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FIIAPP employee Diego Blázquez tells how he faced the challenge of rolling out policies in Tunisia aimed at empowering persons with disabilities in a period of social and political convulsion.
When I arrived in Tunisia during the Christmas season in 2011, every aspect of life in Tunisia was political: how women dressed, how men wore their beards or hair, which mosque you went to, which radio station you listened to or newspaper you read… and also the issue of disability. The challenging context of the political transition and the vulnerability of disability policies, previously under the direct supervision of Ben Ali, resulted in disability ceasing to be a government priority. Nevertheless, in this same context of the Revolution, new organisations of young people with disabilities soon emerged that wanted to denounce previous abuses, reform existing institutions and, similarly, there was great dissent within the large classic organisations, new associative leadership structures being built, new demands for participation and transparency…
I left the country a year ago. I lived and worked there for two years and four months as a expert from the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP). I had the tremendous professional and personal good fortune to live through practically all of the political transition from inside the Tunisian government and in direct contact with the country’s civil society, and more specifically with one of the most vulnerable groups: persons with disabilities.
I arrived in Tunisia in a privileged position as a resident advisor of a European Union project: a twinning, in the jargon of the EU. This is an institutional cooperation instrument of the European Commission, managed in Spain by the FIIAPP, which aims to encourage conciliation of government management and public policies among EU neighbouring countries. In my case, it was a question of developing inclusion policies for persons with disabilities in the new framework of the United Nations Convention.
I took advantage of the Christmas 2011 break to move and bring my family over. By early January, all five of us were there with the sensation of embarking on an adventure in all senses, despite being only two hours away from Madrid by plane. During those weeks we lived through the worst winter weather on record since Tunisia started collecting meteorological data, including the biggest snowstorm in the interior of the country in 40 years. It would turn out to be an omen that things were not going to be as easy as we thought.
After a very rough start in which we really couldn’t establish effective communication with our partners in the Tunisian government, little by little we were able to start orienting the work through a series of pilot projects in the areas of inclusive education and employment programmes. The progress we made was mostly thanks to the action of a group of civil society organisations which, following the model of the Spanish CERMI, formed a powerful lobby. This made it possible to regularise the employment situation of the workers in the nearly 300 assistance centres for persons with disabilities in Tunisia and make a pact with the Ministry of Social Affairs regarding a new stable financing structure based on quality objectives and indicators.
That moment was unquestionably the turning point in the project, as it made it possible to create a new environment because, despite the difficulties and discussions, a new basic structure had been generated.
Nevertheless, the overall context again made things difficult when the first wave of political violence hit in 2012. This would end six months later with the assassination of Chokri Belaid, a human rights lawyer and secular left politician, although perhaps in international terms the best known episode was the attack and destruction of the United States Embassy.
Personally, these experiences brought back memories of my childhood during the Spanish political transition. Seeing my children enjoying days off from school as a result of these situations reminded me of myself enjoying similar moments in Spain in the seventies. I wasn’t able to see the worry in my parents’ eyes then, as I hope my children didn’t see mine in these moments.
Finally we managed to create a national strategy document on disability; we formed a group of some 30 people to address the reform of special education, and we carried out pilot projects for this reform in five schools in Tunis and its metropolitan area. We included inclusive education for parents, mothers and teachers, educational inspectors in the pilot projects, and we gave opportunities to many people, like Kauser.
In the case of employment policies for persons with disabilities, we tried to break their marginalisation in the labour market by putting them in contact with companies, improving vocational training programmes, and raising awareness among business owners about the advantages of diversity in the workforce. The experience of Spain’s Inserta Foundation was key in this sense. And we trained a small socio-occupational team in each province to assist persons with disabilities in a coordinated manner.
Despite all of this, many things were left undone, but I left Tunisia with the satisfaction of knowing that I had done all I could in a very difficult context that the Tunisians shared generously with me and my family.
