Disability and the MDG's
Disability is invisible in development policy yet there are 600 million disabled people in the world. 80% of the disabled population live in the poorest countries in the world.
The MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) will fail if disabled persons are excluded.
- MDG 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
- 82% of disabled people live below the poverty line in developing countries (UN)
- 20% of impairments are caused by malnutrition (DFID 2000)
- MDG 2: Achieve universal primary education
- 98% of children with disabilities in developing countries do NOT attend schools (UNESCO)
- The global literacy rate for adults with disability is 3% (Helander 1009).
- MDG 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
- Abuse of disabled women and disabled girls. A survey in Orissa, India found that 100% of disabled women and girls were beaten at home, 25% of women with learning disabilities had been raped and 6% of disabled women had been forcibly sterilised (Mohapatra, Mohanty 2004).
- MDG 4: Reduce child mortality
- Mortality for disabled children is as high as 80% even in countries where under-five mortality is below 20% (DFID 2000).
- MDG 5: Improve maternal health
- 20 million women per year experience disability from complications during pregnancy and in childbirth (UNFPA 2003 cited in ACFID).
- MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
- Disabled people are most vulnerable to HIV and AIDS: victims of sexual violence; restricted access to information or services; prevalence of HIV infection in mothers of children with disabilities is twice that of other groups (Yousafzi and Edwards 2004, Groce 2004) (CBMI Tanzania study).
- MDG 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
- 100 million people have disabling conditions due to malnutrition, inadequate sanitary facilities and inadequate health care. Poor environmental planning perpetuates exclusion – we call for inclusive, social and environmental planning.
- MDG 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development
- The international disability movement successfully mobilised for a UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – to be adopted at the end of 2006
- The Africa Decade of Disabled Persons 1999-2009: endorsed by the African Union to promote disability empowerment in Africa.