VI. Conclusion

For the last decade, self-help organizations of people with disabilities have been steadily strengthening their position in national policy making and service provision. However, the majority of self-help organizations are still small and weak at securing resources for their activities, compared to organizations that provide services for people with disabilities.

With a view to directing more funding support to self-help organizations, the Seoul Proposals (adopted in September 1997) recommended:

"Governments should channel resources, to the extent possible, directly to self-help organizations of people with disabilities to enable them to carry out, on behalf of their national constituencies, programmes aimed at independent living of disaled persons."

For a long time, Governments and international funding organizations in Asia and the Pacific have given a low priority to the development of self-help organizations, with little financial or technical support available for them. Given this fact, the above recommendation indicates a new direction in policy. As a result, self-help organizations should be confident in approaching their respective Governments, as well as national and international funding organizations, to receive operational costs and technical support on a long-term basis.

Urban elite groups have usually dominated national self-help organizations, resulting in neglect of the needs of rural people with disabilities. This is unacceptable if a "national" self-help organization is to serve all of its constituents and truly represent a nation. One approach that may help integrate rural people with disabilities is the sangham approach, described above. Assisting rural people with disabilities in organizing themselves will enormously expand the membership of a national self-help organization and increase its influence over national policy formulation and programme implementation for people with disabilities. Furthermore, since poverty is the major cause of disability in the rural areas, self-help organizations must work towards the elimination of poverty.

Adoption of these new approaches requires an extensive management review of the current priorities of self-help organizations, including collaboration with communities, NGOs and government agencies. Establishing a new partnership with other social movements would widen the scope of self-help organizations to achieving true integration of people with disabilities in society.

People with disabilities and their self-help organizations need to keep up with the development of new information technology, because it can compensate for their limitations and accelerate their integration into society. But if people with disabilities are left out of this development, the gap between them and people without disabilities will be further widened.

As the 21st century approaches, self-help organizations of people with disabilities will likely meet challenges by strengthening their management and setting up a new paradigm to meet the needs of all constituents, including the most disadvantaged groups in the rural villages.

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Economics and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
Management of self-help organizations of people with disabilities
- Chapter 6 -

United Nations
New York,1997

ST/ESCAP/1849