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Paralympic broadcasting in Sub-Saharan Africa: Sport, media and communication for social change

NOSKE-TURNER, Jessica
PULLEN, Emma
MAGALASI, Mufunanji
HASLETT, Damian
TACCHI, Jo
April 2022

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The purpose of this commentary is to discuss how Paralympic coverage in sub-Saharan Africa can be effectively mobilised to stimulate discursive and structural change around disability. Paralympic coverage has demonstrated its pedagogical power to engage public(s) and challenge stigma toward disability. Yet, the Global picture of Paralympic broadcasting is deeply uneven, with audiences in parts of the Global South afforded limited opportunities to watch the Games. Considering this, the International Paralympic Committee has begun to broadcast Paralympic coverage across sub-Saharan Africa with an explicit aim to challenge stigma toward disability. In this article, we draw on examples from research to argue that ideas from the field of Communication for Social Change (CfSC) can add value towards this aim. We begin by providing a brief overview of CfSC before critically examining one of the field’s key concepts – Communicative (E)ecologies. Following this, we critically reflect on the potential of Paralympic broadcasting as a vehicle for social change and disability rights agendas in sub-Saharan Africa. We argue that thinking with CfSC concepts show the importance of a ‘decentred’ media approach that engages with disability community advocacy groups, localised communication activities and practices, and culturally specific disability narratives.

 

Communication & SportVolume 10, Issue 5, September 2022, Pages 1001-1015

https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795221093722

Global disability financing in the context of Covid-19

Development Initiatives
March 2022

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The main objective of this analysis is to track global financing towards disability in near real time, which is an extension of our work on real-time data on aid before and during Covid-19 and financial tracking on disability investments. The current analysis assesses changes in global disability aid financing in the context of Covid-19 between 2019 and the third quarter (Q3) of 2021. The review uses data from the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) and considers full calendar years for 2019 and 2020 and three quarters in the year 2021.

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for All: Disability Inclusion from Theory to Practice Women’s Integrated Sexual Health 2 Action Project (WISH2ACTION)

BERGER, Gisela
ARESU, Alessandra
NEWNHAM, Jane
March 2022

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The overall objective of this Guideline is to support project and programme developers, Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) public and private service providers, and advocates to design, implement, monitor, and evaluate inclusive SRH programmes. Realising SRHR for all requires a comprehensive, multi-sectoral, and coordinated approach, involving a range of actors and actions. The Guideline is designed to be a resource on the human rights standards and key principles required to achieve disability inclusion, with more specific guidance available for actors working at different levels of SRH service programming and service delivery. This Guideline is intended primarily to support SRHR actors and practitioners who are active at the local level. The chapters provide relevant background information and refer to selected national and international data. It contains practical recommendations to support implementation and advocacy activities, accompanied by a list of the most relevant resources available on the subject

Inclusive Design and Accessibility of the Built Environment in Solo, Indonesia

PATRICK, Michaela
McKINNON, Iain
PUTRI PRASTIKA, Kirana
ASTERINA, Nina
FUAD, Jamil
March 2022

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This case study builds a picture of the current state of inclusion and accessibility in the built environment and infrastructure in Solo, Indonesia, through engaging local stakeholders and communities and exploring the understanding of and potential for inclusive design to address some of the current barriers to inclusion.

Surakarta (known as Solo) is a city in Central Java, Indonesia, with a population of 557,606 people. The city has a strong history of inclusion, recognised as a great place for persons with disabilities in Indonesia to live. Solo city is a leader for inclusion in Indonesia, demonstrated through city regulations on disability inclusion that pre-date the ratification of the UNCRPD. There is great progress in implementing inclusive environments in Solo with numerous accessible infrastructures, but the city would benefit from a more holistic approach, support by a robust inclusive design strategy that integrates inclusion, sustainable and resilience to ensure long-term progress. One of the aspects that makes Solo unique is its strong community relationships, community-led approaches and leadership from the community is active and valued. This is also supported within urban governance, facilitating opportunities from grassroots leadership and inclusive participation for persons with disabilities.

The research identified that to create more inclusive environments, the physical infrastructure, planning and design is crucial, but equally important are the processes of inclusion and participation. Creating robust mechanisms of community participation and leadership is fundamental to ensure long term sustainable and continued progress to being a more inclusive city.

Across Indonesia, action towards inclusive cities is supported through the work of the Inclusive Mayor’s Network in Indonesia demonstrating country-wide leadership. The findings of this case study will serve Solo as a city but also have relevance for other cities across Indonesia and support the implementation of best practices found in Solo. 