I left Tunisia with a great love of the country, of its people, its climate, its culture, its streets… And with the bittersweet feeling of wanting to participate even more and better in this spirit of reform that filled me two years and four months ago when I first arrived in the country. The future of Tunisia is the future of all of us who live on the shores of the Mediterranean. That’s why I suffered along with the Tunisians when the marvellous El Bardo museum was attacked. And that’s why I want to use these lines to invite everyone to support the Tunisian Jasmine Revolution by getting lost on its beaches, in it mountains, on its deserts this summer. Sharing its archaeological and natural riches. Drinking a glass of Kurubis wine or Celtia beer while watching the millenarian blue of the Gulf of Carthage, and in this way to help consolidate the liberty and dignity of our neighbours in addition to our own.
Diego Blázquez is an expert from the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP). You can also read this article in Planeta Futuro.
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Going to the hospital in Popayán, in Colombia, can turn into an odyssey costing up to 100,000 pesos (€35), a luxury most people can't afford.
A European citizen takes an average of 15 minutes to reach a doctor, but in Colombia territorial dispersion represents a barrier to ensuring access to healthcare services. The city of Tambo, the country’s second largest in surface area, is one such example. There, in an area of 3,280 km2 with some 60,0000 inhabitants (94% in remote rural areas), there is one doctor for every 7,500 inhabitants, well below the national average (15 per 10,000 inhabitants). And from one community, it can take several hours, on horseback or in a car, to reach the closest medical centre. Under these conditions, reaching the hospital in Popayán, the capital of the department, can turn into an odyssey costing up to 100,000 pesos (€35), according to Eduardo Villa, physician and manager of the hospital of Tambo. A luxury beyond the reach of most of the inhabitants of one of the poorest departments of the country, in which the average per-capita income is 250,000 pesos[ii] (€100).
These factors explain, in part, the city’s dramatic perinatal mortality rates in recent years: 34 per 1,000, double the national average and nearly 10 times greater than in Spain. When he arrived at the hospital in 2012, Dr Villa decided to address this problem by seeking the support of key stakeholders in this mainly indigenous and rural territory: traditional doctors and midwives. This meant adding the experience of Western medicine to the experience and ancestral knowledge of midwives. Dr Villa created groups for exchanges and training with the aim of improving monitoring of pregnant women, and prevention and detection of high-risk pregnancies. Luis Amaro, midwife and traditional doctor, was a member of one of these groups. He’s been attending births in isolated indigenous communities, day and night, all his life. Since he’s started participating in the midwife group, he now quickly identifies high-risk pregnancies and sends the patients to the hospital.
Another initiative launched by the hospital was the opening of a “hotel for pregnant women”, to facilitate early admission of women with high-risk pregnancies at no charge. The result of these two measures combined is noteworthy: in less than three years the perinatal mortality rate in the city fell decisively, approaching zero.
This module represents a new paradigm for Colombian health policies and aims to achieve “quality access to healthcare services”, in the words of Fernando Ruiz, the Deputy Minister of Health, “so that problems are mainly resolved at the primary healthcare level”. The model is focused on family and community medicine, for care that is closer to patients, understands their social context, and puts the accent on pro-health and preventive healthcare. To do this, 5,000 family doctors will be trained over the next 10 years. The model also aims to reduce territorial gaps in healthcare through the opening of clinics closer to the population, the creation of “mobile health brigades”, and a system of incentives for family doctors in remote areas. Implementation of the new model is already underway in the department of Guainía after a three-way negotiation with the local authorities and indigenous representatives. In 2015 it will be implemented in other departments to achieve full coverage in the territory by 2016. The opening of another 15 university programmes in Family Medicine is also anticipated.
EUROsociAL, the cooperation programme of the European Commission with Latin America for social cohesion, supported the Colombian Ministry of Health in designing the model, sharing the experiences of France and Brazil in the area of healthcare in remote areas, and that of the United Kingdom, Spain and Mexico in the area of family medicine. The aim is to ensure the right of all citizens to healthcare so that in within a few years the success of El Tambo is not the exception in Colombia.
Peggy Martinello, Senior FIIAPP Expert in the EUROsociAL Programme
[ii] Source: Colombian National Administrative Department of Statistics, 2013Principio del formularioFinal del formulario
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April 26th is World Intellectual Property Day. We at the FIIAPP are marking the day by talking about the EU-financed project we are managing in Ukraine for strengthening their intellectual property system.
