inclusion Finland KVTL implemented one project with a total expenditure of

21 453 € in 2017.

The Threshold Association is a disability rights organisation that actively advocates for independent living

of PWDs. Strengthening the global solidarity between all PWDs and special emphasis on the rights of

women with disabilities are the key areas of the Threshold’s development cooperation. The Threshold

Association was implementing six projects.

The DPF Secretariat did not implement disability specific projects during the programme period but was

the main coordination and implementation body for disability mainstreaming activities of the DPF. The

approach was to promote inclusive development in Finland, at global level and in the South. The Secretariat

also supports the member organisations in capacity building, quality and gender equality issues.

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4. Impact

Directly derived from the DPF Finland’s vision, the impact statement for the DPF’s development

cooperation programme is:

A world where the human rights of people with disabilities are fulfilled and where people with disabilities work themselves to develop their own communities at local, national

and international levels.

DPF is a strongly rights-based actor in the global disability and development scene. Whereas most

development actors active in disability issues aim towards a world where the human rights of PWDs are

fulfilled, a much smaller number of the action is owned, i.e. planned and implemented, by PWDs. This

strong focus of keeping power in the hands of PWDs and enabling of peer support in all directions (South-

North-Global) is the special value added of the DPF. A similar Nothing about us without us approach is used

by the DPF’s Nordic sister organisations and a few other like-minded organisations.

The six full members of the DPF had a total of 21 ongoing projects with the Programme funding in 2017.

This and the following chapters describe the progress made towards reaching the programme outcomes

and the outputs in 2016-2017. For an overview of the projects and their contribution to the programme

outcomes, see annex 1. The programme monitoring matrix with goals, indicators and results is annex 2.

In addition to the above-mentioned member organisations, the Association of the Swedish Speaking Hard

of Hearing started preparations to transfer its project from the project-based support to the Programme.

The Association became a full member as of 2018, implementing a project in Bolivia. Some of the capacity

development work that started with the partner organisation Parents and Friends of Hard-Of-Hearing

Children’s Association (APANH) is included in this report as it took place in the framework of the

Programme.

Results 2017 Based on the results achieved in 2016-2017 we can conclude that the outcomes and outputs of the

programme are relevant and there are indications of longer term impact in terms of advancing the human

rights of PWDs. While the efforts towards changing the attitudes and behaviours of individuals and

communities takes years to yield results, and it is difficult to measure tangible results from this type of

work, there are examples of longer term results achieved with the contribution of the programme.

Complex social change is difficult to measure. It is possible to demonstrate individual success stories that

may reflect changes in the attitudes and behaviour of a community. To show evidence of such changes

would require large data-based surveys conducted over a period of many years. Such surveys are beyond

our resources. Cooperation between development actors and the academia would be very welcome.

In several countries there have been signs of positive change in the attitudes towards PWDs at national

and/or local level. In Zambia, the communities are beginning to be receptive to PWDs accessing traditional

land and some schools enrolling children with disabilities. PWDs are benefitting from community activities

such as fertilizer support programmes, and they are participating in traditional ceremonies and other

14

community activities. In Zanzibar, there is a strong desire of the parents to see their children with

intellectual disabilities enrolled in vocational training, which is a significant change compared to the status

before the project implemented by FAIDD. The long-term sign language work (since 2006) in Kosovo has

had a significant and multidimensional impact in the Kosovar deaf community and formed the basis for

other development. Increased awareness about sign language and deaf rights has strengthened the

organizational and advocacy work of the Kosovar Association of the Deaf (KAD) with achievements like the

recognition of Kosovar Sign Language and official collaboration with public institutions in the field of deaf

education. Similarly, in Malawi the support from the programme and FAD has played a key role in

supporting the development of advocacy work, sign language and deaf culture in the country. As a result of

the advocacy work conducted by Maryknoll Deaf Development Programme (DDP) with support from FAD,

the Cambodian society understands more about deafness and the importance of sign language. A lack of

awareness about deafness and the importance of sign language has been a major obstacle to the inclusion

of deaf people and development of the deaf community in the country. Increasing deaf awareness within

society is important in order to improve the status of deaf people and their access to public services.

The programme has also observed an increase in the awareness and commitment of national and local

authorities to strengthening the realization of the rights of PWDs. This means that the programme results

are expected to be increasingly sustainable and have an impact beyond the scope of the individual projects.

For example, in Uganda, the district governments in the project regions are now aware of the needs and

issues of concern to the deaf persons compared to the time before the project implemented by Uganda

National Association of the Deaf (UNAD) and FAD. As a result of awareness, the districts now ensure deaf

issues are addressed; for example, deaf groups now receive special grants every year. In Kenya, even

though the exact number is not yet available, there was a slight increase in the number of people with

intellectual disabilities who participated in the elections in 2017, compared to the elections in 2013. In

Malawi, the willingness by Government ministries, departments and agencies to disseminate information

to the deaf community has increased. This was shown as the country was preparing the first time ever to

register its citizens during national registration exercise, which was being championed by the national

registration bureau (NRB) under the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security. NRB engaged the

Malawi National Association of the Deaf (MANAD) to ensure that the information on the exercise reached

the entire deaf community in Malawi. At least 80% of MANAD members (5891 members in 2017) registered

during the first phase of the exercise. This good practice has been repeated with the Malawi electoral

commission to ensure equal electoral participation for deaf persons in the tripartite elections in 2019.

Impact Indicator 1: Indicators of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) show progress in the

inclusion of persons with disabilities in Ethiopia, which is one of the main programme countries of

the Partnership.

This indicator has been removed as part of the review of the programme following the funding decision

from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs for the years 2018-2021. The division of the Ethiopian disability

movement into two creates certain ineffectiveness. For example, expertise held by organisations that are

not members of the Federation of Ethiopian National Associations of Persons with Disabilities (FENAPD)

cannot be brought to the benefit of the formal disability movement of Ethiopia and vice versa, expertise

available through FENAPD (for example through membership in global and continental organisations such

as International Disability Alliance IDA and African Disability Forum) cannot be brought to the benefit of the

15

wider disability movement represented by Ethiopian National Disability Action Network, NOVIB and

Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) Network Ethiopia.

This issue of the state of the split in disability movement of Ethiopia was discussed in a two-day workshop

facilitated by the DPF in Addis Ababa on 13-14 November and in separate meetings with the partners

before and after the workshop. In the workshop, discussion on the roles and prospects of the two parallel

disability movements took place and there was demand for similar discussion platforms for strategizing for

solving the issue. The DPF will continue to monitor the situation in 2018. See annex 3 for more details on

the workshop.

An impact story from the project “Programme for Independence and Economic Empowerment of Mobility

Challenged People II phase” in Ethiopia highlights some of the important aspects of results achieved in the

programme in relation to SDGs 1 and 8. Yared, Bilen and Friends’ Leather Material Production Association

was established in September 2015 with support from the Programme and is engaged in preparing and

selling of different kinds of leather products including shoes, bags, wallets and belts among others. The

group mainly sells its products during the bazaar organized by Addis Ababa City Small and Micro Enterprise

Development Agency, Women and Children Affairs Office, and Culture and Tourism Office. In 2017 alone,

the group participated in six bazaars. Yared, Bilen and Friends’ Leather Material Production stated about

the impact the project has brought to its members in the following way:

“Before we started this activity our life was miserable. Many of our members were

dependent on other organisations, on individuals and families. Now we are in a better

position. We are no more dependent on hand-outs from other people. Due to this project,

we are able to contact government officials and community members which was not the

case before. We are able to know where our products can be supplied. We are able to get

many customers. We believe that our income will increase in the future. People who used to

feel sorry for us started to show us respect after seeing our efforts. We were able to break

the concept of ‘incapability’ due to this project. Moreover, some of our members are able to

get married due to the income they get from this activity; they are able to cover some of

their household expenditure. People believe that persons with disability cannot get married

and cannot have children. Our members have broken this harmful belief after they joined

our association and are able to get married and get and raise children.”

Impact Indicator 2: DPOs’ self-assessment show progress in the situation of persons with disabilities and their organisations in Ethiopia.

From 2018 onwards, this indicator will cover other programme countries in addition to Ethiopia. The

milestone for 2019 is to conduct the self-assessment with all partner organisations of the programme,

however, the milestones may be revisited as part of the programme revision work in 2018.

The tailored capacity development processes started with two programme partners in Ethiopia (Disability

Development Initiative DDI and the Ethiopian National Association of Deafblind ENADB) and the follow up

of the process, including self-assessment, will take place from 2018 onwards.

16

Impact indicator 3: Disability Partnership Finland and its stakeholders have a common vision to make disability inclusion reality and a systematic approach to rights-based work.

Planning and implementation of the projects being in the hands of PWDs of the developing countries,

programme level commitment to HRBA makes it important to make sure that the partners follow the same

principles. All projects directly advance the human rights of PWDs based on the articles of UNCRPD. A HRBA

survey will be conducted among the partners in the second half of 2018 to set the baseline for this

indicator among others, and to identify the strengths and gaps in HRBA in the programme.

Learning Due to the different approaches and focuses of the DPF’s member organisations, the programme impact,

outcome and output level results cannot easily be aggregated and reported as a bulk. Thus, the focus of

programming and reporting has been on supporting the partner organisations to follow their internal logic

and achieve and report results that are relevant to their context. Since 2017, the Secretariat together with

the Steering Group and the Executive Board have been paying increasing attention to strengthening the

coherence of the programme and have developed tools for programme level monitoring and reporting.

Due to the nature of the funding (which in many cases is directed to the core functions of the partner

organisation instead of being earmarked to a specific project) it is more meaningful to demonstrate

contribution, rather than attribution, of the funding to the results achieved by the partner organisation.

The year 2017 was characterized largely by the application round for the programme support by the MFA

for 2018-2021. In preparation of the application and considering for example the findings of the CSO3

evaluation conducted by the MFA in 2016, the DPF took several steps towards strengthening the

programmatic approach. The revision of the programme and the application for funding for 2018-2021 saw

close collaboration between the member organisations and the secretariat. In January 2017 the Steering

Group conducted self-assessment at the programme level, kicking of joint processes such as the tailored

capacity development plans and zero tolerance for corruption agreements (see outcome 1 and related

outputs for more details).

To facilitate learning and exchange of knowledge between the member organisations and partner

organisations, the Secretariat organized a seminar Development for All – Putting Disability Inclusion into

Practice in Ethiopia in November 2017 in which all the Ethiopian partner organisations participated (28

persons in total). Each organisation presented activities that they already have in the field of disability

inclusion and discussion followed on how each organisation could expand their knowledge on the topic.

Some organisations such as Ethiopian Center for Disability and Development (ECDD) and Help for persons

with Disabilities Organisation (HDPO) are already working on inclusion and are providing services to

mainstream organisations. Others showed their interest to work more on disability inclusion in the future.

It was agreed that a list of DPO experts should be collected and shared, for instance, with the Embassy of

Finland in Addis Ababa and other potential NGO inclusion partners.

As an example of strengthened programmatic approach the DPF enhanced South-South cooperation and

regional work of the DPOs. On 11-15 August 2017 in Bishkek, the representatives of the partner

organisation in Kenya, Kenya Association of the Intellectually Handicapped (KAIH), facilitated an

international training for the Central Asia Women with Disabilities Network on the methods of working

17

with people with intellectual disabilities. The participants included the representatives of the organisations

of women with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan,

Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kenya. The participants learned how to work with people who have

intellectual disability in different aspects, including communications, education, reproductive health,

sexuality, self-protection, and inclusion into society. Resulting from the training, in 2018 the Central Asia

Women with Disabilities Network will pay special attention of working with women with intellectual

disabilities and organisations for intellectual disabilities.

Furthermore, in terms of strengthening the regional aspect of the programme, 2017 was a true milestone

year in the sense that it saw steps towards the realization of the long-term goal of moving the project by

Threshold with HandiKOS in Kosovo and Lotos in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) to become a regional

project. The longer-term aim is to achieve the participation of all Balkan countries in the regional

collaboration and to secure outside funding to keep the network going.

5. Programme Outcome 1: Able Organisations

Every organisation in the programme truly represents their members, and their stakeholders consider them competent and reliable partners.

The assumption is that this outcome will be achieved by assuring that all partners have a well-functioning

administrative system and democratic decision-making processes. Once the basic elements of a functional

organisation are secured and sustained, internal and external respect and trust will be gained, which is a

foundation for the sustainability of an organisation.

Outcome Indicator: DPOs are aware of the state and status of their organisation and take corrective measures to fix the shortcomings.

A DPO is an organisation that is membership based, members being mostly PWDs, or guardians of PWDs,

and whose board has a majority of PWD, or guardians of PWDs. 15 organisations implementing the

programme in 2017 are DPOs and one is an organisation of parents of children with disabilities. The

programme quality being highly dependent on the way the projects are planned, implemented and

monitored, organisational capacity development has been selected as a mandatory outcome for all

partners that are DPOs. Thus, realization of Outcome 1 is monitored closely, and support provided for all

organisations’ development needs.

In 2017, the DPF kicked off the process to develop tailored capacity development plans for each of the

partner organisations. The partners with whom the process started in 2017 are listed in chart 2 below.

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Chart 2. Tailored capacity development plans with partner DPOs in 2017

Project & partner Remarks

BOL9001 ASOCIACION DE PADRES

Y AMIGOS DE NIÑOS

HIPOACUSICOS (APANH)

Process started in 2017 though the project will become

part of the programme in the beginning of 2018.

ETI1003 Disability Development

Initiative (DDI)1

Process started in 2017.

ETI3001 Ethiopian National

Association of the Deaf (ENAD)

Process started in 2017, however, the cooperation will be

phased out in 2018.

