This is the third interview in our “Inclusive Philanthropy: Foundations and Disability Rights” series, where we explored how philanthropic foundations support disability rights and disability advocates.
We interviewed Lourdes Marquez de la Calleja, who shared the work of the ONCE Foundation, a Spanish non-governmental organisation created in 1988 as an instrument of cooperation and solidarity of Spanish blind individuals toward other groups of people with disabilities. In addition to the ONCE itself, the main organisations of people with disabilities in Spain are present in the Foundation through its Board of Trustees. The Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities (CERMI) is part of the Board of Trustees.
Question: How is the organisation advancing disability-inclusive development? Can you tell us some of the main programmes you support?
Answer: Fundación ONCE exists to contribute to the full social inclusion of people with disabilities and their families, and to make effective the principle of equal opportunities and non-discrimination. The ONCE Foundation has been working for 35 years to achieve this aim, especially through 3 pillars: education and training, employment, and universal accessibility.
Fundación ONCE is firmly committed to an inclusive labour market that addresses the employment of people with disabilities as an opportunity for everyone. We understand that employment is an essential factor for the social inclusion of people with disabilities. For the effective fulfilment of this purpose, Fundación ONCE annually allocates at least 60% of its budget to its Training and Employment Plan. Fundación ONCE is also committed to quality employment, meaning stable jobs and access to higher-skilled jobs.
INSERTA Empleo is the entity for training and employment of Fundación ONCE and is present throughout the national territory. Its activity is aimed at people with disabilities who are looking for work and/or want to enhance their skills or acquire new ones, especially those in a more vulnerable situation such as women with disabilities, young people with disabilities, or people with severe and or multiple disabilities.
“Mujeres en Modo ON-VG”, for example, is a program of Inserta Empleo and Fundación ONCE, co-financed by the European Social Fund, that was created in 2020 with the aim of empowering women with disabilities who are victims of gender violence, through employment and entrepreneurship.
From the Grupo Social ONCE and the Fundación ONCE, we have also been working to support people with disabilities in Latin America and the Caribbean. We signed an agreement with the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) to improve the living conditions of people with disabilities through a “rights and capacity”-based approach. We are transferring more than 25 years of experience in intermediations access to the labour market for people with disabilities to the region; by developing and implementing “Portalento Latinoamérica” in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic.
The digital era – and ensuring persons with disabilities are included in it – is also one of the main lines of action of the Foundation. We work hand-in-hand with professionals and experts in different subjects whose focus is innovation. In this regard, “Por Talento Digital” (Digital Talent Program) is our permanent training program in digital skills and technological professions, aimed at the acquisition of knowledge, and technological and digital qualifications of people with disabilities, to promote their inclusion in the labour market.
We are also committed to the access and promotion of people with disabilities in higher education, for which it is essential to build inclusive universities that guarantee equal opportunities. To achieve these goals, for example, we have launched a university training program (Unidiversidad) aimed at young people with intellectual, developmental and/or autism spectrum disabilities, through which these young people have the opportunity to access university and study their own degree in socio-occupational skills. With the aim of reducing the digital gender gap, the RADIA program is developed together with the CEOE Foundation and the Conference of Social Councils of Universities. 50 university women with disabilities each year access an intensive training course in digital technologies that combines face-to-face and virtual training and prepares them to work in in-demand sectors of the digital economy (artificial intelligence, fintech, esports, e-commerce, cybersecurity, biotechnology, blockchain and Green-tech).
Innovation has always been within the objectives of Fundación ONCE, with a view to seek universal accessibility and the most technologically advanced solutions to implement it. With the main objective of “leaving no one behind”, Fundación ONCE works to ensure that digital tools are accessible and usable for everyone and can contribute to the independence of people by supporting them in their tasks of daily life.
In 2019 Fundación ONCE inaugurated the EspacIA Innovation Room, an open space dedicated to innovation and accessibility with the aim of further promoting design for all people and for technology to become an opportunity to achieve the full inclusion of persons with disabilities. Besides, the Fundación ONCE Acceleration Program aims to accelerate projects, startups and companies that seek to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities. The program is aimed at entrepreneurs who solve important disability problems and promote entrepreneurship in the field of disability.
More recently, Fundación ONCE has been selected by the European Commission to lead the consortium to implement the European Accessibility Center (‘AccessibleEU’), which will promote the implementation of accessibility policies in the member states of the European Union (EU).
Question: The GLAD Network is a coordination body for donors supporting disability-inclusive international development and humanitarian aid. What are the benefits for the DPOD of being a member of this network?
Answer: It is a very important and interesting group of international entities that significantly defines the international agenda in the field of disability. It is especially interesting for us what is happening, how we are addressing the needs, and if there is a balance among needs, actions and financing. It is also an opportunity to forge alliances with other entities and learn from others, that can favour the work of the ONCE Social Group, in particular the ONCE Foundation for Latin America (FOAL) and other ONCE collaborations in the field of development cooperation.