Since April 2014, we have been managing an EU-financed cooperation project, also referred to as a twinning, in Ukraine which aims to address the market for pirated and counterfeit goods there. The country is plagued by intellectual property crimes ranging from illegal downloading of movies to counterfeiting of medicines.
Under the umbrella of this project, Spanish and Danish experts on the subject will show their work protocols to the Ukrainians. The ultimate objective is to provide greater security to citizens of the country and reduce the current levels of impunity. Results are being achieved already. One of them is the draft law on “Copyright protection on the Internet”.
Learn about the project in detail by listening to our weekly radio show on Radio 5 (RNE), ‘Public cooperation around the world’. Our two cents worth in celebration of World Intellectual Property Day.
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Su hija nunca antes había escrito su nombre. Ahora, al menos, lo intenta. Kouser es una profesora tunecina y tiene una hija con discapacidad intelectual. Juntas han conseguido este logro después de que Kouser recibiese un curso de formación en técnicas de aprendizaje para menores con discapacidad. Una formación desarrollada bajo el marco de un proyecto de cooperación financiado por la UE y gestionado por la FIIAPP.Her daughter had never written her name before. Now, at least, she makes an attempt. Kouser is a Tunisian teacher and has a daughter with an intellectual disability. Together they achieved this milestone after Kouser received a training course on teaching techniques for children with disabilities. Training developed within the framework of a cooperation project financed by the EU and managed by the FIIAPP.
“We’ve seen another communication method which is very important: language with pictogrammes that lets children communicate on their own. Also adaptation activities, for example for materials: notebooks, furniture… It’s the first time I’ve received this type of training, and so it was tremendous. It’s opened up new horizons for me, and now we can offer our children an appropriate work method.
We’ve also talked about the importance of inclusion into mainstream schooling and adaptation of the school curriculum. Before we only worked on integration in schools, that is, on providing a special education class for persons with disabilities in an ordinary school; but that’s not the same as inclusion, that’s segregation. Adaptation of the curriculum is very important for educating children with disabilities, whether physical or mental, because it gives each child a special system for learning.
In my daughter’s case, she didn’t know the Arabic alphabet or the numbers. We had tried various methods, but none had worked. She was in school and was promoted to the next grade level automatically. After the exchange with the experts from the project, I thought of bringing my daughter here because I could see that this was very professional work. We started to work with her, and I discovered that my daughter was happy and that she also wanted to move the letters to spell out her name”.
Kouser is a beneficiary of the project ‘Support for socio-economic integration of persons with disabilities’ in Tunisia. Over its two years of duration, it was managed by the FIIAPP and had a budget of two million euros. Hear other voices from the project on our radio programme ‘Public Cooperation Around the World’ (Radio 5, all news)
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“Public Cooperation Around the World” is celebrating one year of bringing the FIIAPP reality to 80 thousand listeners each week.
One year ago “Public Cooperation Around the World” started broadcasting on Radio 5, telling the stories of our projects, our experts on the ground and our day-to-day work to improve public systems in the countries where we work.
We believe in proactive, daily, direct and transparent communication, and so we didn’t think twice about joining forces with Radio 5 in 2014 to produce our own weekly radio show. This year we’ve managed to attract 80 thousand listeners (according to data from the EGM for the two time slots in which “Public Cooperation Around the World” is broadcast) to follow us, learn about the FIIAPP and be moved by the stories of our beneficiaries.
The FIIAPP is committed to communication as a basic tool for making contact with citizens. They are the protagonists of our cooperation projects. Because FIIAPP is dedicated to reforms of public systems, legislation and structures that bring long-term benefits to everyone. We believe that the reform of government agencies is essential to definitively change the reality of a country. In addition, we work directly with the European Union, which finances the majority of the projects managed by the FIIAPP around the world.
One year of telling stories of cooperation, of countries that opt to change their health or judicial systems, stories of international security, of infrastructures and the environment. Our stories that are now also yours. Thank you.
“Public Cooperation Around the World” is broadcast Mondays at 11:17 and Tuesday at 03:20 on Radio 5.