ETI4002 Ethiopian National

Association of the Deafblind

(ENADB)


ETI4017 Ethiopian Women with

Disabilities National Association

(EWDNA)


MAL3003 Malawi National

Association of the Deaf (MANAD)

Pilot partner in the process since the beginning of 2017.

TAN2003 Zanzibar Association of

People with Developmental

Disabilities (ZAPDD)


UGA3004 Uganda National

Association of the Deaf (UNAD)

Process started in 2017. UNAD is a strong partner that

could serve as a resource organisation for other partners.

The process will continue with all DPO partners in 2018, and the monitoring of the implementation of the

capacity development plans will be the responsibility of each of the member organisations.

DDI in Ethiopia is one of the partner organisations with whom the process started and the capacity

development plan was discussed and drafted in November together with the FPD and DPF representatives.

One of the discussed items was the future strategic planning of DDI and areas of focus for the coming years.

During the discussions it was agreed that the Finnish support for the micro loan groups will end in its

current form by end of 2019 and new ways for enhancement of labour market situation and financial

independence of PWDs will be developed after 2019. To facilitate this work, FPD initiated the DPF’s

employment – IGA group for the DPF members active in Ethiopia. The capacity development process has

therefore also intensified collaboration of the DPF and member organisations in Finland.

The support provided by the programme to the partner organisations’ core functions has brought about

results and there are several examples of the increased ability of the partner organisations to analyse the

1 In 2017, the Ethiopian partner organisation VAMCPAA changed its status and organisational structure as per the guidance of Charities and Societies Agency of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. This included changing the name to Disability Development Initiative (DDI).

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state and status of their organisations. In Albania, FAD and Albania National Association of the Deaf (ANAD)

have cooperated since the year 2000. The cooperation is based on peer support and expert training as well

as transparent proceedings, open communication and mutual respect. Long term relationship and low

turnover of key personnel are important factors enabling the commitment to long term goals, overcoming

challenging situations and delivering results. As a conclusion, ANAD has progressed fast in many of the

planned learning areas. Similarly, in Kosovo, with the support from FAD, KAD has gradually developed into

one of the three strongest DPOs in advocacy in Kosovo with a very close contact and communication to its

membership and other DPOs (founding member in Kosovo Disability Forum). KAD has succeeded in

promoting accessibility to sign language services and supporting that effort continues as KAD still needs

advice in advocating for disability specific legislation, and in strategic and financing planning.

The main partner of the Programme in BIH, I.C. Lotos, is recognized as one of the key resources to support

the common work of DPOs across the country. Activities aimed at supporting DPOs in BIH have resulted in a

stronger and more formal coordination between organisations. There is an evident increase in mutual trust

and support among representatives of different organisations compared to previous years. This is

manifested in the signing of a joint action agreement within the framework of the coordination of cantonal

coalitions of DPOs in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBIH), and the readiness of DPOs from

Republika Srpska to co-ordinate with DPOs from FBIH. Additionally, I.C. Lotos is recognized as a resource for

obtaining information from both DPOs and individuals with disabilities. More and more authorities are

approaching I.C. Lotos for obtaining information and data required to produce different reports or provide

answers to questions raised by international organisations and institutions regarding disability issues.

The focus of capacity development for ENADB, the partner of Threshold, has been on strategy development

for the organisation as well as on funding and fundraising. With support from Threshold, the visibility of

ENADB and the bargaining power with the public authorities has increased. During the cooperation with

Threshold, ENADB has identified 216 new members who are beneficiaries and their families. Its capacity for

local fundraising and cooperation with the city of Addis Ababa has increased, and it has received an office

space from the city. Furthermore, there is increased understanding in the Ethiopian society that people

with deaf-blindness can work and be productive.

Learning Several of the partner organisations are relying heavily on the funding from the DPF. The lack of exit

strategies has been identified as a weakness throughout the programme for example in the CSO3

evaluation. The DPF and the member organisations have taken this finding seriously and are starting to

address the need to develop exit strategies from 2018 onwards.

In order to strengthen the sustainability of the initiatives, the programme is increasingly linking the work

with existing structures (regulatory and other public administration bodies) in the countries. For example,

MANAD has learnt the need to effectively link the branches with stakeholders at the district level, which

will help the branches to be active as well as gain necessary knowledge.

Output 1.1: DPOs’ administrative capacity has risen

Supporting the development of the administrative capacity of partners is a value added that the DPF can

offer to its partners. It is rare for foreign donors to grant funds for - for example - organising general

assemblies and training of the support staff such as financial personnel. The DPF, however, is able and

willing to provide core funding to its partner organisations. This is often combined with technical support

provided by the Finnish sister organisations and the DPF Secretariat if needed. In case of DPOs, such

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support is indispensable as most PWDs in the partner countries never had any formal education. Running

an organisation and answering accountability requirements of donors is not a simple task.

More systematic monitoring of this output and related indicators will be conducted during the next

programme period 2018-2021 as part of the capacity development process with the partner organisations.

Rather than providing a comprehensive assessment of the capacity, the results below are examples of

progress made during the programme period.

Indicator 1.1.1: DPOs have signed and follow-up Zero Tolerance for Corruption agreements with Disability Partnership (mandatory for all).

The process to sign the Zero Tolerance for Corruption agreements between the partner organisation and

the DPF started in 2017. In 2017, the agreement was signed with ECDD and EWDNA as well as the new

programme partner APANH that was used to pilot the process. Eventually it is expected that all partner

organisations sign the agreement and the project coordinators will initiate the process while visiting the

projects.

The process for drafting and discussing the agreement in the Steering Group was an important learning

experience for the DPF and the member organisations. Part of the process was to define corruption and

related key terminology, acknowledging that the concept and understanding of what is perceived as

corruption might be different in Finland and in the programme countries. The agreement will facilitate

discussion on the definition of corruption with the partner organisations, including defining borderline

cases and how to address them in each context (these could include for example embezzlement, nepotism,

misconduct by the management). A monitoring mechanism for the agreement will be defined with each

partner respectively so that it forms part of the overall good governance practices of each of the

organisations. The agreement and monitoring mechanism will be part of the tailored capacity development

process.

Indicator 1.1.2: DPOs have solid financial management practises (mandatory for all).

Financial management of the partner organisations is addressed as part of the tailored capacity

development processes for all DPOs as well as in the process on zero tolerance for corruption. These

processes continue with all partners in 2018 and progress will be monitored in the coming years.

Indicator 1.1.3: DPOs monitor and assess their work according to a plan and draw learnings from the findings (mandatory for all).

The first pilots for the tailored capacity development plans were made in 2017. During the programme

period, the DPF and member organisations also paid special attention to strengthening the monitoring and

reporting of results by the partners. Monitoring log frames were developed for all projects at the end of

year 2016. The log frame cumulates the project’s consecutive years’ results into one single project

monitoring matrix. This enables more systematic monitoring of programme results. The matrix was used

the first time in the 2017 annual reporting of the project and is work in progress. Almost all the projects

now have a project level log frame and understood the need to strengthen the monitoring and evaluation

capacity of the partner organisations as well as the programme as a whole. A good example of the progress

made is EWDNA. The results of different activities were not recorded formally previously, however, from

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2017 onwards a data collecting tool has been used for this purpose. The log frame development process

and the support from Threshold have paid a significant role in this.

Indicator 1.1.4: Southern DPOs and their branch offices work more independently and are increasingly able to raise or generate their own funding.

The wording of this indicator has been revised in 2018.

While DPOs often do not have the capacity to compete equally with other CSOs on funding and several of

the partner organisations are still relying to a large extent on the funding from the DPF, there is increasing

awareness on the need to broaden the resource base and develop the capacity to mobilize resources

amongst the partner organisations. Most of the additional funding by other donors has been for one off

projects. Three partners in Albania, Ethiopia and Malawi report successful fundraising from the private

sector. The two partners in Kosovo, Handikos and KAD, started drafting a resource mobilization strategy for

the coming years. Zambia National Association of Persons with Physical Disabilities (ZNAPD) in turn is going

to recruit a resource mobilization officer in 2018.

Some partners have successfully tapped into public resources available in the country. In Kenya, there are

resources available at national and sub-national levels. At the county government level, a percentage of the

funds is set aside for PWDs and the programme partner KAIH is looking into ways for their member groups

to access the funds. Similarly, the National Council for Persons with Disabilities also has a development

fund which targets PWDs and their families with education bursaries, economic empowerment funds for

groups, support to assistive devices and cash transfers. KAIH plans to continue educating their members on

the available local funds and supporting them in applying for them. Furthermore, 6 out of 11 local deaf

associations in Kosovo have been successful on receiving financial support from their local municipalities. In

Ethiopia, the funding EWDNA received from the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MOLSA) in 2016 and

2017 increased 10-fold from the previous years.

Output 1.2: DPOs follow principles of democratic governance

Systematic monitoring for this output and related indicators will be conducted through the capacity

development plans and HRBA survey. In the absence of these in 2017 the partner organisations were not

required to report against these in the project level annual reports.

Indicator 1.2.1: General assemblies and board meetings of DPOs are held according to the statutes and principles of good governance (mandatory for all)

The topic is one that is discussed as part of the tailored capacity development plan processes.

Indicator 1.2.2: DPOs have solid leadership and human resource management (mandatory for all).

The topic is one that is discussed as part of the tailored capacity development plans.

Indicator 1.2.3: DPO are represented in relevant local, national and international networks and platforms and DPO representatives act according to the mandate given by the appointing body (mandatory for all).

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This issue will be one of the topics of the mapping of organisations’ capacity taking place from 2017

onwards.

Indicator 1.2.4: DPOs have a reliable mechanism to report incidents related to workplace violence and discrimination (mandatory for all).

This indicator has been removed from 2018 onwards. Workplace violence and discrimination are issues that

will be addressed as part of the tailored capacity development planning that started in 2017.

6. Programme Outcome 2: Advocacy for Inclusion

DPOs and their stakeholders are committed to and increasingly capable of promoting the full realization of all human rights for all persons with disabilities (CRPD, Article 4).

The UNCRPD calls for global cooperation between nations and DPOs to realize the rights of PWDs. The

Convention states that PWDs must benefit from international development programs and meaningfully

participate in them. The programme aims to reach that by supporting the partners’ advocacy work and by

advocating on national and international platforms. Some of the significant results from long term advocacy

by the partner organisations with support from the DPF are presented below.

For example, after years of lobbying and advocating by HandiKOS in Kosovo, with support from Threshold

and other donors, the parliament of Kosovo in 2017 adopted a disability law that tripled the monthly

allowance from government to certain groups of PWD’s. Furthermore, during 2017 with pressure of

HandiKOS and other DPOs in Kosovo, the implementation of administrative instructions on physical access

of PWDs in public buildings, employment quota of PWDs in public institutions and improvement in

implementation of the legislation for inclusive education of PWDs started to produce initial results.

Although these results are limited mainly to big cities of Kosovo, the awareness for the urgent need for

further improvement has increased considerably. Moreover, during 2017, several by-laws were adopted by

government institutions. These bylaws enabled PWD’s in accessing much needed services. By being less

dependent from family and society in general, PWDs will have the better opportunities for participation in

society.

In Albania, a significant result of advocacy by ANAD was the Amendment to the Pre-University law

regarding deaf education: the article 69 changed from “right to communication in sign language” to “right

to education in sign language”.

With contribution from the advocacy work by ZAPDD, in Zanzibar there has been progress in an important

factor in the realization of human rights – namely, in awareness among members of the judiciary on the

concept of intellectual disability, the needs of persons with intellectual disabilities, their rights and

challenges they encounter in accessing their rights particularly before the judiciary, as well as how to assist

them to access their rights before the judiciary.

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In Zambia, PWDs are participating in programmes such as the District Development Committee that

oversees development in districts; resident development committees; and the District Disaster

management committee that mitigates calamities and other challenges. In Malawi, MANAD was included in

Phalombe district council’s district authorisation team (DAT) for Traditional Authority Mkhumba. This is the

first time a DPO is participating in a DAT which is the committee which monitors and authorizes projects at

district level to ensure that they meet the needs of all persons. Participating in the committee has

enhanced the visibility of deaf people and MANAD in the district and MANAD is now being asked to provide

guidance, advice and knowledge on inclusion of deaf people and all PWDs. This hopefully serves as an

example for other districts.

Outcome indicator: International cooperation, including international development programmes, is increasingly inclusive of and accessible to persons with disabilities (adapted from the CRPD, Article 32).

The DPF is actively following international actors in the development sector and as a member of the

International Disability and Development Consortium contributing to disability inclusion in development.

Our associate member, Abilis Foundation, is a steering committee member of the Global Action on

Disability (GLAD) Network, which is a coordination body of bilateral and multilateral donors and agencies,

the private sector and foundations working to enhance the inclusion of PWDs in international development

and humanitarian action. The chair of Abilis Board and the DPF Board, Kalle Könkkölä, is the main actor in

this advocacy work.

The DPF had representation at the Board of Kehys, the EU platform of Finnish development NGOs. Laura

Poussa from the Finnish Association of People with Physical Disabilities worked actively to promote

disability inclusion in EU development work. This was our channel of contributing to the new EU Consensus

on Development, where EU gives a strong commitment to promoting the rights of PWDs.

In the partner countries, there is not yet a programme level follow up of each country’s state of inclusion

especially considering actors other than governmental authorities, i.e. businesses and non-governmental

organisations. A survey on the depth of the HRBA of the partners especially regarding the partners’ ability

to provide disability inclusion expertise to mainstream stakeholders of all three sectors of the society will

be conducted with partners in the latter half of 2018 to establish a baseline and find out where the

programme can support the strengthening of this expertise. The results from the survey will enable

systematic monitoring of outcome 2 and related outputs and indicators.

