Development Ratings

David Constantine and Simon Gue were both Industrial Design students at the Royal College of Art, London. In 1991, the pair won a prize for their design of a wheelchair for the developing world. With the prize money, they teamed up with an old friend, Richard Frost, and introduced their design to the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed in Bangladesh. The design was well received, leading to the establishment of Motivation.

Although differing measurement methods confuse the issue, disabled people in developing countries are estimated to be a higher percentage of the population than in the developed world (15-20% versus 10%, World Bank). This is due to poor nutrition and sanitation, birth complications, conflict, and poverty-related diseases. It is estimated that more than 65 million people in the world who need a wheelchair do not have one. Most people who suffer a spinal cord injury in low-income countries die within two to three years versus a normal life expectancy for those in Europe and the US. Defining the rights of disabled people, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted in 2006.

James Wolfensohn, the former President of the World Bank, has said “Unless disabled people are brought into the development mainstream, it will be impossible to cut poverty in half by 2015 (the Millennium Development Goal) or to give every girl and boy the chance to achieve a primary education”. Disabled people require higher incomes than the non-disabled to maintain the same standard of living, in this case to afford a wheelchair, and yet will generally have lower ones, due to lack of education and opportunities, poor equipment and facilities, discrimination, and traditional and cultural taboos. Poverty is both a cause and a consequence of disability.

There are several other UK-based international disability charities. Most either do not clearly show how much is spent on tangible activities, have very variable income and expenditure, and/or have low operating efficiency. Exceptions are IMPACT Foundation and Vision Aid Overseas (see Development Ratings Reports).