The Agreement was aimed to make a significant contribution to the creation of a favourable social and physical environment for people with disabilities, giving them the opportunity to play a direct and active role in their own development. The actions envisaged in the Agreement aimed to improve the quality of life and the integration of disabled people in the four countries involved.
The guiding principles of the Agreement were: community work, action through reference centres and pilot projects, impact on public systems and social policies for the disabled, and transferring the “know-how” of Arcenciel, an organization with considerable experience in working with disabled people. Arcenciel, an FPSC partner since 1996, started the National Programme for the Disabled in Lebanon, which includes five centres and offers services to 56,000 disabled people.
Moreover, the Agreement tried to carry out four specific courses of action:
-
South-South Cooperation: The Agreement’s aim was to improve cooperation between organizations established in developing countries, and to promote synergies and the exchange of experiences, thus increasing the impact of these organizations’ actions. In order to promote South-South cooperation, the Agreement established a regional network of NGOs that worked in the disability sphere, creating a space for communication, cooperation and mutual support that help to improve the practices of the NGOs and the services offered to disabled people.
-
Institutional support: the Agreement seeked to institutionally strengthen various local organizations in all four countries, with the aim of improving the services offered to the disabled. To this end, the Lebanese organization Arcenciel (lead partner in the Agreement) devised a Plan of Action to work in cooperation with the other organizations involved.
-
Care for the disabled. Assistance services programme that included Technical Assistance and Training.
- Social awareness-raising. Specific campaigns were designed in the different countries: TV campaigns, leaflets, posters, radio programmes, etc.
- Specific actions in southern Lebanon. Special attention was paid to disabled people in the southern region, where the conflict that took place in summer 2006 had a terrible impact on the disabled population.