However, in 2017 the partners in Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia reported

that there was progress in inclusion of PWDs in development programmes at the country level.

For example, UNAD reports that an increasing number of organizations working on human rights are

including deaf issues in their work; for instance, the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights and the

Hunger Project Uganda have trained and supported the participation of deaf people. In Malawi, in addition

to mainstreaming disability issues in their programmes, organisations such as United Nations agencies,

National Initiative for Civic Education, NRB, Malawi Electoral Commission and Plan Malawi have developed

special programs targeting PWDs.

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In the reporting period, the partners in Ethiopia have observed some encouraging signs for the inclusion of

PWDs in the development agenda and service delivery of both government and non-state actors. However,

the disability issues still lack responsible body in the government and addressing the issues depends on the

interest of individual government representatives. Budget constraints and the lack of earmarked budget on

the part of stakeholders was a bottleneck for the implementation and success of inclusive development.

Outcome indicator: Increased number of human rights advocates with disabilities at local and national levels.

This indicator has been removed as part of the programme review in 2018.

The reported number of human rights advocates in 2016 was 884 from eight projects. However, during the

programme duration, the instructions given to project partners regarding the data to be collected were not

detailed enough, so the figure gives just an estimate of the real number of active human rights defenders.

In 2017 four projects reported the number of activists, totalling 827. Lotos reported that while in 2016

there had been 20 activists, the number increased in 2017 though the exact figure is not available. In the

absence of exact figures Tanzania, Zambia and Uganda reported that there are several advocates, either

DPOs or individual. In Kenya in 2017, KAIH reached and empowered 89 self-advocates (47 male and 42

female), 148 family members (123 female and 25 male) and 34 individuals from different offices in the

government and private sector in activities aimed at capacity building, lobbying, advocacy, monitoring the

execution of rights of people with intellectual disabilities and related issues in Kenya.

Even if exact numbers are not available, it is evident that the work of many of the partner organisations

aims at increasing the number of human rights advocates in the programme countries. For example, in BIH

in 2017, I.C. Lotos organized a summer school for young activists as potential leaders in the movement of

PWDs. This has led to more frequent inclusion of youth in the DPO’s work especially at the local level. The

Central Asia Women with Disabilities Network reports similar results: through different activities of the

Network the capacity and knowledge of young leaders of the Network has improved significantly and they

now provide different trainings in the project. In Ethiopia, deaf youth from all over the country got

leadership skills and they were empowered. They were active in their own branches of ENAD, and youth

wings were established in many branches. Both ANAD and KAD have their respective youth sections where

young activists are supported for self-organizing and trained as future leaders and trainers. In addition, KAD

has a separate training of trainers program for local level resource persons.

Learning The programme partner I.C. Lotos has identified that DPOs in BIH, especially at the local level, have

insufficiently used the provisions of the UNCRPD as a tool for advocating changes to DPO's rights.

Consequently, there is a need to provide resources for more comprehensive education of activists about

the possibilities of using UNCRPD as an advocacy tool. In ANAD and KAD, training in understanding and

using of UNCRPD is part of organisational and advocacy training for staff, board, local associations and

youth sections.

Political instability is one the common risks in the programme affecting the results of advocacy work. For

example, in Albania, political instability is veritable risk for advocacy preventing and delaying planned

results. During late 2016 and early 2017 ANAD negotiated a cooperation agreement with the Ministry of

25

Social Welfare and Youth and the Ministry of Education and Science. However, it did not proceed to signing

because all ministries ceased their operative actions about 6 months prior to the elections for campaigning.

Staff and contact persons in the key institutions were partly changed because of the election, and the

changes influenced ANAD advocacy work for over 6 months. It takes time creating rapport with new

contacts and the advocacy work starts from the beginning.

Output 2.1: Persons with Disabilities in partner countries are active human rights advocates at local, national or international level.

Indicator 2.1.1: Number of DPOs participating in national monitoring committees or in shadow reporting of CRPD.

In 2017, 9 out of 18 partner organisations were involved in monitoring of the implementation of the

UNCRPD as consultative members of the formal reporting process, informally through the parallel reporting

process or are lobbying for the ratification and/or implementation of the Convention. Out of the remaining

organisations six are in Ethiopia, where advocacy for human rights is not allowed for organisations receiving

funds from abroad. Despite this one of the Ethiopian partners, ENAD, has trained their members on

UNCRPD among other topics. In Cambodia, the deaf are not yet organised as their own organisation but

they have participated in non-formal discussions about the UNCRPD. The Zambian partner ZNAPD has not

been active in UNCRPD monitoring but is planning to participate through the umbrella organisation ZAFOD.

As an example, I. C. Lotos participated in the final review of the report of the UNCRPD Committee of BIH in

March and April 2017. After the UNCRPD Committee submitted its Concluding Conclusions and

Recommendations, I.C. Lotos prepared and published the text of the recommendations, and organised

seminars for the representatives of key DPOs to familiarize with the content of the recommendations and

the obligations of different government institutions in their implementation. For DPOs in BIH, the process

was very important because it showed that priority issues for DPOs can be successfully negotiated with

government institutions. The most obvious example is the Committee's recommendations regarding the

provision of partnership status in the process of policy-making and decision-making relating to PWDs.

In Malawi, MANAD continued to be part of the team that developed the parallel report. MANAD was also

trained by United Nations Development Programme on how to build the capacity of government officials to

implement the UNCRPD. Meetings were organized with Malawi Police Service, Ministry of Justice and

Constitution Affairs and Ministry of Local Government on how to localise the UNCRPD. Following

interaction with the magistrate for Mwanza district a recommendation was made to seek for sign language

interpreters when handling cases involving deaf people. As a result, in a case handled in December 2017

and January 2018, the court included a sign language interpreter (Communication Supporter) in all the

sessions of the case.

The depth of the partner organisations’ connections to the UNCRPD will be mapped in the HRBA survey,

which will help to share best practises and lessons learnt between the partner organisations.

Indicator 2.1.2: DPOs strategically plan their advocacy work and based on the plan participate in relevant local, national and international organisations, platforms and networks.

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This indicator will be monitored as part of the tailored capacity development process from 2018 onwards.

The process will also help to establish a programme level baseline.

As an example of this work, two persons from the Gambian partner organisation GADHOH participated in

BRIDGE training organized by IDA and the International Disability and Development Consortium (IDDC) in

Ghana in November 2016 and in Kenya in May 2017.

Indicator 2.1.3: DPOs are motivated and capacitated to promote disability inclusion in their work environment.

The HRBA survey will be conducted towards the end of 2018 to provide baseline information about the

state of the partner’s motivation and skills to promote disability inclusion by providing disability specific

and disability inclusion knowledge especially to non-governmental organisations and businesses. The HRBA

survey will include a component on inclusion which was piloted in Ethiopia in November 2017 as part of the

inclusion workshop organized by the DPF. The workshop revealed that the partner organisations in Ethiopia

are indeed working on disability inclusion and the demand from mainstream organisations is so high to e.g.

ECDD that the partners do not yet have the capacity to address all the requests. The DPF will continue to

strategize how best to support the partner organisations in their inclusion related work.

As an example of the work on inclusion, DDI together with ECDD and FPD organized a conference on

Accessibility & Design on 28 March 2017 in Addis Ababa for local Ethiopian government, university and civil

society representatives. The conference was followed by a 3-day accessibility audit training for a group of

selected students. The conference is a good example of how the programme can support work that brings

together different types of disabilities. FPD architect and specialist for Design for All Kiki Pesola together

with FPD accessibility centre ESKE were responsible for the facilitation and preparation of learning

materials for the accessibility audit training. This event enabled DDI to create a new contact with the

Ethiopian Construction Minister. Accessibility promotion as joint effort between FPD and DDI will be

hopefully continued also in 2018.

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Participants and the trainer Kiki Pesola conducting accessibility assessment as part of the accessibility audit training in Ethiopia

Output 2.2: Mainstream NGOs include persons with disabilities in their programmes

Indicator 2.2.1: Disability Partnership networks with likeminded organisations and promotes mainstreaming on international platforms.

Cooperation with the Nordic sister organisation was strengthened during the programme period.

Programme advisors have met annually to exchange information and experiences, and in 2017 the DPF

hosted the meeting in Helsinki in March. For this meeting, the DPF was asked to present the structure, tools

and lessons learned from its work on disability inclusion. The Executive Directors met in Stockholm in April

2017. Promotion of disability mainstreaming is growing in importance as a shared field of work with the

Nordics and in the international platforms IDDC and GLAD Network.

Indicator 2.2.2: Disability Partnership and its Finnish member organisations provide high quality tailored disability inclusion expert services to Finnish mainstream actors in the development sector and their partners.

In 2017, regular and tailor-made guidance and training on disability inclusion was provided to seven Finnish

NGO customers (in nine projects): Finnish Bible Society, Finnish Lutheran Overseas Mission, Finnish

Psychologists for Social Responsibility, Finnish Somalia Network, Msingi Friendship Association, Rotary

Doctor Bank Finland and UFF. In addition to training and regular guidance in Finland, the DPF organised

training on disability inclusion together with local DPOs in Kenya (in May with the Finnish Bible Society),

Malawi (in August with UFF) and Tanzania (in October with the Rotary Doctor Bank Finland and Diaconia

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University of Applied Sciences DIAK). In 2017, disability inclusion training was also provided for the DPF

partner organisations in Ethiopia (six organisations participated). The quality of the work is regularly

assessed via customer satisfaction queries and impacts on disability mainstreaming in the projects

monitoring (regular follow up and annual reports). In general, it can be stated that disability mainstreaming

activities have been implemented as planned and many positive results have taken place.

The final evaluation of the UFF Dowa Women Farmers’ Club project in Malawi (2015-2017) stated that

PWDs have been provided with the farming inputs as other members, have received the same training as

the other women farmers, and that club by-laws have been reviewed so that they ensure the same rights

for club members with disabilities as for other members. Members with disabilities have also been linked

with support structures to ensure that they get assistive devices and other support they may require… it

appears that the actions focusing specifically on the disability issues have been successful (Soveri, R. 2017

Evaluation of Dowa Women Farmers’ Club Project, Malawi Phase 2, p. 39). In the Hiil Hooyo – maternal

health project in Somalia (by the Finnish Somalia Network), the DPF together with local DPOs, have

provided training to the project and mother and child centre’s staff on disability inclusion. In addition, a

component on disability has been created together with DIAK for the e-learning course for midwives. The

Finnish Bible Society has up-dated the Good Samaritan Programme HIV Training Manual and other related

materials (brochures and flipcharts) to include also a component on disability inclusion. In 2017, the DPF

took part in a workshop to guide the Good Samaritan Programme staff and volunteers on the use of the

above-mentioned training manual.

The DPF Secretariat is coordinating the work on disability inclusion benefiting from the wide and versatile

expertise of the DPF’s member organisations and their partners in the South. Training is provided by or in

cooperation between the DPF and local DPOs depending on the skills of the local organisation on disability

inclusion work. The aim is always to provide news skills and to strengthen the capacity of local DPOs on

disability inclusion so that they can act as experts in the field in their respective countries. An important

element in the disability inclusion workshops is to create networks among diverse partners to facilitate

work and exchange on disability inclusion. In Kenya, for instance, 5 local DPOs took actively part in the 5-

day disability inclusion workshop and initiatives and linkages were created for continuous cooperation with

the Kenya Bible Society in different parts of the country. Since then, DPOs have been invited in the Kenya

Bible Society workshop as active participants. In Malawi, in addition to local DPOs, also the government

body for disability related work, Malawi Council for the Handicapped (MACOHA) took actively part not only

in the project implementation but also in all inclusion workshops provided during the project period

strengthening the capacity of MACOHA staff on disability inclusion.

An inspiring new opening in mainstreaming work was participation in a Finnpartnership funded project.

Combi Works, a Finnish company developing the concept Factory as a Service, and the Finn Church Aid

applied for funding to pilot a modular school building in Nepal. The school project is called “SMILE”, which

stands for sustainable, modular, inclusive learning environment. The DPF together with the Accessibility

Centre of the Finnish Association of People with Physical Disabilities provide expertise on accessibility and

inclusive education to the project. The fourth partner is the engineering and consulting company Elomatic.

All project partners have experienced this collaboration between the private sector and NGOs very fruitful

as all partners have special expertise complementing each other. Partnerships with businesses can be an

effective way for the DPF to promote its mission.

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Photos (1) Development for All book is being widely distributed among diverse co-operating partners in different parts

of the world (2) Local DPOs representatives and disability activists act as facilitators in the disability inclusion

workshops organised by the DPF. The goal of these workshops is to create linkages and to facilitate networking

between local NGOs and DPOs (3) All workshops are participatory and accessible.

Apart from providing services to regular customers, tailor made trainings on disability inclusion were

provided also to other organisations such as the Teachers without Borders (on regular basis) and

EduCluster. In addition, the DPF organised two events together with the MFA on disability inclusion (on 30

March and 10 May).

To increase the number of disability inclusive projects, new partnerships are actively sought among diverse

actors in the development sector. In 2016, 15 new project applications were drafted between the DPF and

other mainstream actors, DPF providing guidance on disability inclusion. Out of these, 11 project

applications were made together with NGOs for the MFA NGO Unit (KEO-30) for project support; one was

an application for the HEI-ICI funds; one an application for Communications and Global Education funds of

the NGO Unit; one application was specific to the Middle East conflict area (MADAD); and one was an

application for MFA business support. Out of these 15 applications, 7 applications were successful (6/11

project support and one from the Communications and Global Education funds) and MOUs were signed,

and co-operation started in the beginning of 2017.

