Persons with disabilities are the experts on their own life situation and should be at the centre of all decisions affecting them.
A core principle in NAD’s work is nothing about us without us. NAD believes that international development cannot and will not be inclusive of and accessible to persons with disabilities without promoting their voices and placing Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) at the forefront.
Download Strategy for NAD’s International Work 2018-2024 here (pdf).
NAD works to build the capacity of persons with disabilities and their organisations so that they are empowered to promote their human rights and to promote and support disability inclusion.
NAD works through existing local structures to ensure local ownership and sustainable change. Our main partners are DPOs as representatives of rights holders, and Governments as duty bearers. We additionally work with International and National Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs/NGOs) to promote and advise on disability inclusive development (mainstreaming disability).
Our strategy is based on human rights and aims to empower persons with disabilities to access and benefit from education, employment, health and social services on an equal basis with others within their own communities.
How we decide where to work
NAD follows some key principles when we decide where to work. These are that we only engage in a country after we have been invited to do so by a government or a major development actor, and that we do not engage in countries that do not have functioning DPOs.
NAD seeks to ensure learning across projects. Therefore, we often engage in countries that are geographically close to each other, so that our projects can benefit from a cluster approach.
We also seek synergies by selecting countries that are priority countries of the Norwegian Government as well as the Atlas Alliance.