Question: How does the organisation involve and collaborate with persons with disabilities (and their representative organisations OPDs/DPOs) when deciding which actions to support?
Answer: We work with persons with disabilities throughout the decision-making and implementation process, because we work “from and for” persons with disabilities. “Nothing for people with disabilities without people with disabilities” is the maxim that we have given ourselves and, based on it, we act alongside those who come into contact with our reality.
We could not achieve our objectives alone. Thus, we collaborate with a wide range of actors and entities at national, European and International levels.
At the national level, we collaborate closely and have support from the main entities representing the social economy, the philanthropy sector, the third sector and the disability sector.
The ONCE Foundation has established alliances with the main entities in the field of disability, foundations, social economy and social investment at national, European and international level. In Spain, we cooperate with organisations such as the Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities (CERMI); the Royal Board on Disability and the Spanish Association of Foundations (AEF), among many others.
At the international level, the European Disability Forum (EDF), the European Institute of Design For All (EIDD) – Design For All Europe), the European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA) and the Economic and Social Committee of the European Union (EESC) among many others
At the international level, Fundación ONCE is a member of the World Consortium for the Standardization of Accessibility on the WEB (W3C), and the European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT), we also participate in the Design for All Europe Platform (EIDD) and member of the Council on Foundations (COF). Since 2018, Fundación ONCE has had special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which is undoubtedly an opportunity within the Foundation’s international activity.
We invested in 2,729 projects presented in all corners of the country, 67.9% of which were aimed at employment and training and the remaining 32.1% at accessibility. And more than 185 collaboration agreements of all kinds were promoted: employment, training, university, accessibility, and communication. Last year’s figures show that the ONCE Foundation promoted more than 185 collaboration agreements of all kinds: employment, training, university, accessibility, communication, and others.
Internationally, we have cooperation projects in more than 30 countries in Europe, Africa and Latin America, and more than 10 strategic partnerships with multilateral entities, international agencies, and European Institutions at a global level.
The ONCE group also launched a specific foundation in 1998 to promote the full social inclusion of persons with visual impairments in Latin America, seeking to contribute to the full and equal enjoyment of their human rights. We rely on all international development cooperation instruments at our disposal and on the basis of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
We also implement programmes and cooperate in 19 countries in Latin America through education programmes, labour inclusion and strengthening of public, private and civil society organisations.
In addition, strategic partnerships are directed towards UN agencies such as UNICEF or the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). Among these is the Ibero-American Disability Programme, created within the framework of the Ibero-American General Secretariat, whose technical assistance is provided by the ONCE Social Group. Through a multi-country fund, it works on the regulatory quality of the region in relation to persons with disabilities.
Our main mission is to reduce the cycle of poverty and exclusion associated with disability by empowering people, supporting their families and working in coordination with states, educational centres, companies, and public or private entities. We pay special attention to the most vulnerable groups, such as visually impaired girls and women – those living in rural environments – indigenous persons, and persons with deafblindness.
Question: How do you see support for disability-inclusive evolving in the next few years? What are the topics and regions that your organisation is focusing on?
Answer: Fundación ONCE, guided by its experience and commitment to improving the quality of life of persons with disabilities and their families, closely follows developments in the European environment, both within the European Institutions and in those European and international forums working to defend the interests of 100 million Europeans and Europeans with disabilities.
2023 has been marked by uncertainty. The energy crisis, the pandemic, the climate, the food security…. Currently, there are more than 100 active armed conflicts, and the consequences of these conflicts, together with the climate crisis and the increase in food and energy prices, predict 2024, where humanitarian aid will be very necessary.
Climate change, growing geopolitical tensions and increasing military conflicts are creating and exacerbating emergency and humanitarian crisis situations, which impact the most vulnerable groups to a greater extent. It is estimated that 15% of the world’s population has some disability, but this proportion is likely to increase considerably due to these humanitarian crises. However, ways of providing assistance and protection to people with disabilities in humanitarian settings remain insufficiently adapted. Due to discrimination and environmental, physical, economic and social barriers, people with disabilities are more likely to be excluded from emergency responses and humanitarian services. Consequently, we are working in this field to seek solutions to address this need.
Social challenges and needs are increasingly complex and significant. European Funds open opportunities to overcome challenges that the social sector is facing, but there are many barriers in its access. From Fundación ONCE, we are members of the Helpdesk project, a European project co-funded by the European Commission that aims to support social services in accessing and using EU Funds.
In the current situation and to be prepared for the future, funding for the social sector requires complementary resources, and diversification of funds, which come from both public and private sources. It is also necessary to attract new actors and new public and private funds and use new financial instruments to complement existing resources. Social impact investing is a new and complementary instrument to respond to social needs.
We defend quality social impact investing where there is a balance between all sectors: the private sector, the public sector and the social sector, but none can be left out. Collaboration with the private sector opens new avenues of financing and the possibility of reaching what we, the social sector, cannot do alone. The Social Sector must be prepared to take advantage of this opportunity and multiply the impact, and from Fundación ONCE, we are trying to mobilized and support our sector in these new innovative financial models.