To facilitate learning on inclusion and sharing of good practices, the DPF initiated collecting articles on good

disability inclusion practices from the customers and other co-operation partners that have implemented

successfully disability inclusive projects. During this process, good disability inclusive processes were

collected and analysed in co-operation with several organisations. This book is called Development for All:

Experiences on disability mainstreaming in the development sector and was published in early 2017 in

English and later during the same year in French. Both versions have received good feedback and have

been widely distributed among diverse partners worldwide. World Vision has, for instance, distributed the

book to all country offices.

Thematic work on inclusive water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) has been taken further with co-operation

with the Global Dry Toilet Association of Finland as part of project on inclusive WASH run by the Dry Toilet

Association funded by the support to communications and global education by the MFA. The DPF took part

in the panel organised by the Association in the 2017 World Village Festival. The Inclusive WASH guidebook

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written in 2016 was listed as one of the tools for inclusion in the World Bank publication on inclusive WASH

in 20172.

Indicator 2.2.3: Programme based Finnish development NGOs participating in disability inclusion networks and thematic working groups coordinated by the Partnership have disability inclusive programmes.

This indicator has been revised as part of the programme review in 2018.

In 2017, the DPF conducted a survey on disability inclusion among programme-based organisations in

Finland. Questionnaires were sent to 20 organisations with 9 replies. The main findings included that in

general organisations were aware of the importance of disability inclusion but faced difficulties in the

actual implementation. More information on and tools for disability inclusion were needed. As a result, the

DPF approached several programme-based organisations to offer guidance and practical tools for inclusion.

Agreements for regular cooperation were signed with seven organisations (The Finnish Evangelical-

Lutheran Mission FELM, FIDA, Finnish Refugee Council, International Solidarity Foundation, Operation a

Day’s Work, Plan Finland and World Vision Finland) under diverse thematic sectors including child rights

and protection, adult education, reproductive health and sexual rights, and livelihoods. The DPF together

with its partner organisations in the South will offer training and regular guidance for these organisations

on disability inclusion (for instance KAIH and Women Challenged to Challenge in Kenya, UNAD in Uganda,

The Federation of Disability Organisations in Malawi and ENAD and ECDD in Ethiopia).

Output 2.3: Policies and guidelines of Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland are disability inclusive.

This output and the related indicators have been revised as part of the programme review in 2018.

Finland’s development policy has been outlined in the Government Report on Development Policy, which

was published in February 2016. The policy states: “The rights of children and the most vulnerable, notably

the disabled, are taken account of in all our activities” (page 13).

Indicator 2.3.1: Disability Partnership provides disability specific and inclusion expertise to the

Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland in the formulation and implementation of policies and

guidelines.

The DPF systematically participated in hearings organized by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Foreign

Trade and Development, other events organized by the MFA in connection with development questions,

commented on policy drafts, and worked together with development NGOs in advocacy campaigns. Close

cooperation with the sectoral senior advisers continued.

Indicator 2.3.2: The Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland re-formulates the Terms of Reference templates of bilateral cooperation so that they stipulate full inclusion of persons with disabilities.

Disability inclusion was raised in discussions with the Ministry but no concrete developments here.

2 The publication is available at: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/27542

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/27542

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Indicator 2.3.3: The Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland institutionalizes the coordination group on international disability policy, defines its mandate and provides necessary resources for it.

This indicator has been deleted as part of the programme review in 2018.

The DPF had several representatives in the coordination group on international disability policy. The group

has been valuable as a forum of information exchange.

Indicator 2.3.4: A panel of persons with disabilities hosted by the Embassy of Finland in Addis Ababa provides disability specific expertise to Finnish funded programmes in Ethiopia.

A permanent panel has not yet been established, but the Embassy remained a strong advocate for disability

rights. In 2016, the embassy organized two disability related workshops. The Embassy also supported the

disability movement by funding the FENAPD through the Local Cooperation Fund.

Output 2.4: Persons with disabilities are better represented in local, national and global organisations, networks and partnerships on disability & development and disability inclusion issues.

This output and the related indicators have been removed in the programme review 2018.

During the programme period 2016-2017, the DPF was represented in several international networks and

participated in events. Especially the Chair of the DPF Board, Kalle Könkkölä, Executive Director of the

Threshold Association, and Tuomas Tuure, the Development Coordinator of the Threshold Association, are

active global level disability rights activists and advocates. Kalle Könkkölä leads the Disability Diplomacy

activities of Abilis Foundation and together with Tuomas represents both the DPF and Abilis, as well as

Kynnys, in different occasions. Main activities, outcomes and results of the Disability Diplomacy are

reported by Abilis. As their salaries are partly paid by the DPF, their achievements are reported also in this

report.

Indicator 2.4.1: The ratio of persons with disabilities and their organisations participating in international organisations, platforms and networks on Disability and Development has increased.

This indicator has been removed as part of the programme review in 2018 and was not monitored in 2017

as this is beyond what the programme can be expected to have control over.

Indicator 2.4.2: A Finnish mainstream NGO employs a person with a disability.

FELM employed a person with disability as human rights advisor in 2016. This highly qualified person gained

her development cooperation expertise in the DPF’s office and member organisations as a trainee and as

an employee.

Generally, in Finland, lack of PWDs who have either suitable education or experience to work in the

development cooperation sector is a factor that hinders fulfilling the Nothing about us without us principle

so important for the disability and development movement. The DPF and its member organisations tackle

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the problem by providing trainee posts for PWDs, and especially the Finnish Association of the Deaf by

training deaf advisors to be competent experts in development cooperation context.

Indicator 2.4.3: Finnish humanitarian aid organisations include persons with disabilities in the planning, implementing and monitoring processes of humanitarian aid.

At the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016 the international community recognized the need to combine

humanitarian and development efforts to solve the complex crises of today. For PWDs the inclusion

measures are needed in both sectors, and the DPF as an umbrella organisation can support DPOs and

individuals in becoming advocates and experts. The Chair of the DPF Board, Kalle Könkkölä, advocated for

disability inclusion on several arenas. He co-chaired a round table meeting on humanitarian aid during the

CRPD Conference of State Parties in New York in 2017, and he was responsible for convening a thematic

group on humanitarian aid within the GLAD Network.

7. Programme Outcome 3: Education and Learning

Schools and training centres provide inclusive formal or non-formal education to children, youth and adults with disabilities.

Results 2017 The DPF’s Theory of Change was written in the first half of 2017 as part of the updating of the development

cooperation programme for the new funding period 2018-21. The assumption behind the programme

outcome 3 on education and learning was this: Finnish DPOs effectively use their special expertise in

inclusive and special education and learning.

The assumption is again backed up by decades of experiences gathered by Finnish member organisations

on developing the quality of disability specific and disability inclusive learning methods for their specific

disability group. The Finnish member organisations have shared this special expertise with their sister

organisations in the Global South, of course analysing and fitting the work to the local setting. This work

continued during the programme period 2016-2017.

Approaches to promotion of inclusive education vary depending on the local legal, political and social

setting. All the projects use the expertise of the Finnish and the local associations to advance the situation

of the rights holders.

The work in this outcome area includes for example sign language training in Albania, Cambodia, Kosovo,

Malawi, and Uganda. Some projects such as KOS3007 are deeply involved in long-term development of the

quality of education in Kosovar sign language through advocacy towards and capacity building of national

level duty bearers that will benefit all sign language users of Kosovo. Sign language researchers Drita

Toprlak and Nebih Cakaj produced the first of Kosovar sign language dictionary in 2012. Their acquired skills

supported to implement the Class Assistant and Sign Language Instructor (CASLI) training program during

years 2013-2015. Now there are 15 certified CASLI students who are able to teach Kosovar sign language as

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second/foreign language. Increased capacity on sign language teaching enabled the continuation of sign

language research. The second Kosovar sign language dictionary project is ongoing; it will include expanded

dictionary with grammar information and will be published as a web dictionary. In Malawi, the foundation

for the research and documentation of Malawi Sign language was accomplished towards the end of 2017.

Some of the programme partners also provide training at more grass root level. The DDP basic education

project is the only opportunity for young deaf adults to acquire sign language in Cambodia and the project

is the first time the deaf students are exposed to Cambodian sign language. The participants have gone

from living in isolation and being non-communicative and passive to being active and communicative with

others. Their time together with their peers at the hostels, in classrooms and participating in deaf

community activities allows them to integrate into the deaf community.

As a result of lobbying and advocacy by UNAD, the biggest nursing training school in Uganda, Nsambya

Hospital School of Nursing and Midwifery, commenced training of sign language to students enrolled there.

In 2017 UNAD trained 244 future health workers in sign language, and as a result they can now attend to

deaf patients in sign language. The training is fully funded by the institute and is ongoing for every

enrolment. Furthermore, the project trained 272 teacher students in Ibanda in sign language, and they now

have the skills to teach deaf children using sign language.

Some projects such as ETI5004 take a more direct approach to improve the preconditions for education of a

smaller number of visually impaired students in Debre Birhan, Ethiopia, by both working together with the

local authorities to enhance the quality of inclusive education locally and by capacitating the students and

teachers with tangible skills and technical aids needed in inclusive settings. One of the most significant

achievements of the reporting period was the supply of adaptive educational materials to students with

visual impairment. As a result, more than 159 students with visual impairment at various grade levels were

able to continue their education. In the Ethiopian context where the availability of materials such as slate

and stylus, braille paper, audio recorders and text books translated into braille is critically limited

throughout the country, the supply of these materials to the right holders with visual impairment had a

critical role and enabled 21 students with visual impairment to receive award due to their excellent

performance compared with their peers without disabilities. Furthermore, in 2017, FFVI started

implementing two projects in Ecuador, one with the focus on access to information and study materials for

the visually impaired and the other supporting the implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate

Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled in

Ecuador.

In Ethiopia, as a result of ECDD’s partnership with the universities of Addis Ababa, Hawassa, Mekelle and

Gonder supported by Threshold, improved awareness by the senior management contributed to increased

disability inclusion efforts. The universities started a process to establish disability centres and hire relevant

personnel to run inclusive services widely. They have assigned focal persons to better coordinate disability

inclusion activities, and during the next academic year Gondar and Mekelle Universities plan to increase the

number of focal persons at their campuses.

The programme also supports access to vocational education of persons with intellectual disabilities in

Zanzibar. The purpose is to create a suitable model for vocational training in Zanzibar, the result of which

shall inform further decision to roll out the project after the completion of the piloting phase 2017-2019.

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Outcome indicator: Number of enrolled and graduated students with disabilities in general education and non-formal education institutes has increased.

This indicator has been revised as part of the programme review in 2018 to include enrolled students only

(instead of enrolled and graduated). It has proven to be difficult to monitor this indicator at country level in

the programme countries due to lack of disability disaggregated data in many countries. However, some

project level numbers are available for the programme period 2016-2017. The way that the numbers have

been established has not been specified (for example, does the figure include all students in the project

area, or students enrolled or graduated directly as a result from the project activities) and therefore the

figures from 2016 and 2017 are not necessarily comparable.

Seven projects reported against this indicator and in 2016, the total reported number of students attending

school due to project activities was 1683. In 2017, 10 projects reported against this indicator and the

reported number of enrolled students was 1473. The number of graduated students as reported by six

projects is 264 students. This brings the total to 1737. During the support by the programme, the number

of students with disabilities in the University of Addis Ababa has more than four-folded to 400 students in

2017.

Learning Increased government and other stakeholder commitment is an important factor in the sustainability of the

programme interventions in all programme countries. In Zanzibar, the Jancombe vocational education

centre for people with intellectual disabilities will soon be officially registered as the vocational training

unit. This not only increases its recognition but also will pave the way for support by other organisations

and the ministry and be included in the budget of the ministry.

The Ethiopian partners have noted that engaging student unions in disability inclusion and awareness

training is important in order to strengthen the disability inclusion efforts. Furthermore, strengthened

collaboration and formal working relationship with Departments of Special Needs and Inclusive Education

at each university would help to mobilize more resources in teaching and research work for full and

effective participation of students with disabilities.

Output 3.1: Children and youth with disabilities can access an inclusive, quality and free primary education and secondary and tertiary education on an equal basis with others in the communities in which they live (CRPD, Article 24, 2b).

Indicator 3.1.1: DPOs have new knowledge on inclusive education and/or provide support services to communities and schools to enhance inclusive education.

In 2017, eight projects provided new knowledge, methods and support services to communities and

schools on inclusive education in various forms.

Training on inclusive education was provided in Ethiopia to student unions and other associations in three

universities; and to regular teachers and school directors at woreda level. With funding from Threshold,

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ECDD piloted the training of Speech to Text Interpreters at Hawassa University. In Zanzibar, in addition to

provision of training, ZAPDD also developed various training manuals for teachers on inclusive education.

The Ethiopian partner Help for Persons with Disabilities Organisation (HPDO) learned the noteworthy

importance of the use of the government structure to reach local communities in general and PWDs in

particular. Hence, in the reporting period, they exercised a new method to find out children with disabilities

who are kept at home through using public health extension workers alongside with deploying Community

Based Rehabilitation (CBR) workers. Furthermore, as students with visual impairment are excluded from IT

training, HPDO trained students with visual impairment who are attending secondary and preparatory

grade levels to be acquainted with the basic computer skills. Some of the trainees started to read and learn

the text books prepared in soft copy and downloaded in the computers of the training centre of the

organisation using talking screen reader. This has been used as alternative means to get access to

information for students with visual impairment alongside with the support of CBR workers as human

readers.

