United Nations Voluntary Fund on Disability

Review of Activities for 1998-1999

Project Cycle Activities for the biennium 1998-1999, as at 31 August 1999

During the 20-month period of 1 January1998 to 31 August 1999, the Fund provided nearly US$1 million in grants to 35 disability-related projects. As table 1 indicates, nearly 90 percent of the projects were carried out at national and regional levels, in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Central and Eastern Europe, or Latin America and the Caribbean. Interregional projects and activities accounted for 11 percent of the projects and received 15 percent of the grants disbursed.

Table 1

In terms of regional distribution, Africa accounts for 40 percent of the projects supported and received 30 percent of grants disbursed, which is due to the generally small scale national-level proposals submitted and approved. The Asia and Pacific region and Latin America and the Caribbean both account for 17 percent of the projects supported, closely followed by the Central and Eastern European region with 14 percent of projects supported.

Decisions to recommend projects to support are considered by interdisciplinary review entities, at substantive, administrative and financial levels, and are based on the technical quality of the proposal, its relationship to national policies and contribution that project results are expected to make to further equalization of opportunities by, for and with persons with disabilities. Grant recommendation take into account General Assembly guidance on assistance to least developed, heavily indebted and low income countries, especially in the Africa region, and to countries in transition. "Guidelines" for preparing proposals for consideration by the Fund are published on the Internet, at http://www.un.org/esa/socdevt/spdproj.htm.

Table 2 indicates that nearly 75 percent of all projects supported and 66 percent of the grants disbursed were for capacity building and institutional development for disability action. By function, this includes 14 training and skill development projects (40 percent); 8 projects (23 percent) involved technical exchanges - seminars and workshops on priority disability issues, such as disability policies and legislation, Internet accessibility, employment generation and micro-credit, and sports for persons with disabilities. Nine projects (26 percent) involved pilot action, which accounted for 25 percent of grants disbursed. There were two main themes in pilot action supported: (1) promotion of income-generating opportunities by, for and with persons with disabilities and (2) social integration of persons with disabilities, in particular young persons with disabilities. The balance of the projects supported involved development information efforts, including production of Braille text, and applied research and evaluation.

While applied research involved only 2 projects and accounted for less than 8 percent of grants disbursed, these efforts are significant for the way in which the Fund is able to assist Governments on request pursue catalytic and non-traditional investigations on emerging disability issues and trends. For instance the Ministry of Social Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia (DEPSOS RI) in cooperation with a non-profit research institute is carrying out an evaluation of previous technical cooperation activities in the disability field to assess their sustainability and capacities to respond to current social and economic conditions in terms of social services and safety nets. In the Republic of Zimbabwe, the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare is being assisted by a local non-governmental organisation, Jairos Jiri Association, in cooperation with the Institute of Child Health, University College London Medical School, to develop and test low-cost tools to screen for hearing loss and impairment among young children and to develop services appropriate to local conditions, rural areas in particular.

Table 2

The majority of activities supported by the Fund continue to be grass roots based and locally focussed: more than four-fifths of the projects supported were implemented by non-governmental organizations with appropriate endorsement of and in cooperation with concerned governmental bodies and organizations. Non-governmental organizations are well-recognized for their abilities to quickly and efficiently identify and formulate proposals for catalytic and innovative action in response to emerging issues and needs, in such areas as leadership training and promotion of non-traditional approaches to employment generation.

Of the balance of the projects supported, four were implemented by governmental bodies, one project was carried out by an intergovernmental organization -the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat (a regional workshop on Internet accessibility), one project was carried out by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) (an interregional seminar on environmental accessibility).

Table 3

In line with the guidance of the General Assembly, the Fund directs special attention to support for catalytic and innovative action. The resources of the Fund are limited and represent complements and not a substitute for other forms of assistance available for disability action. This is evident from data on grant disbursements and total project budgets: during the period under review, the Fund disbursed US$999,102, as at 31 August 1999, and the budgets for the 35 projects supported totaled US$4,960,468. Each grant dollar from the Fund served to mobilize an average five-times as many financial resources for concerted practical action in the disability field.

Annex I

United Nations Voluntary Fund on Disability: projects supported

1998

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