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Persons with disabilities and climate change in Nepal: Humanitarian impacts and pathways for inclusive climate action

Jennifer M'Vouama, Humanity & Inclusion (HI)
Mosharraf Hossain, Team Leader, Global Inclusion Consulting Ltd
Sukharanjan Sutter, IRG Development Services Limited
Mahesh Ghimire, local consultant, Nepal
August 2023

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Climate change is affecting every region on Earth and already causing irreversible impacts. While it is a global phenomenon, its negative impacts are felt more intensely by poorer countries and poor communities heavily reliant on natural resources and lacking coping and adaptive capacities to deal with a changing climate. Within those poor communities and countries, persons with disabilities are often amongst the most marginalized people. They experience attitudinal, physical and communication barriers that undermine their access to services and opportunities supporting their well-being and resilience. For this reason, they tend to be disproportionately vulnerable to climate impacts, including more frequent and intense disasters, as those exacerbate pre-existing vulnerabilities. Yet, while it is acknowledged that climate change will exacerbate inequity should we fail to ensure inclusive and participatory decision-making processes in climate governance, disability inclusion in climate action largely remains marginally addressed. Persons with disabilities have been historically left out of climate responses at various levels, from local and national country plans to global negotiations occurring at the UN Conferences of the Parties1 (COP).


Nepal is experiencing an increasing number of climate-related disasters, with a global study ranking it as the fourth worst hit country in the world by weather-related loss events in 20172. Urban floods, landslides, extreme heat, storms, drought, and wildfires are very common climate disasters affecting communities across the country, especially rural populations and their natural resource-dependent livelihoods. Nepal’s vulnerability to climate change lies in its varied topography marked by steep terrain and remoteness, its diverse geo-climatic system and social vulnerability, exacerbated by challenges to deliver effective and comprehensive disaster risk reduction and management strategies. To address this serious threat to economic development and prosperity, Nepal has put in place a rich overarching climate change policy framework early on, encompassing dedicated policies and plans, as well as sectoral planning processes integrating climate resilience. Nepal has also established various leadership, coordination, and stakeholder engagement mechanisms to guide climate change policymaking, articulate implementation across the government’s three-tier federal structure, and ensure dialogue with key stakeholders including civil society actors.

Endorsed in 2011, Nepal’s Framework on Local Adaptation Plans for Action (LAPA) is a particularly praised initiative, promoting a bottom-up, inclusive, and flexible approach for integrating climate adaptation and resilience aspects into local planning. This pioneering, community driven process, places the adaptation needs and opportunities of most vulnerable and highly vulnerable groups at the heart of the approach. Gender considerations factoring intersecting factors of marginalization such as age and ethnicity have been given priority in these processes, to address women’s increasing economic insecurity and workload due to climate change. But inclusion of women with disabilities, or persons with disabilities in general in local adaptation planning has not been strongly evidenced to date.


According to Nepal Census 2022, 2.2% of the Nepali Population have some form of disability, mainly a physical disability. However, other sources estimate this figure to be much higher. Nepal ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2008 and passed the Disability Rights Act in 2017, establishing constitutional directives to support persons with disabilities and making it illegal to discriminate based on disability. Yet, perception of persons with disability in Nepal remains generally negative, due to persistent and deep-rooted Hindu religious beliefs associating disability with sinning in a previous life. Women and girls with disability face greater marginalization and discrimination and tend to be hidden away by families. Nepal’s caste system also plays a role in shaping the vulnerability of persons with disabilities. Thus, widespread stigma compounded by the intersectionality of certain factors, combined with structural inaccessibility, create significant barriers to have equal access to resources and participate in decision-making. This tends to translate into poor socio-economic status, poor health outcomes, and no or low education levels, especially among women and girls. Persons with disabilities in Nepal can register under social welfare to access several disability-targeted benefit packages, including a Disability Grant. However, the process tends to be paved with barriers, leading to high exclusion rates.
It is in this context that HI sought to better understand the unique challenges and opportunities for persons with disabilities in the face of climate change in Nepal. This report is intended to inform how persons with disabilities understand and perceive climate change, what is their experience of dealing with climate extremes, what is the impact on their health, livelihoods and support system, and their actual level of inclusion in climate adaptation planning. To capture those perspectives, HI surveyed 388 persons with disabilities across Nepal’s 7 provinces, consulted 20 key informants from the disability movement, government institutions, and the aid sector, and conducted 8 targeted focus group discussions to hear from women, youth, and persons representing diverse disability types. This report is a contribution to the growing evidence base documenting the disproportionate impacts of climate change on persons with disabilities and calling for disability-inclusive climate action at all levels of governance.