In Ecuador, the partner organization Federación Nacional de Ciegos del Ecuador (FENCE) expanded its

services to cover direct support for children in primary education grades 1-4 and for special needs teachers

in order to support class teachers in methodological strategies and in the production of teaching materials

in cooperation with the general education teacher and UDAI Inclusion Support Centres. Furthermore,

FENCE provided primary education materials in digital form for visually impaired children and youth in the

absence of materials in braille.

UNAD provides support to Iganga Primary Teachers College (PTC) by contributing to the sign language

interpreters' fees for the two deaf students. UNAD also conducts four months sign language training to

teacher students in Ibanda PTC who upon graduation teach deaf children in the primary schools. In 2017,

277 teacher students were trained in Uganda sign language. UNAD has also posted 9 deaf assistant

teachers to 6 primary schools. Furthermore, as a result of lobbying by the Parents of the Deaf Children

Association, deaf units were to be opened in the beginning of 2018 in connection with centrally located

public primary schools in Budaka and Agago districts. These associations were founded by the project and

they have been trained in e.g. advocacy work. They are receiving small grants by the project to carry out

their planned activities, including lobbying.

Indicator 3.1.2: DPOs advocate and provide responsible education authorities with knowledge and knowhow on disability specific, most appropriate means for inclusive education.

Ten projects reported under this indicator. In Albania, following successful collaboration by ANAD with

Ministry of Education and Sports and the European Commission on Language Learning Policy Profile, for the

first time sign language is part of Albania language profile. Also, during 2017 a MoU was drafted between

ANAD, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Social Welfare and the Ministry of Finance to establish an

accredited vocational training for (deaf) sign language teachers and interpreter training. The MoU is to be

signed in 2018.

In Zambia, workshops have been held to sensitize school heads and other educational authorities on the

need to promote education for PWDs. As a result of this work, two hundred and fifty (250) schools in the

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various districts covered by the project are more equipped with ramps for easy accessibility by children

with disabilities.

UNAD drafted a sign language curriculum for Ndejje university which was approved by National Council for

Higher Education; hence Ndejje university is now authored to offer sign language courses jointly with

UNAD. During the year three high level meeting with the Ministry of Education and Sports were organised

by DPOs. The meetings focused on validation of desk review of the various policies to align to inclusive

education practices in Uganda; advocacy to increase the national budget allocated to the education of

PWDs; the training of teachers in inclusive education; and the review and passing of the Uganda National

Examination Board Special and Inclusive Education Policy.

In Kosovo, KAD participated in the formulation of the Special Education Strategy for 2016 -2020 regarding

deaf education (Strategic Plan for 0rganisation of Inclusive Education of Children with Special Needs in the

Pre-university Education in Kosovo 2016-2020). The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology

Permanent Secretary issued a decision on establishing a working group on developing the manual of

bilingual education in Kosovo. KAD and FAD are members of this working group. One meeting was held, and

the working group will develop the manual for bilingual education in 2018.

As a result of the support by the programme, a framework agreement is on place on collaboration between

FENCE and the Ministry of Education in Ecuador, and FENCE serves as the advisor on matters related to

inclusive education. FENCE and the Ministry regularly share information on inclusive education methods,

and the ministry is responsible for arranging the teachers required in the special education centres

coordinated by FENCE.

ZAPDD in 2017 invested heavily in engaging the ministry officials in preparation of the inclusive pre-

vocational training pilot project. Through the development of the curriculum which involved the

participation of various stakeholders, particularly the ministry officials, ZAPDD advocated for the

importance of vocational training to persons with intellectual disabilities drawing several examples from

different countries in which inclusive vocational training is being implemented.

Output 3.2: Persons with disabilities have access to non-formal education Indicator 3.2.1: DPOs organise literacy classes and other life-skills trainings to persons with disabilities, especially women and other vulnerable groups.

10 DPOs and DDP in Cambodia organized literacy and life-skills trainings in 2017. Life-skills training is often

vital for increased independence, self-confidence and participation in the community as shown by the

examples below.

In Zanzibar, life-skills training started in 2017 for 10 learners as part of the project supported by FAIDD. The

parents have reported that as a result of the training, learners integrate into their local communities easier

than before, and the acceptance level of communities has risen. In Kenya, KAIH worked to ensure life-long

learning directed to the development of people with intellectual disabilities. As a result of the work, the

self-advocates have developed confidence and belief in their abilities. The trained self-advocates can now

advocate for their rights and they are working together to make change in the communities.

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Life-skills training for women with disabilities was organized in BIH and Ethiopia. The trainings have

contributed to raising the level of self-confidence of women with disabilities, reducing their dependence on

supporting members of their families, and increasing their active participation in the work of DPOs.

Indicator 3.2.2: DPOs provide non-formal education and support service institutions with disability specific best practises advocate to enhance inclusion of persons with disabilities in their programmes.

6 DPOs and DDP contributed to this work. As examples of the advocacy results, in Zambia, several

workshops were organized by the District Advocacy Alliance with authorities in charge of the support

service institutions. As a result of this, 61 PWDs in Southern, Eastern and Western Provinces have been

enrolled in these institutions.

Regarding sharing best practices, through facilitating experience sharing programs between partner

universities and creating linkages between associations of students with disabilities and local DPOs, ECDD

created a space for learning between the universities. As a result, Haramaya University put in place a

system for students with visual impairment to borrow audio recorder. Moreover, there are efforts to

handle disability issues separately so as to accelerate the inclusion of disability in the mainstreaming

programs of the university.

Output 3.3: Deaf people have access to information in their own language.

This programme output was added in 2017 designed for the deaf organizations so that they can report to

programme level their achievements regarding sign language work and interpreting services. The partner

organizations contributing to this result are ANAD, KAD and MANAD.

Indicator 3.3.1 Sign language research and documentation is done in linguistically valid and participatory method with the deaf community.

In Albania, sign language researchers have produced web dictionary content with 895 annotated signs and

signed example sentences. ANAD staff gained increased knowledge and skills to conduct sign language

research, including documenting and analyzing Albanian Sign Language and publishing materials on the

Albanian Sign Language dictionary website (www.gjshsh.al).

In Kosovo, 1161 signs have been recorded and analyzed, and 994 signs have been translated into Albanian

written language. The web dictionary is to be published in 2019.

In Malawi, sign language research and documentation are about to start, and important steps were taken

towards that in 2017. The Adviser of Sign Language work and the sign language research assistants were

recruited. Three sign language working groups/committees were formed; one per each region of the

country. The major stakeholders were informed about the work to be started and its basic principles. Due

to consistent sharing of information, there is enhanced confidence with the project by the deaf community.

Indicator 3.3.2 Inclusion of the deaf is promoted by developing services in sign language and interpreting services.

http://www.gjshsh.al/

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Organizations and government departments in Malawi increasingly engage sign language interpreters to

ensure their information is accessible to the deaf community. The Malawi Broadcasting Corporation

(MBC) is a state-run radio company in Malawi founded in 1964. In the end of 2017 MBC advertised to

employ 3 full time sign language interpreters, for the first time in the history of the country. This would

ensure good access to information broadcasted on television.

As a result of a long-term advocacy effort, the Government of Kosovo in 2016 approved the Regulation

NO.15/2014 for sign language interpreting services in public setting with an annual budget of 100 000 €.

The sign language interpreters working in the service must be trained and accredited by KAD. KAD is

providing the booking service for interpreters. The public interpreting service continued in 2017 and the

budget line for it was secured. KAD is now advocating to extend the service also to cover for study

interpreting and private setting. Furthermore, KAD continued to work closely with the Prizren University

and finalised the curriculum for teaching sign language and interpreting. The requested materials for

accreditation were submitted to the University or further proceeding to Kosovo Accreditation Authority.

8. Programme Outcome 4: Work and Livelihood

Persons with disabilities have a livelihood and can financially support themselves

and their families.

Economic empowerment of PWDs is the key to independent living and social inclusion. The DPF follows a

twin track approach; one track allowing for disability specific programmes or initiatives aimed directly at

PWDs, while the other track seeks to ensure the inclusion of PWDs in mainstream services and activities.

The work in this outcome area focuses on job skills training as well as livelihood through small business and

micro loans.

The theory of change assumption is that Finnish DPOs effectively use their special expertise on inclusive

and special employment schemes and livelihood promotion and transmit their knowhow to partner

organisations. The assumption is backed up by decades of experiences gathered by Finnish member

organisations on developing disability specific and disability inclusive vocational training and employment

services for their specific disability group. The Finnish member organisations will, to a growing degree,

share this knowledge with their sister organisations and based on that develop and pilot models that are

fitted to the particular working environment.

Results 2017 An impact story from Zambia is a good example of how the programme beneficiaries in Lundazi district are

slowly creating sustainability and continuing the activities on their own without external support.

Lundazi district branch of ZNAPD in 2010 received support to start bee keeping project, and the

project is doing well. In 2015 the project supported a group of women in Kamyunga area about 40

kilometres away from the beekeeping project. The beekeeping project purchased two female pigs

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and one bull as capital for the Kamuyunga women’s project to bring their own pass-on pig scheme.

This household empowerment programme has so far empowered eleven women with a pig each,

and one bull which will go around to service all the female pigs. The recipient will pass on one

offspring to the other person. The Kamuyunga women’s piggery project has also empowered two

more branches in in Kibindu and Luapamba respectively to start their own pig pass-on scheme.

When pigs multiply the branches will empower their members at a household level.

Outcome indicator: Persons with disabilities are less dependent on subsistence support of their

family members.

A baseline for this indicator has not yet been established, however, the data from some of the projects

focusing on IGA indicate that an increasing number of PWDs are becoming financially more independent as

a result of the programme interventions. While it has been difficult to conduct systematic monitoring, the

IGA component has reached a large number of beneficiaries at grassroot level and has been important in

increasing income and empowerment in the local communities.

In Zambia, the number has been steadily increasing. Financially independent ZNAPD members in 2015 were

150; in 2016 the number rose to 179, and in 2017 a total of 209 members were less dependent on

subsistence support of their family members.

In Cambodia, promotion of jobs skills and income generation by DDP have resulted in deaf people being

economically empowered and self-reliant. Due to the job skills training provided, many of the deaf students

now have regular income and they can afford to keep themselves connected with the deaf community even

at a distance. There are also some who can afford to get married and have their own families.

Chheng Rattanak is from a village in Kandal Province in Cambodia. He is 28 years old and he lives with his parents. In addition to deafness, he has also lost partial use of legs due to polio. He graduated from the DDP two-year basic

education course and one-year job training course, studying barbering. He now runs his own barber shop. He is now married and has a baby daughter. Rattanak’s income from his barber shop supports his young family.

As a result of the project implemented by EWDNA, women with disabilities have enhanced their

sustainable income in 2017. 30 people that received basic business skill training have all started their petty

trades. One right holder with physical impairment has hired a deaf member in selling chips. Additionally, 34

40

people joined Hulun Alfa Credit and Saving Association in 2017. Furthermore, the food preparation training

provided by EWDNA for 30 Women with disabilities in 2017 played a significant role in the life of the

trainees. The training helped member to be more independent and prepare a variety of healthy food.

Trainees mentioned that the training has added something new to their knowledge, skill and attitude - it

sensitized them about hygiene in preparing food, showed them how to prepare different foods, as well as

increasing their understanding on affordable nutritious food.

In Ethiopia, the project with DDI has resulted in improved situation of the members in the labour market.

For example, some members of Meskerem and Friends micro-loan groups left due to the better

employment elsewhere thanks to the training, skills and experience gained through the project.

Furthermore, the leather work and electronic work micro loan groups show positive development in terms

of creating new client and sales opportunities. According to the auditor’s report, six of the 12 existing

groups have been able to repay and reduce their loan amount from their level of 2016. The poultry group

took the initiative to manage their business fully by themselves. This is a result of consistent training by DDI

on chicken rearing, selling the product, and expanding their business line.

Learning Evaluation of the DPF’s operations carried out in late 2016-mid 2017 took a rather strong stand against

direct support to promote the employment of PWDs. The evaluators argued that promotion of

employment should be done only with inclusive methods. This issue was discussed by the Executive Board

of the DPF on 25 August 2017 and it was concluded that an internal assessment on the sustainability of the

income generation components of concerned projects will be done in 2018. During the programme period

2016-2017 there was no harmonized approach to work on IGA and therefore cumulative programme level

reporting on the indicators has proven to be difficult.

In addition, FPD together with DPF’s active members in Ethiopia initiated a survey to be conducted in

Ethiopia on the different IGAs implemented by the Ethiopian DPOs. The survey will be completed during

2018. The aim of the survey is to identify the best practices and elements for sustainability among the

different IGA models. This will help both the local Ethiopian DPOs and their international partners to

identify those IGA models that are worth to invest in in future. This was also the topic of a one-day seminar

Income Generating Activities as a Tool to Raise Standard of Living of Persons with Disabilities organized in

Ethiopia in November 2017 for the DPF partners working on the topic. The workshop concluded that there

is a need to develop more opportunities to jointly discuss and to do peer review and analysis on the

benefits and challenges on income generating activities. The ideas will be further discussed and developed

in the DPF’s Ethiopia working group.

An external evaluation (annex 4) was conducted in 2017 for the Ngwena Agro Farm Project implemented by

ZNAPD and was accompanied by a sustainability strategy (annex 5) for the farm. It identifies four pillars for

sustainability as being (1) commercial viability, (2) technical feasibility, (3) transparency and accountability,

and (4) sound business development practice. The proposed plan takes stock of available resources and

undertakes a brief risk analysis. It states that key to risk management will be the implementation of

measures identified in the external evaluation of the farm. Central to this process will be for ZNAPD to

implement measures that they have rightly identified and committed themselves to. The operations of the

farm will continue as part of the PDI programme of ZNAPD from 2018 onwards.