El cultivo del cacao o el café se ha convertido en la alternativa de aquellas personas que subsisten de la plantación y recolección de plantas que contienen estupefacientes. El ‘Desarrollo alternativo’, una opción para cambiar la forma de vida de cientos de familias. Este sistema ya ha atendido a 190.000 en Colombia. The planting of cocoa or coffee has become an alternative for people who subsist by cultivating and harvesting narcotic-containing plants. "Alternative development", an option for changing the way of life of hundreds of families. This system has already helped 190,000 families in Colombia. The planting of cocoa or coffee has become an alternative for people who subsist by cultivating and harvesting narcotic-containing plants. "Alternative development", an option for changing the way of life of hundreds of families. This system has already helped 190,000 families in Colombia. The planting of cocoa or coffee has become an alternative for people who subsist by cultivating and harvesting narcotic-containing plants. "Alternative development", an option for changing the way of life of hundreds of families. This system has already helped 190,000 families in Colombia.
Rural farmers, African-descended, Raizaland indigenous groups. Families belonging to these four communities in Colombia have resorted to illegal cultivation of plants like coca and poppies (from which heroin is derived) as a way of life. The ease of cultivation offered by the zones where they live or coercion by criminal networks are the main reasons why they get involved in this practice. Since 2003, this South American Country has been working on Alternative Development (AD) for the main purpose of obtaining territories free of illegal crops. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), AD is a process designed to reduce and eradicate cultivation of plants containing narcotic as well as psychotropic substances by offering alternatives such as cocoa, coffee, bananas, edible palms, etc.
“Invigorating the economy of the region and strengthening the culture of legality of these families and organizations”, adds Patricia Meléndez, director of the Programme to Combat Illegal Crops in Colombia. Since its beginnings, AD has helped 190,000 families in Colombia, and in the last two years it has managed to reduce the number of hectares dedicated to coca cultivation from 64,000 to 48,000.
Preventive perspective
This is the goal, and achieving it requires preliminary awareness-raising and basic prevention work. “It’s not just a question of supplanting crops that can be diverted for illegal purposes of drug production but of preventing vulnerable areas from becoming dedicated to the production of these drugs”, explains Claudia Liebers, expert in the Cooperation Programme Between Latin America and the European Union on Drug Policies (COPOLAD). This FIIAPP-managed European programme assisted Colombia in holding onto this perspective from 2011 to last January, when it reached its close.
It did so by creating an exchange network in which AD is referred to other Andean countries like Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. Mexico and Guatemala also showed interest shortly before the close of COPOLAD. This exchange has led to an exchange of best practices between neighbouring countries to halt the spread of illegal crops. The challenge was to combine the different drug policies, since in the case of Bolivia coca cultivation is legal. “That’s where the richness lies: in seeing these differences, but at the same time analyzing the great similarities between these countries and how working together contributes to making progress more effectively”, indicates Liebers.
Forums, workshops, women
The exchange tools between these countries provided by COPOLAD included the holding of regional forums, workshops and working groups, and development of a study and a manual on livelihoods and needs in the cultivation zones. Without forgetting the gender perspective. The programme put together a photographic exhibition and two videos which highlight the role of women in these zones as an engine of change. This is the case of Colombia. “We have some rural zones where the women are the ones leading the Alternative Development process in the territory. They’ve been given a role and they are the ones who become ambassadors in the territory to spread the lessons learnt in everything having to do with the COPOLAD programme”, indicates Patricia Meléndez.
One of the strong points of COPOLAD, which for the past four years has connected 17 Latin American countries with Europe to strengthen their public policies on drugs, has been to promote AD with the clear intention of involving local stakeholders in its development, as well as in the formulation of drug policies. The dialogue between institutions and local stakeholders was an essential part. “The goal is to go beyond Alternative Development”, emphasizes Liebers in conclusion: “achieving comprehensive development in these zones that generates greater social inclusion for these people by providing a dignified standard of living and respect for human rights, so that they do not have the need to cultivate crops or carry out tasks that might be linked to the production of illegal drugs”.
