Disability-Rights-Movement in East Africa: The Role and Impact of Self-Representation of Persons with Disabilities on National, Transnational and Regional Levels

In developing countries interests groups can be of crucial influence for political as well as social change. However, in these countries stakeholders not only face limited financial capital but at times also lack necessary education and skills to contribute politically or advocate ‘successfully’. Moreover scarce resources (e.g. money, government will, attention, etc.) more often lead to an “intra-sectoral dilemma” where similar interest groups compete against each other for these limited resources - creating conflicts instead of power collaborations. The adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD, 2006) is of great importance to foster universal human rights and inclusion of persons with disabilities. The convention is regarded as an integral part of a movement that has effected a change from the so-called medical model to the social model, a change of how disability should be perceived: from an individual deficiency or deviation as a constructed norm as such to a problem rather created within and by the society – denoting the paradigmatic change. The slogan “Nothing about us without us” is symbolic for their strive for human rights implementation. While my general research interest is about the implementation of the UN CRPD in East Africa, my presentation I will focus on how I include interest groups as stakeholder advocates, represented by umbrella organizations. After briefly outlining my research design, I will focus more closely on exemplifying which problems occurred when trying to include interest umbrella organizations in developing countries into my own research. It will show how important it is to reflect on the external settings of interest groups as they can be of crucial influence to the outcome not only on policies but your own analysis as well. The presentation will take into account both national as well as transnational settings and collaborations.