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Output 4.1: Persons with disabilities have effective access to general technical and vocational guidance programmes, placement services and vocational and continuing training (CRPD, Article 27d).

4.1.1 DPOs provide technical and vocational institutions with disability specific knowhow and

advocate to enhance inclusion of person with disabilities in their programmes.

This is a relevant indicator for the projects that have employment of PWDs as one of their project

outcomes. Many occupations requiring vocational skills are not accessible for PWDs since they lack

opportunities for inclusive vocational training.

The work of five projects in BIH, Ethiopia, Zanzibar, Uganda and Zambia respectively on this area has

resulted in the enrolment of more PWDs in technical and vocational training institutions. Furthermore, the

partner organisations have been successful in their advocacy towards the public authorities in charge of

vocational and technical training.

In Uganda, UNAD held a series of meetings with the Department of Vocational and Technical Education

together with other DPOs on industrial training. The meetings were primary on how best the Directorate of

Industrial Training (DIT) can influence other service providers in vocational education to meet the unique

needs of PWDs. DIT requested PWDs to nominate a representative to the DIT council and is in the process

of recruiting a special desk officer to handle PWDs issues and ensure their inclusion in DIT.

In Zanzibar, one of the key focus areas of the pilot project currently under implementation is to enable

young people with intellectual disabilities to proceed to higher level of education by joining various

vocational training colleges. Persons with intellectual disabilities do not make it to higher levels once they

graduate from primary education because the education system is not in their favour. To enable them to

graduate from the pilot project to join other vocational training colleges, ZAPDD engaged the Director of

TVET and heads of vocational colleges to enable the graduates from the project to enrol in their institutes

having attained not only skills but also certificates which are recognizable by the authorities and the

colleges.

Indicator 4.1.2: DPOs create mechanisms to improve the placement services and on-the-job

learning opportunities for persons with disabilities.

As an example of progress made in this area, ZAPDD began preliminary talks with some stakeholders for the

placement. This is due to the fact that, based on the developed curriculum, students will spend a

considerable amount of time in the field. The stakeholders responded positively by promising to accept

students sent in their institutions for placement.

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Output 4.2: Persons with disabilities have increased opportunities for self-employment, entrepreneurship, the development of cooperatives and starting one's own business (CRPD, Article 27f).

Indicator 4.2.1: Local and national authorities and development actors include persons with disabilities in their livelihood programmes.

In Uganda deaf persons are included in livelihood programmes of other organisations and the government.

The non-disability specific livelihood programs in 2017 were Operation Wealth Creation (OWC), Youth

Livelihood Fund, and Uganda Women Entrepreneur Programme. These are based at the district level and

UNAD has encouraged the District Associations of the Deaf to register groups with districts in order to

access these. Some deaf have received support under OWC through cows, seedlings like mangoes, coffee,

oranges inter alia.

In Zambia, PWDs continue to receive support through social cash transfer; in Monze district alone, 90 PWDs

(50 men and 40 women) benefitted from the programme. PWDs also continue to receive goat support

through the farmer support input programme.

As a result of two workshops conducted by EWDNA to promote inclusion of women with disabilities,

representatives of microfinance institutions and government service providers in Ethiopia obtained new

knowledge regarding different disabilities and have shifted their attitude about PWDs. This is expected to

lead to increased access of women with disabilities to these services.

Indicator 4.2.2: Where equal access is not available for persons with disabilities, the DPOs pilot specific sustainable employment schemes.

Six projects piloted sustainable employment schemes in 2017.

As the result of the engagement in different income generation activities supported by DDI, the micro-loan

group members in Ethiopia are able to cover the cost of food, shelter, and clothes. In addition, the work has

instilled self-confidence, independence and improvement in their attitude leading to a sense of self-

respect. From the profit gained from the sale of leather products the group has been able to buy raw

materials and cover the transport allowances for its members. The income generating schemes they started

with loan through DDI have facilitated self-employment, the development of self-reliance and self-esteem

among members. Moreover, the project activities not only have helped group members but have also

provided evidence for other community members that persons with various kinds of disabilities can

become independent and socially and economically empowered if they are given opportunities.

Employment opportunities continue to pose a challenge to PWDs in Zambia. However, some ZNAPD

members are engaged in self-employment programmes ranging from crop production, animal husbandry,

bee keeping and food processing. As a result, many PWDs are making a living out of these activities. Some

are able to send their children to schools.

The DDP job training program in Cambodia has been successful in training students at the worksite and at

its own barber school for deaf students. Students who complete job training are assisted with finding jobs

at private businesses or setting up their own businesses.

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UNAD works with other DPOs led by the National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda to lobby for

employment quotas. The lobbying is also encouraging employment of PWDs through creation of annual

disability award by Federation of Uganda Employers.

Output 4.3: Private and public sector internalize inclusive employment practices and employ staff with disabilities

Indicator 4.3.1: DPOs provide counselling to persons with disabilities seeking employment.

This is a service that several partner organisations offer to their members either formally or informally.

Often also questions related to adaptation of working conditions suitable for PWDs are answered and legal

counselling given. 5 out of 6 projects reporting on this indicator in 2017 do provide counselling in one form

or another. For example, EWDNA provides counselling and holds discussion in the coffee ceremony session

about different things to enable women with disabilities obtain employment and approach service

providers. The coffee ceremony session creates opportunity for women with disability to meet with women

with different types of disability, their experiences, express themselves freely and socialize.

UNAD provides annual mentoring and training of deaf graduates seeking jobs. The areas covered include

i.a. how to write a CV, the value of volunteerism as work experience, how to write a winning application,

and how to prepare for interviews. In 2017, seven deaf persons mentored got employment opportunities,

one of them in the public service. Additionally, one mentored person is volunteering with a big NGO.

Indicator 4.3.2: DPOs partner with private, public and third sector actors to improve inclusive labor legislation and enhance the official employment of persons with disabilities.

Work related to this indicator was undertaken both in Finland and in the programme countries. 5 partners

reported to have partnered with various actors.

The DDP job training project cooperates with three NGOs and three private business partners to provide

job skills training to deaf students. These partners are experienced in working with DDP deaf students and

interpreters, and the deaf students are receiving the job skills necessary to either find employment or to

start their own businesses. The Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation has set a goal

of at least 2% of the public sector work force be PWDs; however, the enforcement of this provision remains

a question.

In 2017, I.C. Lotos in cooperation with other DPOs founded the Association for the Promotion of the

Employment of Persons with Disabilities, aiming to impact on legislation regulating support for

employment of PWDs, and in particular with the aim of influencing the work of the Fund for Professional

Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities.

The DPF has an expert role in a Finnpartnership funded project, where Combi Works and Finn Church Aid

are together developing a sustainable inclusive modular school for humanitarian or other challenging

circumstances. Our role is to provide expertise on accessibility so that the learning environment could be

inclusive for all children. The school will be built in cooperation with a vocational school in Kathmandu and

the National Rehabilitation Centre of the Disabled Nepal as a local DPO expert.

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9. Programme Outcome 5: Gender Equality as a Crosscutting Outcome

Gender based discrimination is eradicated in the work of DPOs.

The theory of change assumption is that all partners have a rights-based approach to gender issues once

their awareness has been awakened. This assumption is like that of disability inclusion among the external

stakeholders, only here it is an internal issue concerning the rights and inclusion of women. The assumption

is addressed in the programme by creating culture sensitive ways to address the gender equality issues so

that human rights-based approach and for example its implications on the participation of the most

vulnerable, in this case women and girls, will be ensured.

There are signs that the support by the programme to the partners’ work to promote gender equality and

the rights of women with disabilities is yielding results. For example, with the support from the programme,

the Central Asia Women with Disabilities Network has become a base for the formation of independent

leaders of women who want to change their lives. Each year the Network organizes international summer

camps, the main idea of which is to increase awareness of women with disabilities about their life

opportunities; to motivate and provide guidance. During the summer camp there are several trainings that

aim to enhance leadership skills of women with disabilities. After four summer camps, 77 young women

have become leaders and take initiatives in their own environment to encourage others.

In BIH, women with disabilities are increasingly empowered to engage in the work of DPOs due to the

realization of project activities in 2017. An increasing number of initiatives are initiated by groups of

women with disabilities, majority of which are young women. Young women with disabilities are further

empowered to continue formal education and thus encourage an additional number of women and girls

with disabilities to actively engage in DPOs work and directly advocate for their rights. This is expected to

lead to more women identifying as leaders in the fight for the rights of women with disabilities in BiH.

In Finland, the programme Steering Group received training on different forms of violence and abuse

against women with disabilities on 7 February by Pirkko Justander, who works at Naisten Linja (Women’s

Line), and on 29 November 2017 by Amu Urhonen, who also has experience of the developing country

context. The idea in these trainings was to get facts about these sensitive issues and give the Steering

Group members basic concepts so that they in turn will be able to raise these issues with their Southern

partners.

Results 2017 Outcome indicator: Women with disabilities do not experience discrimination or exclusion based on their gender.

This indicator has been revised in the 2018 programme review to include also harassment. The baseline will

be established in 2018 through the HRBA survey which will enable systematic monitoring. Gender equality

will be promoted by all programme partners during the programme at the organisational level – partner

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organisations must make sure that their own operations are free of gender discrimination and that gender

issues are mainstreamed into all activities.

Several programme partners took measures to strengthen their work on rights of women with disabilities

specifically. As an impact story, a 19-year old Albanian Sevina Hysi tells:

“Before I stayed at home, I had no place to go. In 2015 I was actively engaged in ANAD

activities and women's meetings. I follow the women's meetings every week, I'm happy with

the information that we share between women, the training about women's health, positive

and negative communication of deaf people. I took part in the women's day celebrations

every 8 March. I have created new friendships. My life has changed thanks to the

communication in sign language in ANAD.”

To address the needs of women and girls with intellectual disabilities KAIH joined a caucus for women with

disabilities to ensure the voices of girls and women with intellectual disabilities are amplified in various

platforms. Following the parallel report on Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

in 2016, KAIH and the other six DPOs in the caucus have reached out to the gender department regarding a

partnership plan in the implementation of the concluding observations specific to women and girls with

disabilities.

Maryknoll in Cambodia, Lotos in BIH and ZAPDD in Zanzibar revised their internal documents to better

address gender issues in their work. MANAD in turn revamped the women’s committee in 2017.

Learning Some of the partners are already very advanced in gender equality and gender mainstreaming, and their

knowledge will be collected and shared among the partners. The DPF members and office in Finland also

have a lot to learn from them. As gender equality is a cross-cutting outcome in the DPF Programme it

became clear that collaboration among the programme implementors is indispensable in this area. A joint

project was planned for the next funding period 2018-21, and funding was applied also from other sources

to support South-South cooperation.

Gender is an intersectional issue in our programme where gender and disability meet. Following the

example set by KAIH collaboration will be sought with Finnish and Southern mainstream NGOs that have

special knowledge of gender issues and gender mainstreaming. This will also help create disability inclusion

awareness amongst these organisations – women’s rights organisations are not always inclusive for women

with disabilities.

Crosscutting Output 5.1: DPOs take measures to ensure the full and equal participation of women and girls with disabilities in all their operations.

Gender issues are fairly well considered at beneficiary level. There is, however, still work to do regarding

gender equality at organisational level. Promoting the participation of women and girls with disabilities in

decision making and uprooting all gender related discriminatory work practices is the aim. The assumption

is that once rooted to the organisational level, gender equality is not an issue anymore. The thinking is

borrowed from the disability inclusion rationale. Once the organisation is gender sensitive and has

monitoring mechanisms, gender is not an issue anymore.

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One of the most significant added value in the programme is the peer support that the Finnish member

organisations provide to the partner organisations in the Global South. For example, in Zambia, an

important aspect of the support by FPD to ZNAPD during the programme period was the participation of

the Finnish women in the first women’s conference organized by ZNAPD on 22-24 May 2017. The

conference brought together 25 women members of ZNAPD, including Linah Musisika, the gender focal

point in the new executive board of ZNAPD. In the conference women organized themselves as a network

and discussed solutions to the challenges they are facing. Following the conference, ZNAPD drafted an

action plan to strengthen the realization of the rights of women with disabilities.

Participants at the ZNAPD women’s conference.

Central Asia Women with Disabilities Network obtained evidence during 2017 on changes their work has

brought about in girls and women’s life. The beneficiaries used the knowledge and the skills received from

the training and are increasingly able to exercise their rights, freedom of choice and independent living. For

instance, Aiperi Aralbaeva said that the summer camp 2017 was for her mental revolution. As a good

example of peer support between women in the partner organizations, members of the Central Asia

Women with Disabilities Network visited Kenya and shared experiences with the Kenyan partner KAIH.

Later in the year KAIH participated in a training organized by the Network on the methods of working with

people with intellectual disabilities.

For ENAD, a youth wing and a women’s wing were established in 10 branches in 2017. The Gonder branch

received office space from the local government. The women’s wing members got training in gender,

reproductive health and HIV/AIDS issues as well as on how to network with local organizations and

government offices. They also got materials for a tea/coffee program where women gather to discuss

different issues.

Indicator 5.1.1: Zero Tolerance for Gender discrimination agreement is signed and respected by all DPOs. (*)

The agreement was due to be designed in cooperation with women with disabilities in 2017 and ready to

be signed in 2018 by all partners. Due to lack of resources this work had to be postponed. However, the

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global #Metoo campaign raised awareness all over the world and was a sharp reminder of the acuteness of

the questions of discrimination and harassment.

