U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) activities addressing the needs of persons with disabilities

Individual sections, supplemented by annexes and tables: (1) describe major projects directed to assist victims of war or civil strife, and efforts to address the needs of the disabled among the general population; (2) provide examples of USAID activities which incorporate the needs of persons with disabilities in general programming; (3) very briefly describe disability prevention programs, such as Vitamin A projects; and (4) summarize findings. By far, the most prominent USAID activities on behalf of the disabled have been projects to provide prosthetics and rehabilitation services, most often for victims of major civil conflict in such countries as Nicaragua, El Salvador, Mozambique, Uganda, Liberia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Lebanon, and Afghanistan. But the Agency has also funded projects for those with specific disabilities (the blind, deaf, and mentally handicapped), supplied doctors and other medical personnel, provided the disabled with vocational training and in some cases with income-generation opportunities, and built the advocacy and management capabilities of NGOs representing the disabled. The mechanisms of this assistance have included major projects; small projects for specific disabled populations; grants and contracts with U.S., international, and local PVOs, UN agencies, the Peace Corps, and host government ministries; one commodity import program; use of discretionary monies; and specific targeting of the disabled within general programming, e.g., in participant training activities in Latin America and the Caribbean and in the New Independent States. Some activities for the disabled have stemmed from Congressional earmarking, e.g., the War Victims" and Displaced Children and Orphans" Funds. Historically, USAID"s efforts for the disabled focused on the LAC region during the 1980s, with a new emphasis on Africa and Southeast Asia beginning in 1989 under the War Victim"s Fund. Finally, USAID has funded the training of special education teachers and policy makers and supported organizations that work to meet the special needs of children, though very few activities have addressed the issue of the developmentally delayed or emphasized the need for early childhood stimulation.