This is the third of six case studies of the Inclusive Infrastructure programme analysing the state of accessibility and inclusive design in low-resource contexts around the world. 

Are persons with disabilities included in the effort to leave no-one behind? Mapping disability data in development in Asia and the Pacific

CBM GLOBAL’S INCLUSION ADVISORY GROUP
February 2022

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In the Asia Pacific region, UNFPA and partners work together to implement the Incheon Strategy to “Make the Right Real” for Persons with Disabilities. The Incheon Strategy is the region’s first set of disability-specific development goals to track progress towards the fulfilment of rights of persons with disabilities.

In the region, it is estimated that there are over 650 million persons with disabilities. However, without accurate, timely and disaggregated data, countries are unable to develop effective policies and programmes, monitor the wellbeing of persons with disabilities and evaluate the equity and impact of development efforts. This endangers country commitments to ‘leave no one behind’ and undermines their obligations to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

This groundbreaking report demonstrates the importance of ensuring data is inclusive and provides recommendations for immediate action in order to improve the collection, analysis and reporting of disability data

Global Disability Summit 2022 - Oslo, Norway

GLOBAL DISABILITY SUMMIT
February 2022

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The International Disability Alliance (IDA), the Government of Norway, and the Government of Ghana hosted the second Global Disability Summit on 16 and 17 February 2022 (GDS22). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and to ensure inclusive participation at the Summit, the event was held on a digital platform.

The first Global Disability Summit (GDS18), held in 2018 in London, generated an unprecedented level of focus on and commitment to disability-inclusive development. 171 national governments, multilateral agencies, donors, foundations, private sector, and civil society organisations made 968 individual commitments. More than 300 governments and organisations signed the GDS18 Charter for Change, encouraging the focused implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

The Global Disability Summit 2022 (GDS22) in was built on the results achieved at the first Summit, to further accelerate much-needed progress towards the fulfillment of the rights of persons with disabilities worldwide.

The Summit led to concrete commitments that brought genuine change for persons with disabilities. GDS22 gathered a total of 1413 commitments on disability inclusion.

People with disabilities want equality through access and participation. To obtain lasting change at the country level, we seek collaboration with States, multilateral organisations, and civil society. We seek action and we seek the voices of persons with disabilities themselves.

Global Disability Youth Summit and a Civil Society Forum. was also held under the auspices of the GDS22.

 

The Chair's summary, recordings of GDS22, commitments made and the program are available.

Global Disability Youth Summit 2022

GLOBAL DISABILITY SUMMIT
February 2022

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IDA, UNICEF, and the Atlas Alliance, represented by Youth Mental Health Norway, co-hosted a Youth Summit on 14 February 2022 to ensure the inclusion of youth in the Global Disability Summit. 

All planning and decision making around the Summit were led by youth with disabilities, including through the design of a novel format to ensure the participation of youth from around the globe, from local to global.

 

The Summit showcased the innovations of organizations led by youth with disabilities. Youth with disabilities at the local, regional and global levels have created groups and activities, both online and offline, fostering a sense of community, even during the COVID-19 period. Through the Summit, the youth focused on topics that they have identified to be particularly important in this regard, such as participation of youth in OPDs and youth mainstream organizations, inclusive education, deinstitutionalization and community inclusion, access to employment, climate change, new technologies, humanitarian action, access to inclusive healthcare including sexual reproductive health and mental health, among others.

 

A working group consisting of co-hosts and selected partners was responsible for developing a Youth Charter for Change - summing up and challenging the commitments

 

Towards a disability-inclusive humanitarian response in South Sudan?

FUNKE, Carolyn
DIJKZEUL, Dennis
February 2022

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The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Guidelines on the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action (2019) set out four ‘must do’ actions to identify and respond to the needs and rights of persons with disabilities. This study investigates how humanitarian organizations implement the four ‘must do’ actions in South Sudan. It shows that mainstream and inclusion-focused organizations actively promote their implementation to make disability inclusion an integral part of humanitarian action, investing heavily in capacity-building and awareness-raising at all levels of the response. Nevertheless, serious gaps and challenges to disability inclusion remain. 

