Working bottom up – building a local model for deinstitutionalization

Start DateOngoingEnd Date

29 May 201831 Dec 2020

Programme Status

Closed

Programme Budget

US$ 383,490

Financial Information

Thematic focus: Access to Health, Awareness Raising, Employment, Inclusive education, Independent Living, Social Protection

Implementing Partners

UN Agencies

UNFPA
UN Women
UNICEF
UNDP

Government Organizations

Ministry of Labor and Social Policy
Ministry of Education and Sciences
Ministry of Health
Institute of Social Activities
State Education Inspectorate
Center for Social Work
Regional Employment Center

Organizations of Persons with Disabilities

Organizations of Persons with Disabilities of Strumica region
Organizations of Women with Disabilities

The Programme

The UN country team took a two-pronged approach to ensuring that persons with disabilities can realize their right to live independently and be included in the community. First, a localized pilot program focused on the Banja Bansko institution and the surrounding Strumica region will demonstrate that community-based options are a feasible, affordable way to facilitate independent living. Second, a national effort to support biological and foster families will prevent further institutionalization of children with disabilities.

Approach

The localized pilot program deliberately targeted a single institution in a single region. This is because top-down legislation and policies have failed, over decades, to enable persons with disabilities to realize their rights in everyday practice.

The UN team worked jointly at the local level to create a successful model of community services covering all areas – education, healthcare, housing, employment – that can then be replicated more widely.

This approach has been welcomed by the responsible national institutions, making the prospects for sustainability and nationwide implementation far better than in the past. While localized deinstitutionalization was the aim of the first effort, halting the practice of confining children with disabilities to institutions was the goal of the second.

The UN team provided rights-based, gender-sensitive training to the full range of professionals who work with persons with disabilities, while also working directly with persons with disabilities (and their associations) to build the skills needed to exercise their rights and take a decisive say in the design and provision of the services they want.