European Networking Conference Berlin, 15 June 2010
Venue: GTZ-Haus Berlin, Reichpietschufer 20, 10785 Berlin, Germany

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities focuses on the right of all people with disabilities to be fully included in society. It stipulates that States Parties should take measures aimed at:

“ensuring that international cooperation, including international development programmes, is inclusive of and accessible to persons with disabilities”.

This is a challenge for governments and NGOs alike, especially in the case of people with intellectual disabilities or of those with severe disabilities and-or complex needs. People with intellectual disabilities and their families have a significantly higher risk of poverty and social exclusion than other groups of people with disabilities or non-disabled people.

In developing countries, their poverty is often combined with an absence of services for this group as well as with stigma, prejudices and superstitions that increase the social exclusion of people with disabilities themselves and their whole family.

The European Networking Conference in Berlin addressed the implementation of this important article of this UN Convention. Its overall objective was to discuss possibilities for better support for people with intellectual disabilities and their families in developing countries in mainstream development aid programs. It aims to ensure that development aid programmes at national and European level include the needs and interests of people with disabilities, their families and their organisations.

OUTPUTS OF THE CONFERENCE

1. Conference programme here
   
2. Conference Report here 


3. Presentations available of the sessions:
   
1. Inclusive Development Project Presentation by Geert Freyhoff (Inclusion Europe), Pauline Spence (MENCAP Nothern Ireland) and Harald Kolmar (Lebenshilfe Germany). Here
2. Promoting inclusive policies in development cooperation: an introduction from a German perspective by Ingar Düring, GTZ. Here
   
3. Involvement of local actors in development aid, civil society empowerment by Ivar Stokkereit -NFU Norway. Here
4. Perspectives from a developing country by Prof. Dr. Narayan Pati, Chetana Institute, Bhubaneswar and Dr. P. Jeyachandran, Vijay Human Services, India. Here
5. Experiences of NGOs by Rima Canawati, BASR, West Bank. Middle East. Here
   
   
4. Conclusions of the discussion groups here
   
5. Contact list of participants (only available for participants and speakers, please contact Inclusion Europe). 
   

www.flickr.com InclusionEurope's European Networking Conference on Inclusive Development photoset

Project supporters