Behinderung und internationale Entwicklung Disability and ...

A RTIKEL/ARTICLEdisability was acknowledged in the GTP only asa matter of social welfare and far less thanwhat they had hoped for, this document shouldbe considered as a notable move in the rightdirection. In July 2010, the government ofEthiopia ratified the UNCRPD, which is alsoanother cornerstone development, participantsadded.In parallel with the foregoing opportunitiesin and for the disability movement, challengesfacing the movement have also been patentlypointed out by participants. Capacity restraints,insufficient coordination and discourse amongstdisability stakeholders were highlighted as majorchallenges. But, most importantly, in a measurethat created some real concerns about thevery survival and functioning of DPOs in Ethiopia,the government has recently passed a legislationthat virtually impels a fundamental reformationof all non-governmental organisationsand civil society initiatives operating in thecountry. This law, called the Ethiopian Charitiesand Societies Proclamation No. 621/2009,declares that if a civil society organisation optsto work on issues akin to rights advocacy, andthis obviously includes disability advocacy, itshould generate 90 per cent of its budgetarydemands only locally, and not from an internationalfunding of any sort. The law goes on tosay that organisations which would prefer procuringmore than ten per cent of their budgetsfrom foreign sources can only work as what itdubs as Resident Charities or Societies focusingmerely on relief and development activities withoutany involvement in acts of advocacy (Proclamation621/2009).Knowing that most, if not all, DPOs in Ethiopiahave been operating by virtue of various internationalworking collaborations and thefinancial supports emanating thereof, the aforementionednew legal restrictions would withouta doubt curtail their overall work on advocatingfor the rights of PWDs in Ethiopia. Inthe course of this study, I discovered that thisimpact has already begun to be felt within theEthiopian disability movement in differentforms; a case in point being the split currentlyoccurring within the Federation of EthiopianNational Associations of Persons with Disabilities(FENAPD) – an umbrella organisation ofnational DPOs. As a direct consequence of thenew law, the Federation faced the challenge ofbeing divided into two, between its memberswanting to stick to their advocacy work, andthose considering their reformation as developmentNGOs since they cannot exist withoutsome external funding. FENAPD is now re-registeredas a Resident Charity deciding to becomemore of a relief and development entity thanone of advocacy; and its member associationsthat decided to follow this same path have continuedto remain within the Federation. Consequently,some of the bona fide founding membersof FENAPD that refused to abandon theirwork on advocacy for disability rights are leavingthe Federation, thereby notably reducingthe size and cogent influence of the latter.It goes without saying that advocating for therights of PWDs is considered to be an inherentingredient of the activities of DPOs in any givennation. In a country like Ethiopia, where therights, dignities and socio-economic participationof PWDs are still far from being well-recognised,there is no doubt that an increasinglylarger scale of disability advocacy is indispensable.The UNCRPD, to which Ethiopia is a party,also vehemently calls for an elevated momentumof advocacy for the rights of PWDs between,among and within the jurisdictions of eachState Party to the Convention. Thus, it can beconcluded, the said new legal restraint in Ethiopiashould be essentially revisited by the governmentin a manner that pre-empts the deteriorationof the country’s disability movement,which has only been burgeoning over the pastdecade or so.AcknowledgementsHeartiest thanks to all participants of the study,including the Federation of Ethiopian NationalAssociations of People with Disabilities (FEN­APD) and its members for extending their unreservedcooperation to this project. Specialthanks goes to Dr. Margaret Wazakili (StellenboschUniversity) who provided critical reviewsand supervision in the course of this study, andto the Centre for Rehabilitation Studies (StellenboschUniversity) within the auspices of whichthis study was undertaken. I would also like tothank Ms. Mahlet Fantahun for her outstandingediting contributions.Notes1 The article presented herein is based on the author’sgraduate research conducted between January to December,2011 (and updated in August, 2012) withinthe auspices of Stellenbosch University, South Africa.The full and original version of the research can beretrieved at www.scholar.sun.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10019.1/.../wakene_role_2011.pdf.2 The term movement is generally described as “the organisationor gathering of people around a certain issueor set of issues; or around a set of shared concernsand common interest” (Campbell and Oliver,1996). As such, for purposes of this article, a disability20Behinderung und internationale Entwicklung 3/2012Disability and International Development