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Social participation and inclusion of ex-combatants with disabilities in Colombia

RIVAS VELARDE, Minerva
Del ROCIO GARZON DIAZ, Karim
SHAKESPEARE, Tom
2019

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The purpose of this paper is to explore ex-combatants’ understandings of disability and the pathways for social reintegration available to them in Colombia. The qualitative data for the study include seven in-depth interviews with ex-combatants and 29 with key informants, including disabled people’s organisations, government agencies, international organisations and academic groups. Findings suggest that transition to civilian life for ex-combatants is made more difficult by inadequate procedures, lack of support and complex administrative data vacuums. Social determinants, historical prejudice against persons with disabilities, high levels of unemployment and political polarisation in a post conflict context combine to trigger poverty traps. The findings indicate pitfalls in the early implementation of the Colombian peace process, which did not consider structural issues that affected transition to civilian life for ex-combatants with disabilities. Furthermore, key enablers for social inclusion such as peer-to-peer support have been identified by respondents. This paper concludes that more needs to be done to enhance the voices of ex-combatants with disabilities and to understand the profound meaning of acquiring impairments through participation in conflict, as well as how post-conflict responses could enable these individuals to gain the skills they need to successfully reintegrate into their communities. 

 

Disability and the Global South, 2019, Vol.6, No. 2

Disability-inclusive healthcare in humanitarian camps: Pushing the boundaries of disability studies and global health

MIRZA, Mansha
2015

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A significant proportion of forced migrants live in humanitarian camps located in remote regions of the global South. Disabled persons have been historically neglected within camp programs across all service sectors, especially healthcare. This paper describes an exploratory research study on healthcare access for forced migrants with disabilities in the context of humanitarian camps. Based on the methodological framework of rapid ethnography, the research involved guided tours, community mapping exercises, ethnographic observations, and semi-structured interviews in a refugee camp in southern Africa. Additional key informants from other sites were interviewed remotely using a convenience sampling strategy. Several important insights emerged from the research including: misperceptions about the health-related needs of disabled persons, their specialized health needs falling outside the ‘social minimum’ of humanitarian healthcare, and concerns about distributional ethics in relation to disability-inclusive healthcare. The research also highlighted barriers and strategies for addressing disability-specific health needs given significant resource constraints in humanitarian camps. These findings are discussed in light of practical and theoretical challenges in the fields of disability studies and global health.

 

Disability and the Global South (DGS), 2015, Vol. 2 No. 1

Facilitating disability inclusion in poverty reduction processes: Group consensus perspectives from disability stakeholders in Uganda, Malawi, Ethiopia, and Sierra Leone

MACLACHLAN, Malcolm
MJI, Gubela
CHATAIKA, Tsitsi
WAZAKILI, Margaret
DUBE, Andrew K
MULUMBA, Moses
MASSAH, Boniface
WAKENE, Dagnachew
KALLON, Frank
MAUGHAN, Marcella
2014

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This paper addresses the challenge of how to get disability on the development agenda in four African countries. We explored perceptions of what initiatives would most help in achieving disability inclusion in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), and identified factors that can either promote or hinder these initiatives. Stakeholders from Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs), other civil society organisations (CSOs), development agencies, researchers and government ministries, participated in the Nominal Group Technique and Force Field Analysis procedures across Malawi, Ethiopia, Uganda and Sierra Leone. While each country had specific contextual factors, common ideas for promoting greater disability inclusion in PRSPs focused on policy action, the need for a stronger evidence-base, mechanisms for directly influencing the PRSP process, as well as strengthening central government and DPOs’ capacity in this regard. Common facilitators for these actions were seen as the existence of a national disability umbrella body, disability-specific legislation, named Ministries for Disability, ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), and the fact that disability was already mentioned (albeit inadequately) in some PRSPs. Common inhibitors included negative attitudes towards disability, poor capacity in DPOs and government ministries, poor policy implementation, little ‘domestication’ of the UNCRPD, little political will or consultation with people with disabilities, as well as aggregating disability with other vulnerable groups, a lack of research in the area and poor coordination between DPOs.

 

Disability and the Global South (DGS), 2014, Vol. 1 No. 1

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