SAFOD

Southern Africa Federation of the Disabled

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Disabled Women in Business

SAFOD’S EXPERIENCE IN EMPLOYMENT CREATION

Some of the key issues related to the difficulties many youth, women and men with disabilities face in obtaining jobs, although they may have the required skills are discussed below. In order to address these difficulties, clear policies and structures are needed at local and national level to promote employment for people with disabilities .These comments are based on our experience in SAFOD, especially with the SEED programme which for the last seven years or so has been supporting people with disabilities with funding to create employment for themselves. This development happened against a background in many countries in Southern Africa of structural adjustment programmes which were imposed by the World Bank and the International Money Fund (IMF). Such micro-economic reforms caused untold suffering among the vulnerable groups, especially people with disabilities.

Education

No one can talk about employment of people with disabilities without making reference to their access to education. In most countries in the region, the effect of negative attitudes has made it much more difficult for people with disabilities to reach the educational level they need in order to enter the world of work. In some countries, girls, and even to some greater extent, girls with disabilities, face discrimination within the family and the community because of their gender. Some social environment assumes that people who are disabled should not even work and that their financial security should be provided by their families and that their main role is to be at home.

Employment

Very little data exists on people with disabilities in employment. The general trend in most countries is that there is higher unemployment among people with disabilities. Most people with disabilities do not count for more than 3%, of the labour force. They are not even trusted with loans for developing their own businesses. One reason given is that people with disabilities cannot succeed in business.

The UN standard rules on the Equalisation of opportunities for persons with disabilities guarantees the rights of minority groups to benefit from mainstream credit schemes, and indeed there are many other international instruments in e.g. I.L.O conventions that promote economic security of people with disabilities. Furthermore, not less than 25% of those who is employed work for very low wages, earning about one third of their country’s Poverty Datum Levels (PDLs).

A relatively large number of people with disabilities in most countries work either part-time or in sheltered employment that is if they can be said to be at work. But the question is, do the disabled people choose to work part time or are they forced to do so? Indeed, at a glance it would seem that part-time work might be ideal for people with different types of disabilities. Competition, however, is often intense for part-time jobs, and people with disabilities are often not considered, since employers assume they are often ill, or absent or unable to stand the pace.

Informal /Self-Employment

A majority of governments in Africa have no financial support systems for poor people, and most of the people are found in the informal sector. Most people with disabilities are therefore also found in the informal employment and/or self employment sector, often in line with traditions in the country they live, but also owing to lack of opportunities. Infact, given the current trends, there is the need to make provisions for the creation of an enabling environment for the growth of the informal sector to take care of not only large populations of workers who lost employment through structural adjustment driven company closures but people with disabilities as well.

POVERTY ALLEVIATION STRATEGY (PAST)

The main objectives of SAFOD’s  Poverty Alleviation Strategy is  to provide capital  to people with disabilities who wish to start their own businesses , thereby creating self-employment and to alleviate their poverty. The programme which started as SEED (Small- scale Enterprises for Economic Development), and now PAST (Poverty Alleviation Strategy), was started almost three years ago. Working in close cooperation with a number of development partners and activists the programme used to train youth, women and men with disabilities in how to start and manage a business, enable them to access business loans under a Revolving Loan Fund Scheme, and providing an extension  to follow up trainees and offer practical assistance at project site , common business activities that people with disabilities have been running under this programme are clothing manufacturing , furniture production , food growing , wholesaling, typing and photocopying services, internet cafes, hairdressing salons, etc.

However, due to logistical problems associated with provision and collection of loans, the Revolving Fund Loan Scheme was discontinued sometime ago, and only the training component of the programme is available. Trained entrepreneurs with disabilities are now being encouraged to access their business loans through mainstream credit schemes that are available in many of our countries. What SAFOD needs through this programme is more and more funding for training. Thanks to the Donor community who continue to support us from time to time. PAST is a unique programme which is demonstrating how powerful youth, women and men with disabilities are, and that no mountain called “discrimination” is too high to climb.