MAINSTREAMING THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORKS TERESA NJOROGE MWENDWA 1 , AMBROSE MURANGIRA 2 and RAYMOND LANG 3 * , y 1 Friends of the Disabled Foundation, Kenya 2 Chairman, Uganda National Association of the Deaf, Kenya 3 Leonard Cheshire Disability and Inclusive Development Centre, UCL, UK Abstract: Development practitioners and governments continue to grapple with how best to ensure the participation of socially excluded and marginalised groups in the development of poverty reduction strategy plans and national development programmes. This paper analyses the challenges involved in ensuring that persons with disabilities and their representative organisations are effectively included in such initiatives, using examples from recent practices in Uganda. It concludes by making some tentative recommendations on how such initiatives can be genuinely inclusive. Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Keywords: disability, poverty reduction strategies, inclusive development, mainstreaming, UN convention 1 INTRODUCTION Debates within contemporary development studies discourse are increasingly critical about the extent to which current aid modalities are really enhancing the livelihoods of the poorest and most marginalised groups within developing countries (Eybern, 2005; Adejumobi, 2006). These include evaluations of the efficacy of the poverty reduction strategy (PRS) process; the extent to which social protection programmes and cash transfer initiatives benefit the chronically poor; as well as the effectiveness of direct budget support. Furthermore, there has been critical reflection on the utility of a rights-based approach to development, and the degree to which poor, marginalised groups effectively participate in the development of poverty reduction initiatives and national development plans (Hickey and Mohan, 2004). Journal of International Development J. Int. Dev. 21, 662–672 (2009) Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/jid.1594 *Correspondence to: Raymond Lang, Leonard Cheshire Disability and Inclusive Development Centre, University College London, 4 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BT, UK. E-mail: r.lang@ucl.ac.uk y Honourary Senior Research Associate. Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.