Indicator 5.1.2: All planning, implementation and monitoring data is disaggregated by gender. (*)

This has been a project requirement for four years already and all partners can provide separate data for

women and men. However, there are general development needs of data systems in many partner

organizations. These needs will be mapped and addressed as part of the tailored capacity development

planning taking place with each partner from 2017 onwards. This indicator is a mandatory one for all

partners.

Indicator 5.1.3: DPOs actively promote the rights of women and girls in their work environment.

This is a step further from being a gender equal organisation. As women with disabilities face at least

double discrimination in the society, most DPOs have included gender issues in their core work. Further

mapping of the situation of each partner will be done as part of the HRBA survey from 2018 onwards.

Crosscutting Output 5.2: Gender specific rights issues, such as gender-based violence and sexual and reproductive health are recognized and DPOs take supportive measures for the rights promotion.

The HRBA calls for the protection of the most vulnerable groups and for the eradication of harmful

practises. Women and girls with disabilities are notably among the most vulnerable and are subject to

harmful practises. These are delicate issues but there is (an often silent) demand to address these issues, as

they touch the fundamental human rights of women with disabilities.

Assumption is that women with disabilities are the best experts of their own issues and know how to

approach these sensitive issues. This assumption falls under the Nothing about us without us principle.

Whatever is done towards this objective, will be planned by women with disabilities.

Indicator 5.2.1: DPOs have a regular forum for mapping and discussing gender specific rights issues (*).

The following project examples show that some partner organisations already have good mechanisms to

address and promote gender equality. Their best practises will be collected and used as a basis when

creating support mechanisms to partners whose gender issues are not yet fully addressed. All partners will

be reporting against this indicator.

Out of the 15 projects that reported against this indicator in 2017, 9 have a regular forum in place. Two

partners (HandiKOS and ZNAPD) in turn are planning to establish a forum in 2018.

The coffee ceremony sessions conducted by EWDNA are an example of successful grassroot level work in

this area. The sessions create opportunity for women with disabilities to meet with women with different

types of disability and share their experiences. The coffee ceremony session is also a regular means for

EWDNA of finding about the status of women with disabilities as well as means of finding out needs of

members. Right holders are also being empowered in expressing themselves in different occasions. For

instance, topics related to reproductive health and love take a lot of courage to discuss openly among

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group of people. However, these topics were raised in the coffee ceremony session and members are

increasingly discussing freely, which shows improvement in their self-confidence. The participants

explained that they like the coffee ceremony sessions because they meet their friends, obtain knowledge,

discuss their problems and find solutions.

In I.C. Lotos, the first goal of establishing the women’s group was to prepare for active participation in

advocacy and other activities of the organisation. The organisation wanted to ensure that women and girls

with disabilities independently and as part of the movement of PWDs are advocates and promoters of their

rights. The women’s group is a way to ensure that the voice of women and girls with disabilities is

increasingly heard and included in the documents regulating the work of the organisation as well as in

projects or initiatives where I.C. Lotos works together with other organisations.

Both ANAD and KAD have active women wings run by women. The activities include regular meetings and

training in gender empowerment, family rights, reproductive health and other themes prioritized by the

members.

Indicator 5.2.2: DPOs plan and implement context specific measures to promote the rights of women and girls in their operations.

Based on the expertise of the above-mentioned partner organisations as well as the organisations of

women with disabilities, this output will be further developed in the years to come.

Of the 14 projects that reported against this indicator, 10 responded that they do plan and implement

context specific measures to promote the rights of women and girls in their operations. HandiKOS and

Central Asia Women with Disabilities Network are planning to undertake this work systematically from

2018 onwards. UNAD will establish a women’s wing in 2018 to address this.

In ENADB more beneficiaries are women due to the discrimination they face based on gender in addition to

deaf-blindness challenges. Consequently, at least 50% of the activities of the organisation are targeted at

women.

The project implemented by ZAPDD in Zanzibar includes a component to protect rights of women and girls

and particularly measures related to sexual abuse and violence. This work was kicked off in 2017 by

conducting a survey on sexual and gender-based violence to the parents and young people with intellectual

disabilities, in order to map the attitude and reality on sexual abuse and violence against persons with

intellectual disabilities in Zanzibar. According to the survey report about 10 % of the parents have

experienced sexual violence against their children with intellectual disabilities.

In addition to implementing projects with focus on women’s empowerment within the DPO forum at the

regional and national level, I.C. Lotos advocates for creating opportunities for increased involvement of

women in DPOs’ formal bodies as well as in terms of participation in conferences, seminars, and trainings

to strengthen the capacity of activists in the movement of PWDs.

5.2.3 DPOs network with mainstream women’s organisations and promote inclusion of women with disabilities in their operations.

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This indicator was added in 2017. 12 out of the 15 projects that reported against this indicator do work

with mainstream women’s organisations and promote inclusion of women with disabilities in their

operations. The HRBA survey that will be conducted in 2018 will find out more about the role of this work

in the partner organisations and the programme will explore ways to support it further.

10. Process monitoring and results

A human rights approach to programming puts equal importance on both what should be achieved

(outcome) and how it should be achieved (process). Therefore, an equal emphasis is given to both outcome

and the quality of processes. This applies to both operations in the South and in Finland.

At project level, the process monitoring is part of the capacity building component. The level of

transparency, democratic decision making, and other process related capacity issues will be systematically

mapped by the programme as part of the tailored capacity development process that started in 2017.

To monitor the DPF’s operations in Finland, a monitoring matrix for the internal and external processes and

systems was developed for the 2016-21 programme and 2016 was the first year to put the monitoring

matrix to work.

Internal Systems and Process Issues: Governance and Internal Stakeholders

Aim 1.1: Human Rights Based Approach is applied properly within the organisation. To be able to verify the degree of HRBA of partners and help them in strategizing, it was decided that a

questionnaire will be sent to Southern partners to establish their level of competence regarding the HRBA;

both the outcome and the process aspect of it. The survey will be finalized and sent after the programme

documents have been revised in October 2018. The work in Finland must also be self-assessed with the

same questionnaire to make sure that the requirements are equal to all.

Learning

The DPF is strongly committed to the HRBA in its work. Our goal is to induce systemic changes that have

long term impact on Southern societies. Therefore, it was a surprise to the DPF that the Ministry and the

CSO evaluation considered our work as human rights progressive and not human rights transformative – as

we ourselves see it. There is clearly a need to continue discussion on the meaning of these concepts in the

context of disability and development sector. For persons with disabilities and their organisations there are

often physical or communications constraints that hinder active work towards more equal societies. In

order to abolish these constraints and create an enabling environment, even basic service production and

disability specific measures are needed.

Aim 1.2: Number of member organisations of the Disability Partnership Finland remains at the current level. The DPF had six full members and two associate members at the end of 2017. The DPF is open to all

organisations working with disability and development issues, but only DPOs can become full members and

work under the programme umbrella. The current funding scenario being so dim, new members have not

been actively searched, although the Executive Board of the DPF has set the goal to encourage more DPOs

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to join and to start recruiting other development NGOs as associate members. New DPO members would

be valuable as they bring along their deep understanding of the disability group they represent.

Mainstream development NGOs as associate members could promote information exchange regarding the

human rights of PWDs and enhance the programmatic work of the DPF. Active recruitment of new

members will start when the funding situation turns more positive.

Learning

The Finnish DPOs have been facing several changes in the past years, the concurrent funding cuts both

domestically and in the development sector presenting an extra challenge. During such changes the

membership often questions the role of development cooperation. So far, the DPF’s member organisations

have shown strong commitment to development cooperation on Board level, which has secured the place

of development cooperation as part of their operations. In the long run, the only way of getting new DPOs

involved is finding other funding sources besides the Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ programme-based

support.

Aim 1.3: Organisation is run with principles of good governance. Annual administration meetings with the development cooperation staff, the directors of member

organisations and the finance department staff has proven to be a good practise to monitor the

development cooperation operations of the member organisations. The meetings are held in good spirit

and annual memos form a monitoring tool for all parties to track progress in fields that have been noticed

needing developing also regarding good governance.

The Board members of the DPF annually report their potential conflicts of interest.

Learning

Good governance is a process that requires constant monitoring and updating. As the DPO sector in Finland

is relatively limited and the number of prominent actors is small it is unavoidable that same persons

represent various organisations and can have many roles in the sector. Open discussion can clear out any

suspicions of conflicts of interest.

Internal Systems and Process Issues: Administration

Aim 2.1: General Administration system (at all levels) is solid and supports operations General administration in the DPF can be quite complicated as it takes place at least at three levels: in the

Secretariat, in the member organisations and in the Southern partner organisations. In some projects, the

branch offices can add the fourth level. This means that communication can sometimes be slow, and

messages can become distorted on the way.

Generally, it can be said that there are no major gaps in administration and supporting documents. Partners

are aware of and following the administration guidelines and have their data management in adequate

level. The quality of collected data can be variable. For instance, in some projects the reported number of

DPO’s members has changed drastically between two subsequent reporting years, which indicates an error

in either of the figures or change in the definition of membership. This weakens the trust towards reported

numbers and hinders the reliability of the total scope of the beneficiaries of the programme. There have

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also been cases where project implementation has suffered major delays and setbacks after key employee

has left the organisation, a circumstance that should be anticipated better in the future.

Learning

The Secretariat with the member organisations are continuously trying to streamline programme

administration processes, data management and project instructions in participatory manner. For above-

mentioned reasons, these processes can take some time, but there has been overall improvement over the

years.

Aim 2.2: Financial administration is accurate and enables good financial planning Same complexity of multi-level structure applies to financial administration as to general administration of

the programme. This means that constant real-time financial and expenditure status of the whole

programme is not available, but on the other hand would also not be cost-effective or even necessary.

Financial administration in all levels has been relatively accurate and monitoring systems are in place.

Overall, the level of the financial reports and the audit reports submitted by the partner organisations has

improved over the years. For instance, 2016 was the first year that each partner managed to submit an

audit report where the project with the DPF was separated from the other projects and funding of the

organisation. Some organisations have better financial administration capacity than others, so bridging

these gaps is one of the priorities with the upcoming capacity building assessments. In addition,

management letters attached to every partners’ audit report is a future goal, because they can provide

valuable information about organisation’s capacity gaps that is not achievable in any other manner.

Learning

The comprehensive process on tailored capacity development of all DPO partners also includes a

component on financial administration. The process started in 2017 and progress made in terms of financial

management capacity will be monitored from 2018 onwards.

Aim 2.3: Personnel at the Member Organisations and the Secretariat have the necessary skills and motivation to do their job well The Programme is implemented by a group of people in Finland working in eight different organisations

that each have their strategies, management systems, staff policies etc. All organisations train their staff

and have their well-being programmes. Training and peer support is also provided by the Secretariat in the

form of thematic discussions in the Programme Steering Group. The Secretariat staff received counselling

(työnohjaus) during 2017, which proved to be a helpful tool in work development.

Learning

In all our member organisations development cooperation work is only one part of the organisation’s

mission. The project coordinators do not have the support that their colleagues receive in mainstream

development NGOs, so the Steering Group of the DPF is indispensable as a forum of learning and collegial

sharing. The Steering Group discusses different aspects of programme development and organizes thematic

workshops, in 2017 e.g. on violence experienced by women with disabilities.

External Systems and Process Issues

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Aim 3.1: Operational environment in project countries enables effective work of the Partnership The political tension in Ethiopia, where several projects are ongoing, was closely followed and information

shared within the DPF. Working in the same country brings synergies to member and partner organisations,

but there is a considerable risk to the Programme, if the environment turns too risky due to unrest and

conflicts. There is no easy way to alleviate such risks, as the work is based on long-term partnerships aiming

at sustainable results. Monitoring trips were carried out without accidents or other mishaps.

2017 was an election year in Kenya, Albania and Kosovo which slowed down or hindered some of the

programme interventions. Political instability and changes in the government and ministries even in

between elections are common in all programme countries and pose a risk to the sustainability of the

results and progress made. The programme partners are monitoring the political situation in the

programme partners closely and looking for ways to anticipate changes.

Furthermore, increasing inflation has posed challenges in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia, leading to

increased price of commodities and therefore increased project cost. This has been addressed by allowing

some flexibility in the project budget and the challenges faces highlight the importance of realistic

budgeting at the planning stage.

Learning

Focusing operations in a country whose political situation is rather unstable has its risks that need to be

given more attention to in the future. If the DPF had to seize operations in Ethiopia, a substantial part of its

operations would come to a halt.

Aim 3.2: Operational Environment in Finland and Europe enables effective work of the Partnership In Finland and the EU support to more nationalistic, xenophobic and protectionist ideologies have

strengthened. However, 84 % of Finns still see development cooperation as important or relatively

important. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has continued its support to the disability sector through several

channels (Finnish development NGOs, African Union, the UN Special Rapporteur and the UNPRPD). The

Secretariat of the DPF was able to start new kinds of partnership with NGOs and the private sector, and

funding proposals were submitted to the EU and Finnpartnership. Furthermore, the member organisations

are actively seeking to broaden their funding base and submitted several funding proposals either

individually or for joint projects.

Learning

The environment where traditional development cooperation operates is changing rapidly. The DPF has to

be aware of the trends and seek new forms of cooperation across borders of sectors and geographical

areas.

Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Risk Mitigation Monitoring, evaluation, learning and risk mitigation are integrated into the daily operations of the DPF.

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Development of monitoring and evaluation know-how is an important part of the DPF’s theory of change

assumption that strategically important results can be achieved only by being pro-actively aware of the

state of internal and external affairs of an organisation.

In this annual report, a subchapter to summarize the learning from the results is integrated into each

chapter. The learnings are used to steer the future operations.

