FIDIDA partnership agreement

Description What is done in the programme or project and why, what results are pursued, who benefits from the activities and who are involved in the implementation.

The Finnish Disability and Development Partnership, FDDP, is a joint programme of the Finnish Disabled People’s International Development Association FIDIDA and its member organisations. The seven members are prominent Finnish disabled people’s organisations that have already for decades worked in the Global South besides their domestic activities. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is both the ideological and practical normative guide for the programme. The programme consists of three components 1) Development cooperation projects 2) Advocacy work and mainstreaming disability in development aid 3) Global education and development communications. The cornerstones of FDDP are full participation and independent living of persons with disabilities, sharing and cooperation. The three focus areas of the programme cut across all components. The programme aims at building up the capacity of disabled people’s organisations in developing countries to enhance good governance, resource mobilisation and advocacy work for the realisation of the human rights of persons with disabilities. In developing countries as well as in Finland one of the core tasks of disabled people’s organisations as civil society actors is lobbying and advocacy work on local, national and international levels. The focus area of life-long learning aims at promoting inclusive education of children and youth with disabilities as well as non-formal life skills training and vocational education of adults. The Finnish Disability and Development Partnership Programme has a key role in attaining the cross-cutting objective of realising the rights of persons with disabilities defined in Finland’s Development Policy Programme. The FDDP projects in developing countries directly contribute to this objective. On the other hand FIDIDA has a leading role in Finland as an expert on mainstreaming disability issues in development policy and strengthening the skills of Finnish development actors in questions relating to the human rights of persons with disabilities. The global education and development communications work promotes the awareness and participation of persons with disabilities as well as of the general public in development cooperation.