bezev is actively committed to support a fair and social world, where all people are offered the same opportunities for development and participation. bezev supports an inclusive development and strengthens the equal participation of people with disabilities in humanitarian and development policy initiatives. Based on everyone´s responsibility for sustainable development, bezev is actively engaged in global learning.

People with disabilities are in most cases marginalized when it comes to development processes. Although they are disproportionately affected by poverty, they are not mentioned as a target group in the international development goals and therefore little considered in strategies for the fight against poverty.

The most important goal of our work is to contribute to an improvement of the living conditions of people who live with disability, especially for those who live in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Everyone is responsible for sustainable development including people with disabilities. bezev wants to provide the opportunity to become an actor for sustainable development for people with disabilities in the North and in the South. Every human being has the right to development – this is an indivisible and universal right.

Since there is a need for action in many different areas and at many levels, bezev works primarily in the fields of political lobbying, raising awareness as well as distributing information and knowledge. bezev tries to reach the responsible actors in order to achieve the most possible effect at an international, federal and national level. 

Exemplary and a big achievement was the commitment to article 32 to the “International Cooperation” of the UN Convention of Human Rights for people with disabilities, with the result that people who live with disability are now to be included in the process of international development policy.

Because of the lack of information about disability and development in many areas, bezev prepares information material and organizes conferences and seminars. Thereby, new subjects are brought up, in which people with disabilities have been neglected so far. Exemplary for this work shall be named: migration and disability, HIV/Aids and disability, and people living with disabilities in humanitarian emergency situations.

To make important matters available to a wider audience, campaigns are organized by bezev. The exhibition “Entwicklung ist für alle da” (“Development is for everyone”) provides information about connections between the international development goals and people with disability and promotes their equal participation in the implementation of these goals.

With a documentation centre and a database that is still in development, bezev makes subject-specific information available. Furthermore, bezev supports the journal “Zeitschrift Behinderung und Dritte Welt. Journal for Disability and International Development“, the only specialized journal on this subject in German-speaking countries.

bezev conducts specialized consultations on the subject “Disability and Development” for skilled development assistance staff members.

bezev supports projects for and with people with disability in foreign countries. Furthermore, bezev prepares volunteers for a stay abroad and functions as a sending organisation.

bezev prepares inclusive material for global learning so that people with disabilities are able to become mediators for sustainable development.

Networking and cooperation with other organisations and networks is an essential element of the work. bezev is a member of the Association of the German Non-Governmental Development Organizations (VENRO) and is involved in the workgroup “Disability and Development”. bezev is also a member of the Eine Welt Forum Essen (One World Forum Essen), the Mpumalanga-Forum of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) the Eine Welt Netz NRW (One World Net NRW).                                

At international level bezev is a member of “Global Partnership on Disability and Development” (GPDD).

Bezev is a registered non-profit association. You can read our charter here. (Available only in German).

Satzung.pdf

Satzung.doc