There is a relative paucity of disability-related research emanating from low and middle income countries. We report here on the successes and challenges of AfriNEAD (the African Network on Evidence to Action on Disability), a recently formed network that brings together researchers, activists and other role-players in attempting to develop and support disability-related research in Africa. We introduce the African concept of ubuntu (humanness) as an organizing principle to guide respectful engagement amongst people with widely differing skills and experiences with the overall project of collaborating in research and development to make a positive difference to disabled people's lives.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) has now entered into international law. It requires that all governments take cognisance and action to ensure that the human rights of people with disabilities are realised. This will be particularly challenging in some of the poorest countries; a fact recognised by the Convention's requirement that all international aid-giving countries address disability as part of their programmes. This Special Issue of Disability and Rehabilitation arises from the first conference of a new network - the African Network for Evidence to Action on Disability (AfriNEAD) - which was established to address, on a regional basis, the 'know-do' gap, in the field of disability. Papers in this special issue address a broad range of themes including the measurement of disability; the involvement of persons with disability in the design, conduct and analysis of research on disability; the role of Community Based Facilitators; the impact of HIV/AIDS on people with disabilities, and the challenges of mainstream schooling for children with disabilities. Promoting the human rights of persons with disabilities places an obligation on us all to ensure that the value of research goes beyond publication, to influence policy and practice. One important way of promoting efforts to collectively achieve this is through networks of disabled people's organisations, practitioners, policy makers and researchers working together.

BackgroundDisability research in the global South has not received significant critical consideration as to how it can be used to challenge the oppression and marginalisation of people with disabilities in low-income and middle-income countries. The Southern Africa Federation of the Disabled (SAFOD) embarked on a programme to use research to influence policy and practice relating to people with disabilities in Southern Africa, and commissioned an audit on research expertise in the region. In this article, a research audit is reported on and situated in a framework of emancipatory research.ObjectivesThis article sets out to describe a preliminary audit of disability research in the southern African region and to draw conclusions about the current state of disability research in the region and make recommendations.MethodThe research method entailed working with disability researchers in the ten SAFOD member countries and utilising African disability networks hosted on electronic media. Disability researchers working in the region completed 87 questionnaires, which were reviewed through a thematic analysis.ResultsThe discussion of results provides a consideration of definitions of disability; the understanding of disability rights, research topics and methodologies; the participation of people with disabilities in research; and the challenges and opportunities for using research to inform disability activism.ConclusionThe conclusion highlights critical issues for future research in the region, and considers how a disability researcher database can be used as a tool for disability organisations to prioritise research that serves a disability rights agenda.

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