Strengthening rehabilitation in health emergency preparedness, readiness, response and resilience: policy brief

Pete Skelton
et al
July 2023

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Strengthening rehabilitation in health emergency preparedness, response, and resilience: policy brief outlines the evidence for rehabilitation in emergencies and the need for greater preparedness of rehabilitation services. It shows how existing guidelines support the integration of rehabilitation in emergencies and sets out the steps that decision-makers can take to better integrate rehabilitation into health emergency preparedness and response.

Case studies are provided from Japan, Nepal, Phillipines, Australian and Sweden

Mainstreaming Disability Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction (DIDDR) in Community Based Inclusive Development: A Situation Analysis

GRECH, Shaun
July 2023

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Two publications, developed with the University of Cape Town, aim to provide development practitioners and organisations with the tools they need to ensure that a disability inclusive approach to disaster risk reduction can be integrated into all community development programmes.

A situation analysis reviews the situation and outlines the extent to which DIDRR is infused within CBID. The study points out the barriers in place and highlights the opportunities available to facilitate the process of mainstreaming DIDRR, which means building DIDRR into the core of community development programmes as opposed to these disciplines operating in separate spheres. This mainstreaming will not only ensure greater preparedness for disasters, but also protection of the gains made in community development programmes.

A major outcome of this study is a new set of guidelines for practice on the mainstreaming of DIDRR in community development: Mainstreaming DIDRR in CBID – Guidance for Planning and Practice

Mainstreaming Disability Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction (DIDRR) in Community Development: Guidance for Planning and Practice.

GRECH, Shaun
July 2023

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Two new publications, developed with the University of Cape Town, aim to provide development practitioners and organisations with the tools they need to ensure that a disability inclusive approach to disaster risk reduction can be integrated into all community development programmes. A situation analysis reviews the situation and outlines the extent to which DIDRR is infused within CBID. 

A major outcome of this study is a new set of guidelines for practice on the mainstreaming of DIDRR in community development: Mainstreaming DIDRR in CBID – Guidance for Planning and Practice. In twenty action points, the guide provides pointers for practitioners on how community-based initiatives can become more informed about disasters and start mainstreaming DIDRR. It aims to stimulate reflection at multiple stages, from project planning to implementation and monitoring, to ensure DIDRR becomes an integral part of community-based programmes, in an effective, sensitive and responsive way.

The guidelines are available to download either as one document or as 20 separate action points.

 

 

 

A disability inclusive response to COVID-19 - four lessons learned about including people with disabilities in humanitarian aid

MORRIS, Lisa
ELLIOTT, Chris
PIERI, Susan
September 2021

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Inclusive Futures played a crucial role in supporting some of the most marginalised people with disabilities in Bangladesh, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, and Tanzania during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper summarises what we learned and it can be used to include people with disabilities in future programming, particularly in contexts at risk of crisis.

A Global Agenda for Inclusive Recovery: Ensuring People with Intellectual Disabilities and Families are Included in a Post-COVID World

Inclusion International
June 2021

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This report documents the experience of exclusion of people with intellectual disabilities and their families during the COVID-19 pandemic. These experiences reveal pre-existing structural inequalities that affected the lives of people with intellectual disabilities and their families before COVID-19, during the pandemic, and beyond, and this report raises up the voices of those most excluded in a time of global crisis and demands an inclusive COVID-19 recovery.

 

This report includes the experiences of people with intellectual disabilities and families across eight different issue areas. Across these themes, we examined how and why people with intellectual disabilities were left out and excluded in pandemic responses, what pre-existing conditions and inequalities contributed to their vulnerability and exclusion, and how future policy structures could begin to address both this immediate and systemic exclusion.

