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.

teaches theory and methods of political science with an emphasis on North American and Latin American politics at Freie Universität Berlin and Leuphana Universität Lüneburg. His field work in Nicaragua in 2004, on which this book is based, was supported by a grant from the German Academic Exchance Service (DAAD).