STRATEGIC ORIENTATIONS 2005-2010

Document status

This document containing our strategic orientations for 2005-2010 forms part of the planning and programming cycle of Handicap International’s pluri-annual strategy, which provides the framework for the annual implementation plans produced by the Executive Director‘s office, the head office departments in Lyons and the various network sections.

All reference texts, existing or in the production process, concerning the association’s principles, mission and range of activity were referred to in the drawing up of this document. It also includes contributions from the directors of the network sections and the Belgian section, as well as suggestions made during the field programme directors’ seminar in 2004.

This document will be completed by indicators and a chronogram to be established during the first half of 2005.

Internal document. Not for distribution.

Handicap International’s mission

1. Status and structure of Handicap International

Created in 1982, Handicap International is an international solidarity organisation with the status of a non-profit-making association. The French section, founder member of the international movement, is behind the creation of sections in Belgium (1986), Switzerland (1996), Germany (1998), Luxembourg (1998), United Kingdom (1999) and Canada (2003). These different sections are now working together on mobilising resources, co-managing projects, amplifying the movement’s principles and actions, broadening its network and creating a federative structure.

2. Objectives

The association develops projects and political actions to fight the causes of disability and ensure that the needs and rights of people in disabling situations are taken into consideration.

Using a global approach, the association acts:

--to prevent disability among populations that are particularly exposed to the risks of disease, or incapacitating violence or accidents ;

--among people suffering from sequela, impairments and disability;

--on behalf of people in disabling situations[1][1] , their families, communities or societies.

Handicap international’s action is designed to enable these populations to gain access to the best possible level of physical, mental and social well-being.

In carrying out its mission in situations of conflict and crisis, Handicap International reconfirms its undertakings towards refugees, displaced persons and victims. By mobilising its internal resources into a combination of specialised bodies, it contributes, from the emergency phase, towards meeting the basic humanitarian needs of these populations. Using this approach, Handicap International is able to supply specialised aid for disability prevention, care and the integration of people in disabling situations, whose needs are usually overlooked in these contexts.

3. Approaches

Handicap International implements its mandate of international solidarity all over the world, wherever the need exists, and notably in contexts of poverty, disaster and crisis.

The association’s action falls within the frameworks of humanitarian aid and development cooperation and covers the different phases and registers of prevention, accompaniment or assistance, autonomy and inclusion.

Convinced of the importance of the links and continuity between the emergency, rehabilitation and development phases, Handicap International seeks to meet the immediate needs of its target population, whilst working to restore and develop local capacity and make this capacity sustainable.

The association’s approach is a global one, accompanying people and their communities, providing support to administrative and technical systems and services, and contributing towards the orientation of national and international policies.

Handicap International implements its mission through actions aimed at prevention, risk reduction, the development of personal aptitudes and the adaptation of environmental factors. Its work on improving the medical, social or technical offer in conjunction with local stakeholders, as far and as soon as this becomes possible, is designed to meet the beneficiaries’ expectations and assist them with their chosen life projects. This is accompanied by work on the development of social, legal and technical measures to promote physical and economic access to structures and services, and also work on social participation.

The association aims to satisfy two complementary requirementssimultaneously: the development of specific measures destined to help people in disabling situations in their day-to-day lives; an inclusive approach aiming to achieve equal access to opportunities and equity of opportunity and rights at community and society level.

Using an inclusive and preventive approach to the causes of impairment, invalidity and disability in crisis situations, the association implements activities designed for the whole community, or specifically for people in disabling situations, particularly fragile and exposed to physical and social risk.

Handicap International establishes and promotes partnerships:

- with specialised organisations, both national and international, public and private, in order to mobilise know-how, obtain complementarity between areas of competence, and guarantee efficacy and operational quality;

- with public institutions or local associations to accompany them towards self-reliance and ensure their actions are sustainable;

-with generalist, national and international, public or private institutions and organisations, to raise their awareness to the issues concerning Handicap International’s target beneficiaries (inclusive approach known as mainstreaming[2][2])

Handicap International co-ordinates its field and awareness-raising activities with other international associations and institutions. It participates in regional, national and international specialised networks and is involved in creating platforms and consortia.

Handicap International seeks to implement a quality approach opposed to standardisation. It carries out regular evaluations of its actions using appropriate methods and taking account of specific contexts and objectives for innovation.

4. Values and action principles

“ Standing tall”, the slogan adopted by the association, reflects a philosophy of action based on the promotion and defence of human dignity. It is founded on professional values inherited partly from the main ethical principles underlying humanitarian action, and partly from the deontology specific to the professions practised by the association’s team members.

