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The evaluation of 9 socio-economic rehabilitation programmes (SER), in 4 countries in Africa, in Bangladesh and in India from 2002-2005 is presented. All the 9 programmes focused on supporting individual leprosy-affected individuals or their families. Four projects also supported other marginalised clients. The usual interventions were micro-credit, housing and sponsoring of education for the children. The recommendations touched upon each of the five steps in individual rehabilitation: selection of clients, needs assessment, choosing an intervention, monitoring/follow--up of clients during rehabilitation, and separation at the end of the process. The evaluators also suggested ways in which participation of the client in their own rehabilitation might be boosted, made recommendations for the organisational structure of programmes, on maximising community involvement and emphasised the importance of information systems and of investing in the programme staff. A number of recommendations were specific to the types of interventions implemented. Bringing together the recommendations resulted in a description of best practices in the implementation of SER programmes, derived from actual experiences in different contexts.
Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation Journal, vol.19, no.1, 2008