1 - Spending Down a Grant

Summary

The adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2006 engendered a global social movement to promote disability rights around the world. A central aim of this movement has been to support Disabled Persons Organizations’ (DPOs) human-rights work. This focus on advocacy has now become a new organizational norm disseminated from international donors, networks, and NGOs to grassroots DPOs through training and small grants provided to DPOs in the Global South. In many places, however, local DPOs have resisted the changes this new norm implies, instead seeking to continue their traditional focus on addressing their members’ concrete needs through material support and services. In Segovia, Nicaragua, seven grassroots DPOs share an internationally funded grant for rights advocacy. They struggle, however, to use the money to address their local members needs while also keeping the international donor happy. This disconnect between international norms and local associations is the result of Nicaragua’s history of mobilizing people for the purposes of addressing basic needs and promoting community development. Since the 1979 Sandinista Revolution, local citizens, including disabled persons, have joined grassroots groups in solidaridad in coming together for mutual aid and social support.