Handicap International’s approach is one of defending Human Rights, founded on principles of dignity, participation, non-discrimination and compensation, and accessible measures for meeting the needs of the populations. It is the assessment of these needs and the extent to which fundamental rights are respected that guide the association’s decisions and actions, and not political or confessional considerations.

In situations of conflict, the association refers to International humanitarian law, which protects civilian populations and guarantees the delivery of impartial assistance, and respect for the rights and dignity of the victims.

5. Activities

The association develops and political actions on behalf of and with people in disabling situations in the fields of health, functional rehabilitation, social action, rights and disability policy.

As part of a preventive approach to the causes of disability, it carries out medical, social or technical actions, such as anti-mines action or aid to refugees.

Simultaneously or in continuum, it implements diverse activities :

- within the framework of its programmes:

  • needs assessment focusing on access to and the enjoyment of rights;
  • training, technical support;
  • organisational and financial support;
  • or, when necessary, direct management of services involving local actors at the earliest possible stage;
  • awareness-raising, assistance with mobilisation;
  • and mediation between civil society and public authorities, and between local and international stakeholders;

-within the framework of its political action:

  • advocacy, awareness and development education campaigns for the general public and intermediary groups;
  • influencing decision centres (lobbying);
  • bearing witness to situations or violations;
  • promoting the active participation of local associations
  • and participating in processes and measures for open dialogue with public authorities.

International perspectives (2005-2010)

In defining its strategic objectives, Handicap International must take account of stakeholder dynamics and fields of influence in its fields of intervention.

1. Stakeholder dynamics

The association must take account of the stakeholders that it interacts with in its activities:

- local solidarity stakeholders from the North and South: the public institutions, local authorities, professionals, associations, unions, beneficiaries and communities in the countries of intervention;

- private donors from the general public, who support its initiatives and guarantee its financial independence ;

- institutional funding bodies and international organisations, who determine policy on bi-lateral and multi-lateral aid and who finance the association’s actions ;

-other international NGOs, who work in the same contexts and seek to alleviate the same situations of suffering, poverty or crisis;

- … as well as other stakeholders who influence development or crises; private business, armed forces, mercenaries, confessional organisations, not forgetting the media.

Handicap International, a key player in humanitarian aid and development, also sees itself as being at the crossroads of visions and intentions, mediating between the various solidarity stakeholders: the institutions, donors and populations.

2.Factors of influence: the scourges to be fought…

Under the aegis of the United Nations, the world governing bodies have set themselves a number of objectives for fighting extreme poverty, hunger, major diseases, discrimination, and for achieving universal primary education, ensuring environmental sustainability and forging a global partnership for development[3][3]. In order to meet these challenges, development stake holders and humanitarian aid will need to make enormous efforts and overcome numerous obstacles.

  • Poverty and its consequences: illiteracy, malnutrition, reduced life expectancy, poor maternal and child health, incapacitating diseases… will not disappear with growth alone. Without measures of compensation and for a fairer redistribution of wealth, determined by national policy and overseen by an international regulatory system, millions of people will still be unable to meet their most basic needs.
  • Health crises, caused by global diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria or tuberculosis will have long-lasting effects on millions of people. Like incapacitating diseases, most often they affect populations which are economically excluded, deprived of access to care and treatment. Millions of people are unable to protect their health, with no access to the necessary medical care and social services; security against illness, invalidity and old-age.
  • The exclusion of people in disabling situations generally and from development or assistance programmes in particular, constitutes an aggravating factor in situations of poverty, and a continued denial of a people’s fundamental Rights.
  • Armed conflicts, far from disappearing with the end of the Cold War, in fact are proliferating. Successive geo-political redevelopments are resulting today in violent conflicts, both internal and between States, which hit the civilian populations hard and no longer spare humanitarian workers.

In addition to the numerous deaths, the traumas and incapacitating injuries, the destruction and privations, this violence often causes an internal exodus or flight across the borders by the populations concerned. There are now millions of displaced persons or refugees and the international community does not have sufficient resources to offer them shelter and protection.

Pollution by mines, munitions and sub-munitions is far from being eradicated, in spite of the political and technical efforts made by the states, international organisations and specialised associations. These weapons create major humanitarian and environmental risks in almost half of the world’s countries.

  • Finally, ecological disasters (earthquakes, flooding) and famines, whose natural causes are worsened by human intervention or a lack of forward strategy, continue to have serious effects on populations, particularly in the less economically developed countries.

