Inclusion is a journey
Bernd Schramm explains why ensuring equal participation for people with and without disabilities is important in international cooperation and how much progress has been made.
Some believe that introducing measures to include people with disabilities is expensive and does not benefit many people. This is wrong! 16 per cent of the global population is living with one or multiple disabilities, with the rates for women higher than those for men. Around 80 per cent of disabilities are invisible. A number of people with a disability are rarely seen because there are still too many barriers to equal and independent participation. So inclusion is not a luxury to be addressed when there is time and money left over. For lots of people and their families it is a necessity that allows them to live a life with dignity.
Moreover, inclusive and low-barrier societies benefit everyone. Be it a ramp installed for wheelchair users which can then also be used by parents pushing a stroller. Or voice-to-text services that can double as transcription programs. Or a bus that can tilt to make it easier to get on and off, which is helpful for older people as well. What is essential for people with disabilities also makes life easier for many others. More so in view of the fact that each one of us could be temporarily dependent on barrier-free living. Most people do not have disabilities at birth, but acquire them in the course of their lives, as a result of illness or accidents, and they are not always permanent.
Commitment and benefit in equal measure
We now have clear evidence of inclusive societies being more sustainable because they leave no one behind and can therefore make use of a wide range of skills. Being different and thinking differently is often associated with innovation, which can lead to creative solutions. In international cooperation we therefore invest in training programmes for people with disabilities in areas for which there is a demand on the labour market. Enabling participation in education and employment is a vital factor in making a society inclusive.
The support provided by GIZ is based on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which has now been ratified by 191 countries. It does not create any special rights but defines what universal human rights mean for people with disabilities. Germany signed the Convention in 2007, making a commitment to implement its provisions. Article 32 explicitly refers to the importance of international cooperation in promoting inclusion. BMZ and, by extension, GIZ are therefore obliged to observe the provisions of the Convention. But over and above this, BMZ’s Human Rights Strategy also sees inclusion as an expression of human dignity and a prerequisite for sustainable development.
Bernd Schramm, Programme Manager, Global Programme on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities
Growing number of projects with an inclusion component
Things are moving at GIZ: this year, BMZ introduced a new mandatory OECD-DAC marker for projects. All new projects must declare whether they actively include people with disabilities in their work. And it is working! The number of GIZ projects with an inclusion component is growing following new funding approvals from BMZ. While there is still a lot to do, given that there are 1.3 billion people with disabilities in the world, there is a clear upward trend.
Positive examples in GIZ’s portfolio include the IT Bridge Academy in Kenya, where people with disabilities are trained to become experts in the fields of network technology and cyber security and are ready to enter the job market when they graduate. The Academy helps 150 young and talented persons with disabilities each year, 40 per cent of whom are women. There is a similar programme in South Africa. Inclusive kindergartens and schools are being set up in Jordan with the aim of integrating inclusion into the education system at an early stage and promoting equal opportunity. And a project in Zimbabwe has helped improve access to the legal system for particularly disadvantaged women and girls with disabilities, who are often subjected to violence. These are only some of a growing number of projects being implemented by GIZ.
Global Disability Summit 2025
Germany, with the support of GIZ, is also promoting inclusion at international level. Together with Jordan and the International Disability Alliance, the umbrella organisation for persons with disabilities, Germany is organising the next Global Disability Summit, which will be held in Berlin in early April 2025. Through the Global Programme on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities, GIZ is involved in the preparations and is supporting the three hosts.
The Summit will centre on encouraging different actors from politics, business and civil society to make voluntary commitments to ensuring greater inclusion and on launching new initiatives, for instance on inclusive and resilient cities or improving the data available on people with disabilities. An ambitious final summit declaration is currently being prepared which should significantly boost the number of development projects with an inclusion component at country level. This would be another step forward because there are many development programmes that are still not inclusive. Greater commitment is required to respond to the challenges and meet the needs of the many people affected.
A question of attitude
As a rule, inclusion dismantles barriers and discrimination, and is conducive to a self-determined life. Embarking on this journey is not at all difficult but the learning process is ongoing. There is always something to modify, to improve, to try out for the first time. What is important is setting out on the journey in the first place – in other words, always taking inclusion into account and factoring it in at all levels. This is best done through personal contacts and through mutual learning between people with and without disabilities. And if you make provisions at the outset, it does not cost much money. And we do not always need to have sophisticated strategies at hand; sometimes the will to bring about change is enough. Inclusion is therefore primarily a question of attitude. Because mental barriers also promote discrimination against people with disabilities.