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Disability and food security: Central African Republic - Findings from the 2020 ENSA disaggregated by disability

WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME
August 2021

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The 2020 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) showed efforts to integrate disability inclusion. However, a lack of data on persons with disabilities, their needs, and the barriers they face impacts the ability of humanitarian responders to plan, deliver and evaluate inclusive activities. In 2020, data collected by Humanity & Inclusion showed that 87% of persons with disabilities reported difficulties accessing NFI distributions, food, and cash.

 

The December 2020 Enquête Nationale sur l’agriculture at la Sécurité Alimentaire (ENSA) was disaggregated by disability, to improve WFP’s understanding of food security needs for this group. Data were collected through integration of the Washington Group Short Set of Questions (WGQ-SS)1 . The WGQ-SS were asked directly to the respondent and recorded a maximum of one other, positively identified household member. 

 

Of 6,410 households surveyed, 10.1% of households reported at least one member with a disability

Disability inclusive health, WASH and livelihoods in the COVID-19 response - Thematic guidance notes

AUSTRALIAN HUMANITARIAN PARTNERSHIP (AHP)
September 2020

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Practical guidance has been developed for disability inclusion within the priority sectors of Health, WASH, and Livelihoods and Food Security. This guidance has been developed to inform the AHP Disaster READY program and COVID-19 humanitarian response efforts, and contribute to sectoral understanding of inclusive humanitarian response and disaster preparedness.

Aid out of reach: A review of the access to humanitarian aid for women and men, girls and boys with disabilities affected by Cyclone Idai, Mozambique

BAART, Judith
WESTER, Mirian
2019

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The objective of this study is to generate empirical evidence on the barriers to accessing aid for women and men, girls and boys with disabilities in a post-Cyclone Idai context. By doing so, it also seeks to contribute to policy development for an inclusive humanitarian response in Mozambique

The research followed a qualitative design, using interviews and focus group discussions followed by inductive analysis to reveal dominant themes and stories. Data was collected in 30 in-depth interviews with women and men, girls and boys with disabilities and/or caregivers in communities (Beira), as well as in resettlement sites (Dondo).

The intersection of disability and food security: Perspectives of health and humanitarian aid workers

QUARMBY, Candice A.
PILLAY, Mershen
2018

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Background: Most people with disabilities the world over can be found in the Majority (or ‘economically developing’) World. This is also where most of the world’s hungry and malnourished are found. We argue that the intersectionality between disability and nutrition may best be understood through a food security framework, and we position all people living with disability, including those experiencing feeding and swallowing disabilities, as at risk for food insecurity, especially those living in humanitarian emergency contexts.

 

Objectives: This study aimed to explore and describe the knowledge and experience of humanitarian aid workers (HAWs) and health care professionals (HCPs) in food assistance contexts with regard to the nutrition and food security of people living with disabilities.

 

Method: In this exploratory, descriptive study, 16 participants with experience in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia participated in an online survey. Three survey participants with extensive experience were also interviewed. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics and thematic content analysis.

 

Results: Results revealed that participants had generally low levels of exposure to and experience with disability, including swallowing and feeding disorders.

 

Conclusions: Reduced knowledge of HAWs and HCPs regarding disability and the lack of professionals such as speech–language therapists, who manage disability-specific issues such as feeding and swallowing disorders, may affect the food security of people living with disabilities in food assistance contexts.

How disability studies and ecofeminist approaches shape research: exploring small-scale farmer perceptions of banana cultivation in the Lake Victoria region, Uganda

LEADBEATER, Bridget
2015

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This paper explores the complex intersections of race, gender and disability, whilst offering a critical reflection on how disability studies discourse and ecofeminist approaches together elucidate a subjectivity that is unique, distinct and influential in generating participatory action research knowledge. Reflection and insights are based on empirical work with small-scale farmers (mainly women) in the central region of Uganda carried out for a PhD study. The study aimed to illuminate the broad and complex livelihood experiences of domestic banana (staple crop) cultivators and their perceptions of bio-technological intervention in the form of banana tissue culture (TC) and the associated processes. Subjectivity between the researcher and respondents is a two-way process. As a researcher who is disabled woman using a wheelchair, working in the field required much adaptation physically and mentally. Equally, my disability shaped respondents’ perceptions of me as a person, a researcher as well as their responses. In fact, arguably, my disability facilitated unusual circumstances and opened up doors to sensitive questions, personal accounts and a mutual rapport between the farmers and myself. The influence of the disabled research subject fostered exceptional conditions to propagate inclusive investigative methods to represent ‘the lived experience’ of the farmer in a procedure not often applied in agricultural research.

 

Disability and the Global South (DGS), 2015, Vol. 2 No. 3

Disability & the Global South (DGS), 2015, Vol. 2 No. 3

2015

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Articles include:

  • Typhoon Haiyan One Year On: Disability, Poverty and Participation in the Philippines
  • Beneath the rhetoric: Policy to reduce the mental health treatment gap in Africa
  • Working within the tensions of disability and education in post-colonial Kenya: Toward a praxis of critical disability studies
  • How disability studies and ecofeminist approaches shape research: exploring small-scale farmer perceptions of banana cultivation in the Lake Victoria region, Uganda
  • Partnerships for Disability Research in Africa: Lessons Learned in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • Representation, Access and Contestation: Facebook and Vision Impairment in Jordan, India, and Peru

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