 

Together, these experiences and policy solutions form our global agenda for inclusive COVID-19 recovery, an action plan to ensure that government efforts to ‘build back better’ are inclusive of people with intellectual disabilities and their families.

Taking a Disability-Inclusive Approach to Pandemic Responses

WICKENDEN, Mary
THOMPSON, Stephen
ROHWERDER, Brigitte
SHAW, Jackie
2021

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The Covid-19 pandemic has affected communities globally, yet the impact has not been equal. People with disabilities were already often living with severe disadvantage and marginalisation and, as predicted by many disability-focused agencies, Covid-19 has exacerbated these inequalities. Emerging evidence from Inclusive Futures, a UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)-funded programme, highlights the catastrophic emotional and material impacts on people with disabilities in Nepal and Bangladesh. To respond to and plan for future crises, decision makers should consult inclusively with both organisations of people with disabilities (OPDs) and people with disabilities themselves.
 

‘Because of COVID, Everything is a Mess’ How Have People with Disabilities Experienced the Pandemic in Nepal and Bangladesh?

ROHWERDER, Brigitte
THOMPSON, Stephen
SHAW, Jackie
WICKENDEN, Mary
KAYASTHA, Shubha
SIGDEL, Anita
AKTER, Fatema
BOSRI, Rabia
March 2021

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COVID-19 is deepening pre-existing inequalities. Emerging research suggests that people with disabilities across the world have experienced various rights violations and been disproportionality affected by the health, economic and social impacts of the pandemic and responses to it. The aim of this research was to better understand how people with disabilities who are often excluded from research have experienced the evolving COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh and Nepal. In order to better understand how it has affected some of the most marginalised groups of people with disabilities, this study used in-depth qualitative research to focus on people with intellectual, psychosocial, deafblindness and other multiple impairments.

 

আমরা বাংলাদেশে (20 জন লোক) এবং নেপালে (15 জন লোক) বসবাসরত 35টি ডিজেবলড লোকদেরকে কোভিড-19 প্রাদুর্ভাব চলাকালীন সময়ে তাদের জীবন সম্পর্কে জিজ্ঞাসা করেছি। তাদের মধ্যে বধিরতা, নেত্রহীনতা, বৌদ্ধিক ডিজেবিলিটি এবং মানসিক ডিজেবিলিটি’র মতন বিভিন্ন ধরণের ডিজেবিলিটি রয়েছে। তাদেরকে জিজ্ঞাসা করার প্রধান কারণ হল যে প্রায়শই তাদেরকে তাদের জীবন সম্পর্কে কিছুই জিজ্ঞাসা করা হয় না। আমরা ডিজেবলড বাচ্চাদের বাবা-মাদেরকেও তাদের অভিজ্ঞতা সম্পর্কে জিজ্ঞাসা করেছি।

 

हामीले बङ्गलादेश (20 जना मानिस) र नेपाल (15 जना मानिस) मा अपाङ्गता भएका 35 जना व्यक्तिलाई कोभिड-19 को प्रकोपको समयमा आफ्नो जीवन बारे हामीलाई बताउन अनुरोध गर्‍यौं। उहाँहरूलाई वणदृष्टिविहीन, बौद्धिक अपाङ्गता र मनोसामाजिक अपाङ्गता जस्ता विभिन्न अपाङ्गता थिए। उहाँहरूलाई प्रायः आफ्नो जीवन बारे नसोधिने भएकोले हामी उहाँहरूलाई सोध्न चाहन्थ्यौं। हामीले अपाङ्गता भएका बालबालिकाका आमाबुवाहरूलाई पनि सोध्यौं।

SDG-CRPD Resource Package

OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES (OHCHR)
December 2020

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OHCHR developed a package of resources to support realizing the Sustainable Development Goals for persons with disabilities. These include resources on policymaking (Policy Guidelines for Inclusive SDGs; Training Materials and Videos) and resources on monitoring (Human Rights Indicators on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and a Data Sources Guidance).