At programme level, the programme document was updated in 2017 in conjunction with submission of a

new funding application to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland in June 2017. The updating process

was perfectly timed as the first year of the six-year programme had come to an end and it was time to start

compiling the first programme report. When the project reports came in, it turned out that some of the

indicators were too similar and could not provide enough useful information to the programme level. Those

were thus removed, and some other indicators were reformulated. This will be the process in the years to

come as well – unnecessary information will not be collected as it serves no one. This is putting learning to

use and reduction of monitoring to the key figures and findings that feed the learning process both in

partner organisations and in Finland.

In addition, the partner organisations have identified the need to develop their monitoring and evaluation

systems and are taking steps towards strengthening their data collection and reporting.

PMEL Quality Funds

There is a budget line for planning, monitoring and evaluation that is reserved for developing the quality of

the operations. Funds can be applied for project appraisals, feasibility studies, baselines, facilitated self-

evaluations or external evaluations. Funds might also be granted to enhance the peer reviews by for

example sending board members of Finnish member organisations to the partner organisations.

In 2017, planning, monitoring and evaluation funds (under budget line B) were used for external evaluation

of one projects (ZAM1001, evaluation report as Annex 4), for FAD piloting the capacity development

process with UNAD, and for strategy development of the Network of Women Leaders with Disabilities of

Tajikistan, the partner organisation of Threshold in Tajikistan.

Interim reporting

Every project has a monitoring and evaluation plan or a log frame that integrates monitoring issues into the

log frame. As per the plan, the partner organisations’ project managers collect the monitoring data and

compile that into an interim report. Interim reports are delivered to the responsible project managers in

Finland every one to six months, depending on the internal agreement between the partner organisations.

In normal circumstances, the Secretariat will not release payments to member organisations for the next

phase’s operations until the previous interim reports have been received and accepted.

Annual Project Reporting

The annual reports are the main channel of transmitting project monitoring data to the programme level.

Annual reports are delivered to the DPF in electric format by uploading the files directly to a Sharepoint

folder. The reports and their annexes are initially read and commented by the programme advisor

responsible for PMEL issues and by the finance and budget advisor. They collect programme level

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monitoring data into an internal database and summarize the main findings of the reports. The main

findings are discussed, and experiences shared in the Steering Group. After that, the project summary is

brought before the Board for approval prior to approving the annual report by the Annual General Meeting

at the end of May.

The reporting process is developed constantly with the aim being a simplest possible report chain that

delivers the needed programme level data and helps the implementing parties to track progress of their

own operations. In the 2017 annual project reporting the cumulative project monitoring sheet was used for

the first time and it will allow in the future the tracking of progress made during the duration of the

programme. The initial feedback from the project partners on the usefulness of the document was mostly

positive but also included constructive feedback on the accessibility of the document. The Secretariat will

continue to develop the tool to ensure that programme level data will be captured in a comprehensive yet

user friendly manner.

Self-assessments

Self-assessments are an important quality tool of the programme. Partners are highly recommended to also

self-assess their work regularly. The annual reporting format is also focused on self-reflection. It is tuned to

make partners assess their operations wider than only trying to establish activity-results-chains. The

partners’ capacity to self-assess their work is also supported with funds and technical support if needed.

In Finland, the Board and the Steering group self-assess their operations at least once a year either with the

lead of an external facilitator or without one. In 2017, the self-assessment of the Steering Group took place

in a one-day event on 31 January. The Secretariat and member organisations also conducted a self-

reflection afternoon on 25 August, focusing on the recommendations of the CSO3 evaluation.

Self-assessment was also conducted in the seminar in Ethiopia in November (see page 14 of this report for

further information).

External Evaluations

External evaluations are done as per internally arising needs of the projects with the motto “Less evaluation

with more quality” in mind. Terms of Reference are drafted by the implementing organisation together

with their Finnish partner and discussed with the programme advisor responsible for PMEL issues. After

that, the terms of reference and funding request are brought to the DPF board for decision making.

In 2017, one project was evaluated by an external evaluator. The Ngwena Agro Project (ZAM1001)

evaluation took place during the second part of 2017.

Steering Group

The Steering Group is the programme development team that met five times in 2016. All project managers

are members of the Steering Group. The project manager in Svenska Hörselförbundet also joined the

Steering Group in 2017. The Steering Group terms of reference were renewed in 2016 and its role as the

quality assurance, peer support and information sharing forum strengthened.

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11. Communications

By strategic choice and partly by financial reality, the main target group for awareness raising about the

disability and development issues are Finnish PWDS. Finnish PWDs as a target group is not well reached by

mainstream development communications efforts so the comparative advantage for the DPF is that its

member organisations can reach the target group directly with appropriate means. Appropriate refers to

adaptation of material to the needs of visually impaired, deaf people and persons with intellectual

disabilities.

The DPF Secretariat and the Communications Working Group jointly coordinate the development

communications efforts of the member organisations. The Working Group members are communications

professionals of the DPF member organisations. The Secretariat staff job descriptions include

communications work. In practice, it is mainly done through social media channels. In 2017 the Secretariat

had an extra resource for communications, as it was able to hire a new staff member on hourly basis for

four months. The Facebook page of the organization was updated more regularly, which resulted in

increased visibility of the stories posted as well as the likes that the page received. Furthermore, the

Communications Working Group of the programme was more active than in the previous years and for the

first time agreed on joint themes and social media campaigns for the coming years. The theme for 2018 will

be education.

Thanks to the new resource, the Secretariat was able to conduct a survey targeting the individual members

of the DPF member organisations. The goal of the survey was to find out the level of knowledge on the

status of people living with disabilities in developing countries and how well information on the member

organizations’ development cooperation projects has reached the membership. The results of the survey

will help the members’ communications departments and the Secreatariat in planning future

communications efforts.

The DPF gives out the Disability and Development Prize every year or every other year to a person or an

organisation, who has in an exemplary manner contributed to disability mainstreaming in the development

sector. In 2017 the prize was given to Matleena Järviö, development specialist of the Finnish Bible Society.

The goal of the prize is to encourage development actors in disability mainstreaming. The news published

on the Prize on the Bible Society’s webpage and their magazine reached new audiences for the DPF. The

Prize was, of course, a news also on the DPF social media channels.

The results of development communications and global education by the member organisations are

reported in annex 6.

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Development specialist Matleena Järviö received the

2017 Disability and Development Prize for her

unyielding work in disability mainstreaming.

12. Administration

The Programme is led by the Board of the DPF. In 2017, eight of the nine member organisations were

presented on the board. Board meetings were organized seven times in 2017. Chairperson of the board

was Kalle Könkkölä, Executive Director of Threshold Association and Chair of Abilis Foundation, and the vice

chair was Sisko Rauhala, Expert, International projects, Partnerships and Administration of FAIDD.

Southern partners do not yet have a direct way of participation in programme decision making, but as

project planning is done by Southern partners, their operations very much shape the programme.

Consultations take place when necessary and information is gathered by surveys and personal interviews

during site visits.

The DPF Secretariat coordinates and monitors work at the programme level. It prepares agendas for the

Board meetings and for the meetings of three programme development working groups, namely Steering

Group, Communications Working Group and Advocacy Working Group. In 2017, four employees worked full

time at the secretariat: Executive Director, Programme Advisor responsible for Disability Inclusion,

Programme Advisor responsible for Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning related issues, and

Budget and Finance Advisor. In addition, there was a part-time person participating in the disability

inclusion trainings and the Secretariat’s communications work.

Member organisations coordinate, administer and monitor their own projects portfolio and implement

projects together with their partner organisations. They assist their Southern partners with planning,

implementing, follow up and evaluation of the projects and often provide technical support to their

partners in form of expert services and peer support.

Development Cooperation Operations of Finnish Association of the Deaf in Finland In 2017, FAD had four project managers, three full-time and one part-time.

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The coordinator for the projects of Ethiopia and Uganda made annual monitoring trips to Ethiopia and

Uganda in March. In both countries she reviewed the activities carried out and results achieved during the

previous year, participated in the planning and budgeting, gave advice in points of substance, reviewed

administrative issues as well as general issues of the organisations, and participated in a Board meeting and

in Uganda also in a Project Advisory Team meeting.

The coordinator responsible for the project in Malawi participated in the annual consultation meeting with

MANAD in February. The meeting agenda included the following topics: assessment of the previous year’s

activities/lessons learned; Discussing, Debating and confirmation of the current year’s action plan and

budget; Plans for the Malawi sign language work project; personnel management and feedback, payment

policy and other current issues of project’s administration and assessment of the general state of affairs of

MANAD.

An external adviser specialized in sign language linguistics and dictionary work was recruited by FAD in

2017. The recruitment process took place during March-May 2017. The work of the adviser started in the

beginning of June 2017 as desk analysis reviewing existing documentation. Induction training was

accomplished in Balkans in July 2017 where the Balkan model of Sign Language work has been

implemented by FAD together with the Deaf communities in Albania and Kosovo. The external adviser of

the Balkan projects is planned to serve as backup consultant during the whole duration of the project. The

actual consultation/training in Malawi was planned to be carried out by several short-term field trips (3-5

weeks at a time) annually plus desk work and web-cam consultations between the field trips. The 1st field

trip of 2,5 months was conducted in September-November 2017.

In the Balkans, there is ongoing programmatic cooperation with the Albanian and Kosovan Associations of

the Deaf. The responsible coordinator works, in addition to the project management tasks, as an instructor

and as an expert. In 2017, the manager visited both Kosovo and Albania twice, in February-March and

September-October. In Albania, the subjects included the review of the annual report, finalization of the

current annual plan and budget, and the project strategic plan for 3 – 5 years with results including

monitoring and evaluation plan. Special emphasis was on expert support and training in advocacy, as well

as on advocacy stakeholder meetings (specifically the ministries of education and social welfare). In Kosovo,

the emphasis was the project exit phase 2018 – 2021 and starting of the fundraising strategy planning.

The FAD project manager for the project in Cambodia conducted a monitoring trip in March 2017, during

which she monitored the implementation and activities of the project and finalized together with the

partner the plan of action and budget for 2017. Also, during the FAD Project Manager’s monitoring visit in

March 2017, the progress and results for 2016 were discussed. The Project Manager was accompanied by a

FAD employee who filmed the visit and the project’s personnel and activities. Two videos (a 10-minute

introduction to the project cooperation and a 30-minute documentary of Cambodian deaf community)

were produced during 2017 and 2018.

Development Cooperation Operations of The Threshold Association in Finland The development cooperation team of the Threshold Association experienced changes in 2017 and from

June 2017 onwards had three members: Executive director with 55% working time, one full time

development cooperation coordinator, and one development cooperation coordinator with 50 % working

time. The development communications work involved two journalists and a graphic designer.

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The travel cost was lower than in the previous years due to the budget cuts and advocacy related travel.

The development cooperation coordinators visited Central Asia and organized a joint meeting with the two

partners in the Balkans. In December a joint trip to Ethiopia was organized in collaboration with the Martha

Association.

The Threshold continued to cooperate with the Family Federation of Finland and Operation a Day’s Work in

Kapua fund raising project. ETI4017 project is implemented in cooperation with the Martha Association.

External services were bought for book keeping and auditing, IT and for development communications.

Development Cooperation Operations of Finnish Association of People with Physical Disabilities in Finland FPD had one person responsible for development cooperation in 2017.

FPD together with DDI and ECDD organized a conference on Accessibility & Design on 28 March 2017 in

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for local Ethiopian government, university and civil society representatives including

a following 3-days accessibility audit training for a group of selected students. The participants from FPD

were the coordinator for international affairs Laura Poussa and architect Kirsti Pesola. The coordinator for

international affairs also participated in the two workshops organized by the DPF in Ethiopia in November

on disability inclusion and IGA respectively.

In Zambia, the coordinator for international affairs together with the chairperson of the women’s wing of

FPD participated in the women’s conference organized by ZNAPD in May. This was combined with the

monitoring trip to Zambia by the coordinator.

Development Cooperation Operations of Finnish Association of the Visually Impaired in Finland The development cooperation activities of FFVI were organized by the Head of International Affairs and the

Coordinator of International Affairs. They were responsible for project planning, monitoring and financial

administration of the projects jointly with local partner DPOs.

The Coordinator International Affairs and Head of International Affairs made monitoring trips in 2017 to

Ecuador and Ethiopia. ICT specialist Erkki Suorlahti participated in the trip to Ethiopia.

Development Cooperation Operations of Finnish Association of Inclusion Finland FDUV in Finland FDUV’s Director and Coordinator oversee project planning, monitoring, financial follow-up and

communicating the projects results in Finland. Dialogue and contact are kept mainly through Skype and e-

mail. FDUV’s Coordinator visited the Kenyan partner organisation KAIH and its branches on the annual visit

made by FDUV. The focus on the annual visit was to support the cooperation between the regional

branches and the KAIH organisation lead. External services were bought for the Financial Audit from Nexia

Oy. FDUV’s Director and Coordinator were members of the Board of the DPF.

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Development Cooperation Operations of Finnish Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities FAIDD Expert, International projects, Partnerships and Administration, oversees development cooperation

and conducted one monitoring visit to Zanzibar in February. The purpose of the visit was to plan for the

kick-off of the new project, to meet with the technical group of the project as well as stakeholders, and to

visit the location of the pre-vocational training.

13. Finances

This section will be completed when the financial report and audit are finalized.

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14. Signatures

Helsinki 31.8.2018

____________________________ ____________________________

Kalle Könkkölä Anja Malm

Chair of the Board Executive Director

Programme Disability Partnership 2016-21

Documents

Transcript of Programme Disability Partnership 2016-21