Strengthening Capacity of Organizations of Persons with Disabilities for Sustainable Community Based Inclusive Development Programming

Abstract

In Kenya, the role of Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) as major stakeholders in promoting the achievement of disability inclusion and fulfillment of the rights of persons with disabilities cannot be overemphasized, considering the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the national policy on disability inclusion of persons with disabilities, which is the recently enacted Persons with Disabilities Act, 2025. With this potential, Kenyan OPDs still encounter chronic problems affecting their effectiveness in spearheading sustainable Community-Based Inclusive Development (CBID) programming. These are low organizational capacity, overdependence on short term external donor funds, poor governance systems, weak representation among types of impairments, sex, and geographical location and systemic barriers like stigma, lack of resources and poor technical skills in evidence based advocacy and inclusion programming. CBID, which derives its name out of the traditional Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR), focuses on community ownership, multi-sectoral integration (community health, education, livelihoods, social protection), and involvement of the persons with disabilities to eliminate the barriers and to promote equality in rights and opportunities. It supports the two-track approach to disability inclusion: making disability considerations mainstream to all development projects in order to be accessible and non-discriminatory, as well as to act specifically towards meeting the needs of persons with disabilities, such as with enhanced OPDs. This conceptual paper contends that sustainable, rights-based CBID in Kenya should be achieved through a calculated move to shift the fragmented and project-based interventions to long-term holistic capacity building of OPDs. Among the strategies, one can highlight improving organizational governance and leadership, developing financial sustainability based on diversified mobilization of resources and proposals development, enhancing advocacy and policy influence skills in order to involve local and national duty-bearers, developing strategic partnerships involving government, civil society, and mainstream actors, and promoting community-level participation to achieve economic empowerment and attitudinal change. Through the ability of OPDs to spearhead local development planning, create evidence with the help of participatory research and monitoring and include disability in the agenda of counties and nations, Kenya can cease being dependent on aid and start being an inclusive community. Finally, strong, independent OPDs are essential in the conversion of the policy promises, including those in the 2025 Act, into practical, owned locally-based activities to support the dignity, participation, and rights of persons with disabilities.