 

SDGs:

The Policy Guidelines on inclusive Sustainable Development Goals set out the main actions that should be used to develop policies to achieve the goals for persons with disabilities. Training Materials complementing the guidelines include tools to develop in-person and online trainings. The videos mirror the guidelines and can be used for training and awareness-raising activities.

 

There are Policy Guidelines, Training Materials and Videos for SDG goals 10, 16, 17, 1, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 11. There are thematic briefs for SDG goals 2, 6, 13, 8, 11, 9 and 17.

 

CRPD:

Presented article by article, the indicators are key to facilitating understanding and implementation of the Convention’s provisions. They provide guidance on actions to measure implementation of the CRPD and to track progress over time. Data sources guidance mirrors the human rights indicators and provides examples of different sources of data to inform the outcome indicators.

 

There are indicators and data sources guidance for articles: 1-4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 17, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33.

Excluded from the Excluded: People with Intellectual Disabilities in (and out of) Official Development Assistance

Inclusion International
2020

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This report from Inclusion International analyzes data available through the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC)’s Creditor Reporting System (CRS), which reveals that mainstream development projects fail to include people with intellectual disabilities, and in many cases use project methodologies that promote segregation and other human rights violations.

 

Analysis of ODA data from 2014 to 2018 found that 99.98% of ODA funding did not include people with intellectual disabilities, that 36% of the ODA projects that did include people with intellectual disabilities were not CRPD-compliant, and that only 2% of aid relevant to people with intellectual disabilities and their families was delivered through OPDs.

 

This report urges action from donors to ensure that the commitment to disability-inclusive development under Article 32 of the CRPD is also fulfilled for people with intellectual disabilities, and sets out recommendations for funders to ensure CRPD-compliance and inclusion in the projects they support.

Funding ≠ Inclusion: Segregation and CRPD Non-Compliance in Official Development Assistance

Inclusion International
November 2020

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This two-page summary resource compiles key data on the CRPD-compliance of Official Development Assistance (ODA)-funded programmes. This analysis was originally published in Inclusion International's 2020 report, Excluded from the Excluded, which revealed that 36% of projects that included people with intellectual disabilities in 2018 used methodologies that promoted segregation.

 

This summary resource profiles key data on the CRPD compliance of ODA-funded programme methodologies by thematic area - including livelihoods, education, emergency response, and service provision programmes. The summary resource also shares key recommendations for organizations implementing programmes to ensure CRPD-compliance.

Bridge CRPD-SDGs global training on Article 11

FLEURY, Tchaurea
UJAH, Sulayman AbdulMumuni
October 2020

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The IDA-IDDC Bridge CRPD-SDGs Global Training on Article 11 was the first-ever global training initiative on Article 11 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) to bring together Disabled Persons’ Organisations (DPOs) and humanitarian representatives. An outline of the eight day event is given and lessons learnt are reported.

The impact of COVID-19 on disabled people in Northern Ireland

FITZSIMONS, Sean
O'NEILL, Emma
CRAWFORD, Alison
September 2020

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Key findings and recommendations are reported from an online survey published in April 2020 to gather the experiences of disabled people, their families and carers during the COVID-19 outbreak in Northern Ireland. The survey went live on April 1st 2020 and closed on April 30th 2020.  Over 400 survey responses were received, including over 1300 written statements. 

Key findings are reported in the areas of: social care; physical health; mental health and emotional wellbeing; carers; accessing food and medicine; accessing information; employment and training; social security benefits and community support

Gap Analysis: the inclusion of people with disability and older people in humanitarian response

ROBINSON, Alex
MARELLA, Manjula
LOGAM, Lana
July 2020

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To build the evidence base on inclusion, and inform our priorities for innovation, the Elrha Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF) commissioned a Gap Analysis on the Inclusion of People with Disability and Older People in Humanitarian Response. This is the first of two reports from the Gap Analysis and summarises findings from the literature review components of this work. The Gap Analysis has been led by the Nossal Institute for Global Health at the University of Melbourne. The Nossal Institute team was supported by Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund’s Office for Indonesia and the Philippines (ASB) in the review of grey literature.  This report begins by outlining the approach taken to the academic and grey literature reviews. This is followed by an overview of findings, which maps evidence from different sectors against thematic areas based on the Humanitarian Inclusion Standards for Older People and People with Disabilities (HIS).

