Disability and Development

Anas Sarwar Excerpts

Thursday 11th December 2014 Westminster Hall

[Anas Sarwar (Glasgow Central) (Lab)]

I congratulate the International Development Committee on its tremendous report. I thank the right hon. Member for Gordon (Sir Malcolm Bruce), my hon. Friend the Member for Stretford and Urmston (Kate Green), and the hon. Members for Congleton (Fiona Bruce) and for Stafford (Jeremy Lefroy) for their excellent contributions. As time is short, I will not go over territory that they have already covered. I am sure the Minister will address the points that they made in his reply. As I said in the previous debate, it is important that DFID shows global leadership on this issue to ensure that a key part of our development objectives, both as a country and through our partnerships in multilateral organisations, relates to people with disabilities.

I want to share a couple of stats with the Minister. An Australian Agency for International Development study found that only around 3% to 4% of people with disabilities actually benefit from current international aid programmes, despite the fact that one in four households has a disabled member. For far too many disabled people, having a disability means they will never get an education, never go into employment and never live independently.

In developing countries, 90% of disabled children never attend school. Sadly, the education goal in the millennium development goals will not be met, because as Handicap International notes, 19 million disabled children globally still do not go to school. It was only in late 2013 that DFID announced that schools built with its funding would have wheelchair access. Will the Minister say how many experts on disability currently work in DFID? The recently published framework, which we welcome, says that the central disability team has more than doubled. How many people who define themselves as disabled work in this team? The same goes for the disability expert group.

Real expertise and resources will be needed to ensure that the framework becomes a reality, as the Committee Chairman said, so although I welcome the framework, I would like to see disaggregated costs on a programme-by-programme basis, showing how this will be funded. This is a 12-month framework, so its success will need to be measured within a year. How will DFID act on its commitment to develop indicators and other mechanisms that allow it to track its investments, particularly as regards the promises set out in the disability framework? This will include being able to see exactly how disability is being included in DFID programmes; how many DFID programmes are collecting data on disability; the extent to which DFID staff have the capability to include disability in their work; the extent to which DFID is able to engage with multilateral partners in this area; and what UK development non-governmental organisations funded by DFID are doing on disability.

This year will be critical in setting the foundations so that DFID can set ambitious targets on what can be achieved in the following years, post the one-year framework. DFID should guarantee that all services and infrastructure that it helps support is fully accessible for people with disabilities, including schools, hospitals and water and sanitation facilities. That needs to go far beyond physical accessibility to ensure that all forms of communication and information are also accessible, including to those with motor, sensory and mental health issues.

The Committee recommended that the Government include more disabled people and groups in the design, development and delivery of programmes. What steps are being taken to include a representative portion of disabled people, so that they are involved in programme development? How many people have been employed under the guaranteed interview scheme so far? On that point, I welcome the Government’s setting that scheme up and congratulate them on doing so. That scheme means that any disabled individual who meets the minimum requirements will be guaranteed an interview. I also welcome the promise to develop guidance for training staff. Which DFID staff will undergo training? Will they be staff at all levels? Who will perform the training? Will disabled people be involved in giving that training?

On the important matter of engaging with disabled people’s organisations, obviously many of those will already have a working relationship with other arms of Government, including the Department for Work and Pensions, so what work is being done by DFID and the DWP to try to help build those relationships?

As my hon. Friend the Member for Stretford and Urmston would testify, many disabled people’s organisations have a difficult relationship with Government because of some of the changes coming through on welfare reform. How do we make sure that the difficult elements of the relationship do not impact on the positive work that the Government and DFID can do with those organisations?

The Committee Chairman mentioned stigma and discrimination, which are key issues for disabled people and their families, especially in relation to their going into employment or education. What work will be done to develop our education programmes, to try to tackle some of the cultural barriers and the stigma? That will not happen overnight. It will require work over many years. It is worth considering supporting not just people with disabilities, but their carers, as we do in this country. What work will be done in developing countries to ensure that we support carers?

We should not fall into the trap of thinking that only elderly people have disabilities. Many young people have disabilities as well. Indeed, there will be many young carers, so how do we support them? A child with a disability is three to four times more likely to be a victim of physical or sexual violence. Violence against women and girls with a disability is of particular concern. What will DFID do to ensure that programme staff include gender-sensitive disability staff?

On private sector development, of course we welcome the desire to have more people going into work, but according to Sightsavers, 80% of disabled people are unemployed in developing countries. As we look to develop the private sector, what specific work is being done to encourage people with disabilities into employment? What support are we giving the private sector to encourage people with disabilities to come into employment? Do we have any figures on how many disabled people have been supported into employment by the work that the Department has done regarding private sector development?

Finally, disaster management, including the Ebola crisis, was mentioned in the previous debate; what specific action is being taken to make sure that rather than looking at vulnerable people as a whole, we consider protecting disabled people in particular during disasters? Disabled people are often left behind in a disaster. What specific measures on that are put in place in our framework? What specific training is given to people providing disaster relief to ensure that disabled people do not feel the biggest impact of a disaster?

As always, we would welcome a response from the Minister on all these points. I apologise for the number of questions I asked; it was due to the short time I had to speak. I would quickly like to thank the Committee for its report.