3.Factors of influence: trends within co-operation and international solidarity

International co-operation exhibits several major trends:

  • Political and economic strategies that are based on cooperation systems
  • Inter-governmental co-operation, which is still the main vector for development aid, bases itself on political, financial and commercial strategies developed by the major powers and international financial institutions. The result is a trend towards the privatisation of essential services, including health services. Bi-lateral co-operation, controlled by the States, is still a means of exerting influence on the countries being aided and a communication tool with regard to public opinion. Multi-lateral co-operation, notably via the UN and its agencies, is suffering from the recurrent inadequacy of international reaction. The political motives behind the aid granted by the European Union are still controlled by the contributing States and influenced by desires to extend and develop the EU.
  • Institutional funds are still relatively easy to come by for emergency relief action, intended to resolve crises that are perceived primarily as threats to the western or «developed» world. Institutional funding for development-type projects is decreasing, and is being redirected towards the creation of public systems and policies at national level, to the detriment of the service or community-based projects proposed by NGOs. Developmental aid policy is evolving and becoming anchored to the fight against poverty, disability being considered as a discrimination factor and crises as events that augment pauperisation. Human Rights considerations are becoming a project evaluation criteria.
  • NGOs in competition
  • International funding bodies tend now only to offer contracts to organisations with the resources and structure essential for managing major contracts, and this form of selection foreshadows a total restructuring of the roles, functions and intervention levels of small and medium-sized associations in the international arena. International NGOs, whether specialised or generalist, are becoming competitors for available funding, requiring them to explore possibilities for strategic alliances and skills complementarity Many competent local organisations are emerging, requiring us to adapt our accompaniment and partnership modalities and redistribute responsibilities. The calls for tender launched by international funding bodies are no longer limited to private commercial actors, but can also bring NGOs into competition with commercial companies. Consultancy firms and commercial companies have broken into the international solidarity sector, besieging the development «market» and humanitarian aid itself. Although they are non-profit-making, international NGOs may find themselves being considered as private stakeholders, in competition with everybody else – even in their traditional areas of intervention such as health.
  • The humanitarian space threatened
  • In conflict situations, the independent humanitarian space, guarantor of impartial assistance, is finding itself increasingly threatened by serious and frequent violations of international humanitarian law. The new generation of global confrontations (for ethnical or religious reasons, or «the world war against terrorism», for example) is breaking the old rules. The distinction between the humanitarian and military sphere is becoming blurred. In addition to providing logistical services, or security for large-scale relief operations, increasingly the armed forces are justifying their interventions on humanitarian grounds, and what is more, they are carrying out supposedly humanitarian operations among the population, which in fact boils down to propaganda. Some powers are developing strategies that aim to control humanitarian aid or integrate it into their security policies and military intervention procedures. The aid sphere is besieged by state or private organisations (businesses, security companies, mercenaries …), sometimes in association with the belligerents, who are making a profit out of the war or reconstruction «market».
  • Civilian populations and humanitarian aid workers are becoming targets in their own right, liable to be massacred or taken hostage to be used as bargaining chips. States’ increasing instrumentalisation of humanitarian aid, and the ideological amalgams and mafia-like practices that accompany the conflicts, expose the populations, the NGOs and their staff to increasing risk. Maintaining an impartial presence alongside the civilians is becoming more and more difficult and dangerous.

4. Factors of influence: evolutions in civil society and public opinion

  • On a global scale, the term NGO can mean very different things. The NGOs that originate from the civil societies of the richest countries form a relatively homogenous network, organised into large groups and participating in exchange forums with international political bodies. But there are now different currents to be found with the emergence of organisations from Eastern Europe and the South, not forgetting the increasing influence of religiously-motivated organisations.
  • Although they are gaining in respectability, NGOs seem to be becoming more and more institutionalised. There is a danger of them being seen simply as relays of State policy and losing their powers of attraction with the general public. Other forces are beginning to incarnate public indignation. Although it sometimes translates a mixture of political positions, the «anti-globalisation» movement offers an alternative outlet for some citizens’ spirit of solidarity.
  • Over the last few years, donors to NGOs have changed. After the unconditional and instinctive support of the first decades, dictated by the emotion and shock caused by the pictures we were receiving and further motivated by disappointment in political ideologies, there is now a new more consumerist approach. Donors want to be able to identify with the actions and undertakings of associations and are more demanding about the causes to be defended, the types of action implemented, management transparency and controls on results. This change in attitude is generated or accentuated by a number of phenomena:

- intensified competition between the associations appealing for donations, notably with the arrival of American NGOs in the European space, increasing the impression of being over-solicited and of waste ;

- a strong tendency for public opinion, relayed and also incited by the press, to systematically call institutions and information into question, exacerbated by the revelation of scandals transformed into systematic references;

- a loss of benchmarks and proximity with associations that have moved away from their initial missions, which were simple and easy to understand, towards more sophisticated or complex activities;