New Community-based rehabilitation Guidelines includes Africa
After having been developed since 2004, the WHO has introduced its guidelines for Community-based rehabilitation for Africa. The guidelines are the result of joint work of several organisations including UNESCO, ILO and IDDC. They offer a multi-sectoral approach to community-based rehabilitation that encompasses all levels of governmental institutions, civic society organisations, as well as individuals with disabilities, their families and communities.
The guidelines main purpose is to help fighting poverty and exclusion in Africa. It aims at supporting low and middle income states implement the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and help reverse the trend of excluding people with disabilities from the mainstream society. Instead, the objective is to empower and involve them in decision-making processes. It remains to be seen how CBR policies that are based on the empowerent of people with disabilities, and a transformation of institutions and methods in and around government will impact countries whose leadership has so far proven averse to change. The guidelines, available from the WHO’s website, have been introduced both on regional and national levels.The launch of the CBR guidelines at an Abuja conference in Nigeria was followed by its European launch in Copenhagen, while the guidelines were also introduced at the 1st Asi-Pacific Convention on CBR later in the same month. National launches have also taken place in India, Pakistan, the Netherlands and Sweden. Although introduced worldwide, the CBR guidelines success relies most heavily on whether African countries can implement it successfully, hence the venue of its global launch.
