More Power to Disability Justice Activists and Organisations.
Disability justice activists and organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) are leading real and lasting change while facing discrimination and exclusion.
These OPD leaders are skilled and passionate about creating positive change. They understand the priorities of their members, and they have the right to speak for themselves.
Yet they hardly receive or control any funding at all.
Grants for disabled people constitute just 3% of all human rights funding, even though disabled people make up 16% of the world’s population.
Even that tiny amount is mostly spent and controlled by others. Recent research published by the Global Action on Disability (GLAD) network confirms that “OPDs are funded as indirectly as possible.” Funders often assume disabled activists and their organisations cannot manage financial resources properly. Complex requirements for accessing funds exclude grassroots groups and favour larger intermediaries that may ‘consult’ disabled people while keeping control of the money and the power to make decisions.
As stated by the GLAD research, “the quality of funding is as important as its quantity”. When a trickle of funding does reach disabled activists and their organisations, they are often told how to spend it by funders and intermediaries. The funding is usually short-term and inflexible and cannot be used to focus on the priorities of disabled activists themselves, including movement building.
More and better funding for disability justice means transferring real power and resources to activists and organisations who know best what needs to be done and who can do it well. One approach is participatory grant-making, where disabled activists themselves choose who should get funding.
Access to funding: Zenna’s story
Zenna is a panel member on a participatory grant in Tanzania. A disability justice leader herself, she helped decide which activist initiatives should be funded.
“People with disabilities are very skilled and should be given a chance to lead. In my country, it’s not very easy for Organisations of People with Disabilities to get funds. When people with disabilities apply for funds, in most cases they are rejected due to negative attitudes towards them. Yet it is very easy for an organization that’s not for people with disabilities to apply and get funds.
“A case in example is the grantees that won in the pilot phase of the participatory grant model in Tanzania. These are very small Organisations of People with Disabilities but with very brilliant ideas that I can guarantee will cause a movement of change. The fact that they were given a chance to easily access funds and decide how they were going to use them through their different projects is a game changer.”
What do we mean by Fairer Funding?
Disability justice activists and organisations we work with have told us that the way funding works currently needs to change urgently. A fairer funding system will mean they can lead work for real and lasting change for disabled people.
Fairer funding for organisations of persons with disabilities means them having the power to set their own priorities, lead their own work, manage their own resources, and speak with their own voice.
We want to see:
More Funding.
An increase in the amount of funding being controlled and spent by organisations of persons with disabilities.
A higher percentage of donors’ funding being controlled and spent by disability justice activists and organisations.
Better Funding
More power for disabled people in the design and allocation of funds and fewer barriers to applying.
More long-term funding and unrestricted, flexible funding that allows grantees to choose how funds are used.
Increasing the flow of this type of funding directly to disability justice activists and organisations is at the heart of our strategy because we know it is not just fairer, but more effective.
ADD aims to channel more funds directly to disability justice activists and organisations. We believe this is key to funding real and lasting change.
More Control over Funding: Vannet’s story.
Vannet leads the Women with Disabilities group in Kampong Cham, Cambodia.
At times, the group has managed to apply for small grants, but they always come with conditions. The funder tells the group which activities they should do, meaning they can’t use the money for what they need most. Vannet explains:
“While these activities can benefit people with disability in some ways, for example by raising awareness about our rights, it is not responding to the real needs of women with disability. What I can notice and observe is that they really need to generate income by themselves to live independently.
“I want women with disability to be more independent and able to earn their own money and decide about their own lives. When we are dependent on others we cannot live freely, we cannot be independent, and we experience a lot of discrimination.”
She is calling for flexible funding that the group can use according to their needs; in a sustainable way to create independence.
Get involved.
We would love to work together to make this vision a reality. Join our active community of organisations of persons with disabilities, INGOs, activists and funders to work together to advocate for change.
Join us at key external events, and to hear directly from activists through webinars and sharing meetings.
To find out more, please get in touch with Vanessa Herringshaw at vanessa.herringshaw@add.org.uk
People need to trust persons with disability. We are working in a coherent way to change the attitude of government and society. We just need continued support to strengthen our movement. That is how change will happen.
ElKhansa, Disability Justice Activist, Sudan.