Barriers and facilitators to providing assistive technologies to children with disabilities in Afghanistan

WHITAKKER, Golnaz
WOOD, Gavin
February 2022

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Due to the impacts of the ongoing conflict, Afghanistan’s child population is at high risk of being born with or acquiring a primary or secondary disability. According to a recent estimate, up to 17 per cent of Afghanistan’s children live with some form of disability. Assistive technologies (AT) – the systems, services and products that enhance the functioning of people with impairments – are likely to be required by a large proportion of children with disabilities in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has signed and ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which includes a commitment to provide AT equitably to all who need it. However, little action has been taken to meet this commitment, and there continues to be a vast gap between the need for AT and its provision. This work presents the landscape of AT provision, the barriers and facilitators to provision, and provides recommendations to begin to close the gap. 

Semi-structured interviews were conducted to build on the evidence in the literature, and to understand the factors affecting AT provision in Afghanistan

Using radio drama to tackle disability discrimination in Nigeria

BBC Media Action
Inclusive Futures
February 2022

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As part of the Inclusive Futures programme, BBC Media Action produced a radio drama, Story Story, and accompanying social media content, to tackle stigma and discrimination around disability in Nigeria. This content was broadcast from November 2020 to November 2021 through local radio partners in six states – Enugu, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Kano, Kaduna, Kogi and Lagos.

This briefing draws on a literature review and key insights from BBC Media Action’s mixed-methods evaluation of the drama conducted in June and July 2021.

Social protection for disability in Kenya and Uganda - synthesis report

Development Initiatives
January 2022

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In 2021, Development Initiatives analysed how existing social protection programmes benefit persons with disabilities in Uganda and Kenya and associated challenges. The two country reports synthesised in this report interrogate policy frameworks, existing social protection schemes and institutional setups, and track public investment towards disability-specific and mainstream social protection programmes. 

Accessible Sanitation in the Workplace – Important Considerations for Disability-Inclusive Employment in Nigeria and Bangladesh

Stephen Thompson
Rasak Adekoya
Utpal Mallick
Omojo Adaji
Abdur Rakib
Mark Carew
January 2022

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This paper explores the relationship between accessible sanitation and disability-inclusive employment in Bangladesh and Nigeria. Both countries have sanitation and hygiene challenges as well as disability-inclusive employment challenges, but the existing evidence on the intersection of these issues that is focused on Nigeria and Bangladesh is extremely limited. Building on the literature where this complex issue is addressed, this paper presents the findings of a qualitative pilot study undertaken in Nigeria and Bangladesh. It focuses on the need for toilets at work that are easy for people with disabilities to use in poor countries. These are sometimes called accessible toilets. Accessible sanitation is not regarded as a challenge that must be addressed by people with disabilities themselves, but as a challenge that must be addressed by many people working together – including governments, employers, and the community.

Intersectionality Resource Guide and Toolkit. An intersectional approach to leave no one behind

UN WOMEN
UN PRPD
2022

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The Resource Guide and Toolkit has been developed to help both organizations and individual practitioners and experts to address intersectionality in policies and in programmes. It may be used by individuals or teams to assess their own knowledge, attitudes, and practice, at a programme level as a supplement to existing design, adaptation, and assessment processes or at policy level to better understand and address the different and intersecting effects of policy on marginalised persons.

This Resource Guide and Toolkit emerged from an identified need to use an intersectional approach that included people with disabilities in all their diversity in the development, implementation and evaluation of policies, programmes, advocacy and inter-governmental processes. However, the authors and collaborators realised that an effective intersectionality resource needed to go beyond a focus on specific intersecting identities, such as disability and gender, as this would still exclude those who are most marginalised

Assistive Technology in urban low-income communities in Sierra Leone & Indonesia: Rapid Assistive Technology Assessment (rATA) survey results

CAREW, Mark
WALKER, Julian
OSSUL-VERMEHREN, Ignacia
BARTLETT DEVELOPMENT PLANNING
January 2022

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It is estimated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that 15% of the world's population has a disability and one billion people need one or more Assistive Products (AP) but as little as one in ten have access to the device they need. There is however very little data to define this need for AP in low-resource settings. 

To contribute to the knowledge gap, the findings from the surveys presented in this report give a unique insight into disability prevalence and access to AT in five urban low-income communities in Sierra Leone and Indonesia, where a total of 4,256 individuals were surveyed using the rATA tool.

The rATA tool is designed for the rapid evaluation of the need, use, supply and impact of AT, Rapid Assistive Technology Assessment (rATA) is a new survey from WHO. A version modified by the Development Planning Unit-University College London (DPUUCL) was conducted in September 2019 for the research project “AT2030 community led solutions”, as part of the AT2030 programme led by Global Disability Innovation Hub.