 

Supplementary information is available as a separate accompanying annex. The annex includes a summary of each article identified in the review arranged by HIS and sector; graphs showing the distribution of articles, including by year, humanitarian context, and geographical region; and a list of guidelines on the inclusion of people with disability and older people in humanitarian response

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Amid COVID-19

UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS
Ministry of Social Development
Independent Commission for Human Rights
June 2020

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This document make specific recommendations on support and protection to be provided to persons with disabilities during the COVID-19 response, and to ensure that appropriate measures are in place to maintain their active participation as well as to avoid discrimination at all levels against them

Disability Inclusive Development - Kenya Situational Analysis

ROHWERDER, Brigitte
June 2020

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This situational analysis (SITAN) addresses the question: “what is the current situation for persons with disabilities in Kenya?”. It has been prepared for the Disability Inclusive Development programme (which works on access to education, jobs, healthcare, and reduced stigma and discrimination for persons with disabilities in Bangladesh, Jordan, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, and Tanzania), to better understand the current context, including COVID-19, and available evidence in Kenya. It will be helpful for anyone interested in disability inclusion in Kenya, especially in relation to stigma, employment, education, health, and humanitarian issues. This SITAN has been briefly updated from the April 2019 SITAN.

Disability Inclusive Development - Nepal Situational Analysis

ROHWERDER, Brigitte
June 2020

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This situational analysis (SITAN) addresses the question: “what is the current situation for persons with disabilities in Nepal?”. It has been prepared for the Disability Inclusive Development programme (which works on access to education, jobs, healthcare, and reduced stigma and discrimination for persons with disabilities in Bangladesh, Jordan, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, and Tanzania), to better understand the current context, including COVID-19, and available evidence in Nepal. It will be helpful for anyone interested in disability inclusion in Nepal, especially in relation to stigma, employment, education, health, and humanitarian issues. This SITAN has been briefly updated from the April 2019 SITAN.

Disability Inclusive Development - Tanzania Situational Analysis

ROHWERDER, Brigitte
June 2020

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This situational analysis (SITAN) addresses the question: “what is the current situation for persons with disabilities in Tanzania?”. It has been prepared for the Disability Inclusive Development programme (which works on access to education, jobs, healthcare, and reduced stigma and discrimination for persons with disabilities in Bangladesh, Jordan, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, and Tanzania), to better understand the current context, including COVID-19, and available evidence in Tanzania. It will be helpful for anyone interested in disability inclusion in Tanzania, especially in relation to stigma, employment, education, health, and humanitarian issues. This SITAN has been briefly updated from the April 2019 SITAN.

Disability Inclusive Development - Jordan Situational Analysis

THOMPSON, Stephen
June 2020

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This situational analysis (SITAN) addresses the question: “what is the current situation for persons with disabilities in Jordan?”. It has been prepared for the Disability Inclusive Development programme (which works on access to education, jobs, healthcare, and reduced stigma and discrimination for persons with disabilities in Bangladesh, Jordan, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, and Tanzania), to better understand the current context, including COVID-19, and available evidence in Jordan. It will be helpful for anyone interested in disability inclusion in Jordan, especially in relation to stigma, employment, education, health, and humanitarian issues.

Disability Inclusive Development - Nigeria Situational Analysis

THOMPSON, Stephen
June 2020

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This situational analysis (SITAN) addresses the question: “what is the current situation for persons with disabilities in Nigeria?”. It has been prepared for the Disability Inclusive Development programme (which works on access to education, jobs, healthcare, and reduced stigma and discrimination for persons with disabilities in Bangladesh, Jordan, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, and Tanzania), to better understand the current context, including COVID-19, and available evidence in Nigeria. It will be helpful for anyone interested in disability inclusion in Nigeria, especially in relation to stigma, employment, education, health, and humanitarian issues.

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