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The Feeding and Disability Resource Bank, compiled by USAID Advancing Nutrition, is a repository of materials that help nutrition and disability program managers, government leaders, and donor agency staff design and implement effective nutrition programs for children with disabilities. According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), children with disabilities can be defined as those who have, “long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments, and who may experience barriers that may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.”

An estimated 21 million children with disabilities live in the Middle East and North Africa. Each of them – like every child in the world – has the right to be nurtured and supported through responsive care and education, to receive adequate nutrition and social protection, and to enjoy play and leisure time. Too often, however, such rights are denied. The reasons vary. They include stigma, lack of accessible services, institutionalization and physical barriers, but the consequences are sadly consistent. When marginalized from society, the chances for these children to survive and thrive are diminished, along with their prospects for a bright future.

Monitoring the inclusion of children with disabilities in development efforts has long been held back by the lack of reliable and comprehensive data. Recent years, however, have seen renewed efforts to fill these data gaps. The development of new data collection tools has resulted in a substantial increase in the availability and quality of data on children with disabilities, fostering new analyses and contributing to increased knowledge generation.

This report is a testament to these efforts. It includes internationally comparable data from four countries in the Middle East and North Africa and covers 18 indicators of child well-being – from nutrition, health and education to protection from violence, exploitation and discrimination. It also presents global and regional estimates of children with disabilities drawn from more than 1,000 data sources, including 95 from countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

The report’s objective is to promote the use of these data to make children with disabilities in the region more visible, bringing about a fuller understanding of their life experiences. It offers evidence crucial to decision-making to fulfill obligations, both moral and legal, to give every child an equal chance in life.

Prepared by the Global Disability Innovation Hub and partners for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

This case study, funded through UK aid AT2030 programme, explores the current situation of inclusive and accessible environments for people with disabilities living in Nairobi. The research findings detailed in this report describe the current challenges and opportunities for embedding inclusive design in Nairobi’s future, providing priority recommendations and forward-thinking next steps.

The research took place in three phases between July 2021 and January 2022, combining both virtual and face to face approaches. Phase 1 focused on understanding the current state of accessibility through desk research and interviews, phase 2 captured the lived experience of people with disabilities utilising interviews, photo diaries and co-design activities. Phase 3 then synthesised findings, running multiple workshops to create actions towards inclusive environments. Thematic analysis was applied to understand the research data, identifying key themes across three different stakeholder groups of People, Policy, and Practice.

The themes identified span across daily life, poverty, transport, housing, sanitation, public spaces and recreational activities. Quotes from participants are interwoven into this report, and strengthen the concluding actions towards inclusion.

A technical paper on implementing Article 27 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The paper draws on an extensive range of primary and secondary data, generated within the Inclusive Futures consortium. Data include focus group discussions with organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) in Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria, as well as key informant interviews conducted with Inclusion Works partners and stakeholders from each of the countries. In addition, the report and the recommendations were enriched by the Learning and Exchange Workshop on Access to Employment and Inclusive Programming in May 2022 in Nairobi, Kenya, jointly organized by IDA, Inclusive Futures consortium, the African Disability Forum and United Disabled Persons of Kenya.

This brief focuses on the use of social behaviour change (SBC) in the Inclusive Futures programme. It includes an introduction to social behaviour change, followed by three examples of how it is being used in our Inclusive Futures work. These examples reflect emerging findings and our approaches as we go forward. The brief is designed to:
•Explain what SBC is and what it can be useful for – particularly when addressing disability stigma and discrimination
•Present examples of how SBC can be used in different ways to support disability inclusion in development programmes

Owing to increased inclusion of young people with disabilities into the private sector in Bangladesh and Kenya, there is an urgent need to find alternative ways to support young graduates with a disability in the workplace with assistive technology solutions. The aim of the paper is to identify barriers for private workplace sectors to use assistive technology to support young graduates seeking, maintaining and retaining employment. This qualitative study adopted the research onion design of Saunders et al. Data were collected usinginterviews and focus group discussions and analysed using thematic analysis. The findings reveal that barriers are linked to seven key person-centred capability themes: the dream, external factors, internal factors, assistive technology vision,strategic design priorities and gaps and assistive actions.

Journal of International Development, Volume 34, No. 5

The Listen Include Respect guidelines help organisations understand what they need to do to make sure people with intellectual disabilities are included in their work.

​They were written by Inclusion International and Down Syndrome International.

Over 1,500 people with intellectual disabilities and their families from almost 100 countries helped write them.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) tells us that all people with disabilities have the right to “meaningful participation.”

“Meaningful participation” is what happens when people with intellectual disabilities get everything they need to be fully included, participate equally, and feel valued.

These guidelines will help organisations to make this happen.

The rapid growth that occurs in the first years of life provides an opportunity to influence and improve developmental outcomes that may impact the entire course of an individual's life. Addressing the developmental needs of children with disabilities during this critical period is essential if they are to survive, flourish, learn, and be empowered (WHO, n.d.). 

Recognizing the importance of addressing all children's unique needs and acknowledging the influence of social stigma and misconceptions about disability that may lead to underdeveloped potential and social exclusion, we seek to advocate for and support the inclusion of young children with disabilities in Early Childhood Development in Emergencies programming. 

The webinar was moderated by Rosangela Berman Bieler, UNICEF’s Global Advisor on Disability, and included presentations on foundational concepts for disabilities-inclusive programming, and alternatives to address young children with disabilities needs in a resourceful, creative manner. 

This article is about the barriers to inclusive employment that people with intellectual disabilities and families face in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and Bangladesh.

Through the Inclusion Works Project, we worked with our members in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and Bangladesh to talk with self-advocates and family members about employment.

We had 3 consultation meetings with self-advocates and 3 consultation meetings with families – we talked to 54 self-advocates and 45 family members about access to inclusive employment in their countries.

Some of the barriers that they told us about were discrimination from employers, lack of access to education, unfair pay, issues with safety and security at work, and being pressured to choose self-employment.

This article explains some of the issues accessing inclusive employment that people with intellectual disabilities and their families told us they face in low- and middle-income countries.

The article also gives recommendations for how organisations doing work on inclusive employment can work towards addressing some of these barriers and being more inclusive.

 Journal of International Development, Volume 34, Issue 5