Study on the evolution of the Children and Armed Conflict mandate 1996-2021

GAMBA, Virginia
January 2022

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This is the first study that comprehensively analyses the challenges, opportunities, and successes in delivering the United Nations children and armed conflict mandate since its inception in 1996. The study presents a short evolution of a unique United Nations instrument that was initially mandated by the General Assembly and subsequently enhanced through 13 Security Council resolutions. Understanding the way in which the mandate grew and how it has been implemented over the years will hopefully assist Member States and the public at large to renew their commitment to the protection of children in armed conflict and the prevention of grave violations. This study explores three time periods in the delivery of the mandate. Moreover, the study explores, among other issues, the background on the establishment of the mandate, its evolution over the past 25 years and the reflections generated by this experience, including through an analysis of the trends of grave violations against children, the modalities in monitoring and reporting and in pursuing engagement with listed and non-listed parties, the efforts made in prevention and the importance of partnerships. When possible, the study also brings to life the experiences of child survivors and child protection experts on the ground, who, after all, are the backbone of the mandate. Lastly, the study attempts to highlight some collective recommendations in the form of a way forward to illuminate the next 25 years in the pursuit of better protection of children in situations of armed conflict worldwide

Estimating need and coverage for five priority assistive products: a systematic review of global population-based research

DANEMAYER, Jamie
BOGGS, Dorothy
DELGADO RAMOS, Vinicius
SMITH, Emma M
KULAR, Ariana
BHOT, William
RAMOS-BARAJAS, Felipe
POLACK, Sarah
HOLLOWAY, Catherine
January 2022

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Assistive technology (AT) includes assistive products (APs) and related services that can improve health and well-being, enable increased independence and foster participation for people with functional difficulties, including older adults and people with impairments or chronic health conditions. This paper uses the umbrella term ‘functional difficulty’ (FD) to refer to all of these groups. This systematic review was undertaken to identify studies presenting population-based estimates of need and coverage for five APs (hearing aids, limb prostheses, wheelchairs, glasses and personal digital assistants) grouped by four functional domains (hearing, mobility, vision and cognition).

 

BMJ Glob Health. 2022; 7(1): e007662

doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2021-007662

Translating disability-inclusive WASH policies into practice: lessons from Cambodia and Bangladesh: Study details and reports

LONDON SCHOOL OF HYGIENE AND TROPICAL MEDICINE (LSHTM)
WILBUR, Jane
2022

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This is a collaborative study between the LSHTM and WaterAid, funded by the Australian Government’s Water for Women Fund. It aims to improve disability-inclusive WASH policymaking in low and middle-income countries through policy and practice guidance for governments wishing to mainstream disability-inclusive WASH at scale. Using Cambodia and Bangladesh as case studies, we answered these research questions:

  • How do Cambodia and Bangladesh’s national WASH policy and guidance incorporate disability?
  • To what extent do sub-national government officials and service providers implement these commitments to disability inclusion?
  • How does this implementation impact the WASH experiences of people with disabilities and their caregivers?

Resources available

This poster gives an overview of the study.

We conducted a policy analysis of Cambodia and Bangladesh’s WASH policies and guidance documents to explore the inclusion of disability. We published a journal article and an accessible briefing note that summarised the article.

We carried out qualitative research in Cambodia and Bangladesh that explored the implementation of commitments to disability inclusion in national policies at the sub-national level. This journal article captures our research in Cambodia, which is summarised in this briefing note. We worked with Epic Arts (an inclusive arts organisation based in Cambodia that uses art to empower and bring people with disabilities together) to develop a performance and two short films about the findings related to 'independence' and 'caregivers'. 

We wrote a research report capturing findings from Bangladesh, which is supplemented by this poster.      

We produced the Disability-Inclusive WASH Checklist for government officials and service providers to support the meaningful inclusion of people with disabilities and caregivers in national policies, guidance documents, and interventions. The Disability-Inclusive WASH Checklist is based on our study findings and co-developed recommendations. Three films introduce the checklist, give an overview of it and show how to complete it. Each film has transcripts (film 1, film 2, film 3).    

Finally, we wrote a Learning Brief, Foundations of success: driving change through successful research collaborations. This brief documents the process the Principal Investigator followed to support and mentor the research team in Cambodia remotely. The Brief captures the strengths and limitations of approaches and learning gained. It includes recommendations for organisations that remotely support non-academics to conduct ethical research in low-and middle-income countries.

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