Understanding Disability, Development and Democracy in Nicaragua: a Case Study of Public Health Actors and Strategies in a Post-conflict Society

Disability NGO in the nascent democracies of Latin America face the dual challenges of poverty and exclusion. Consolidation policies have tasked them with a multitude of overlapping and sometimes contradictory responsibilities, as relations must be renegotiated with a reconfigured state, a liberalized market and a disjointed donor community. NGO act within the double-bind of domestic politics and funding structures of the international system. This book traces the role Nicaraguan disability NGO play in the process of democratic consolidation in a post-conflictual society. It isolates contextual variables that determine the uneven development geographies of disability inherent in the trade-offs between different disability agendas. The author argues for a contextualized approach to disability in development politics that takes into account the cross-sectional nature of the disability concept. Drawing on the major strands of disability theory and a detailed case study from the field, different approaches to disability advocacy are evaluated for their relevance and usefulness within developing countries.