GLOBAL VISION PROJECT: Global Vision of Rehabilitation
and Recreation for People with Disabilities in the 21st Century
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE:
"Twelve Categories of International Technical Assistance"
by Prof. John A. Nesbitt, Ed.D., CTRS, Pres/CEO
Special Recreation for disABLED International
INTRODUCTION
International "Technical Assistance" has been a major feature of international relations in the era that started at the close of World War II. The desire for world peace and goodwill and global economic and social development have found international technical assistance a major form of achieving progress.
UN AND NGO TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
The United Nations (UN) and its United Nations Specialized Agencies (UNSAs) have conducted vast international technical assistance programs. International Non-Governmental Organizations by the hundreds have worked in tandem on international technical assistance. Rehabilitation and recreation for disabled have been parts of these efforts in international technical assistance. The rehabilitation efforts have been significant unto themselves.
NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS
National Governmental Organizations such as U.S. Rehabilitation Services Administration have provided international technical assistance for in research on related to rehabilitation of people with disabilities. The U.S. RSA has sponsored international research and development in orthotics and prosthetics, physical medicine, professional and technical information, recreation, sheltered employment, and vocational rehabilitation.
NOTE. Various "prototype" projects by the UN and the UNSAs are illustrative of the types of play and recreation technical assistance projects that have been supported by the UN. These prototypes serve as precedent for technical assistance from the UN and UNSAs for play and recreation for infants, children, youth, adults, and seniors.
TYPES OF TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE (*)
This description of international technical assistance orients non-governmental organization potential providers and potential receivers on typical projects. To often thinking about "TA" consists of, "We need technical assistance but where do we start" or "We want to provide technical assistance but how do we begin."
These typical types of international technical assistance provide a starting point for thinking and planning.
1. ADMINISTRATION AND ORGANIZATION
Providing internal services such as cooperation, coordination, evaluation, financing, liaison, planning, reporting, research and training rendered through secretariat staff, missions, committees, and other administrative or organizational means. Prototype: The International Labour Organization (ILO) has dealt with Hours, Leisure and Welfare in its Conditions of Work and Life area providing cooperation in planning and evaluation of projects.
2. ADVISORY AND PLANNING
Providing professional and technical advisory and consultative services, either face-to-face, through communications (mail, email, telephone, websites, etc.), or through meetings, and activities rendered in planning assistance for national, organizational, institutional, and/or program or service development. Prototype: The ILO has dealt with Hours, Leisure and Welfare in its Conditions of Work and Life area providing advisory services.
3. CONFERENCES AND MEETINGS
Sponsoring, organizing, funding, participating in or inviting participation in conferences, congresses, expert or technical group meetings, seminars, study groups, symposia, and other types of meetings. Prototype: A European Seminar on Playground Activities, Objectives, and Leadership was organized by the European Office of Technical Assistance Administration of the United Nations within the framework of the European Social Welfare Programme.
4. EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Providing courses, institutes, schools, training centers and workshops; includes education and training of civil servants, senior cadre, specialists, teachers, workers, and students/interns. Education is oriented to pre-service instruction and training is oriented to in-service instruction. Prototype: UNICEF provided an instructor and 100 play group leaders as part of its program in Uganda where it also surveyed youth needs and organized play centers.
5. EQUIPMENT, FACILITIES, AND SUPPLIES
Providing these is a form of technical assistance. Prototype: UNICEF has provided playground equipment purchased in the U.S.
6. FELLOWSHIPS
Providing fellowships, scholarships, study grants, study tours, worker-trainee awards, etc. Prototype: UNESCO has provided Youth Leader Training grants.
7. FUNDING
Providing funds, subsidies, subventions, trusts, voluntary financing for national to local projects through international governmental or non-governmental organizations. Prototype: UNESCO has provided subventions to international organizations for music, museums, theater, and plastic arts.
8. TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Providing professional, scientific, or technical information service including: analysis, archives, clearing house, collation, collection, dissemination, electronic technology, exchange, library (critical selection, storage and retrieval), publishing, synthesis, and/or translation. Prototype: UNICEF has published a guide for the choice and use of play materials for group programs called PANDORA. FAO has distributed the publication, "Organization and Activities of 4-H Clubs in the United States."
9. PUBLIC INFORMATION
Providing information, while based on professional, scientific, and technical facts and knowledge, that is non: professional, scientific, and technical in its presentation; the information is intended for the general public through various media: general and specialized periodical, news media (print, radio, television), and electronic media (internet, world wide web). Prototype: UNESCO has published and distributed international art exhibits and other materials of a cultural nature for the general public. WHO carried an article in "World Health," "Modern Living: A World Health Roundtable: Leisure."
10. PERSONNEL
Providing permanent or short-term: administrative and executive; operational supervisors and leaders (instructors, etc.); consultants, educators, experts, and researchers; and, volunteers at various levels of experience, from students to retirees; also, special missions and teams of such personnel. Prototype: UNESCO provided a recreation specialist as a member of the five-man team at CREFAL (Centro Regoinal de Educacion Fundamental para la America Latina).
11. RESEARCH AND STUDIES
Providing for: action, demonstration, evaluation, innovation, and pilot project research; descriptive and historical studies and surveys; and basic case study, clinical, and experimental research; and, providing for cooperative or joint, coordinated, and exchange/liaison research. Prototype: UNESCO's Institute of Education conducted a three-year "Comparative Study of the Evolution of the Forms and Needs of Leisure." UNESCO'S "Education Abstracts" publication carried an article on "Adult Education and Leisure-Time Activities in Czechoslovakia."
12. STANDARDS AND AGREEMENTS
Establishing cores, definitions, and standards; sponsoring agreements, conventions, declarations, recommendations, and resolutions. Prototype: The United Nations "international Definitions and Measurement of Standards and Levels of Living" includes recreation as one of nine basic areas. Various United Nations declarations have addressed the rights of people with disabilities, with mental illness, mental retardation, physical disability, and other special populations.
SUMMARY
1. ADMINISTRATION AND ORGANIZATION. 2. ADVISORY AND PLANNING.
3. CONFERENCES AND MEETINGS. 4. EDUCATION AND TRAINING.
5. EQUIPMENT, FACILITIES, AND SUPPLIES. 6. FELLOWSHIPS.
7. FUNDING. 8. TECHNICAL INFORMATION.
9. PUBLIC INFORMATION. 10. PERSONNEL.
11. RESEARCH AND STUDIES. 12. STANDARDS AND AGREEMENTS.
(*) This article is based on the research, "An Analysis of United Nations Service Related to Recreation"; published by Columbia University, Teachers College, and on a series of articles by the Recreation Education Program, University of Iowa.
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GLOBAL VISION PROJECT:
Global Vision of Rehabilitation and Recreation
for People with Disabilities in the 21st Century
A JOINT PROJECT BY:
Disability International Foundation AND
Special Recreation for disABLED International
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