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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. 

Improving social inclusion and empowerment for people with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries: why does it matter and what works?

WHITE, Howard
SARAN, Ashrita
POLLOCK, Sarah
KUPER, Hannah
July 2018

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The aim of the Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) is to provide an assessment of the effectiveness of interventions to improve social inclusion and empowerment for people with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The studies included in this REA are taken from the Disability EGM prepared by the Campbell Collaboration for DFID under the auspices of the Centre for Excellence for Development Impact and Learning (CEDIL). Eligible studies included systematic reviews and impact evaluations published in English from 2000 onwards that assessed the effectiveness of interventions for people with disabilities in LMICs. The REA focused on studies identified by the EGM process that included ‘social inclusion’ or ‘empowerment’ as study outcomes and used the World Health Organization CBR matrix as a framework to categorise the different interventions and outcomes considered by the studies available. Evidence limitations and gaps were identified. 

There were 16 eligible primary studies, including studies conducted in 12 countries: Bangladesh (two studies), Brazil, Chile, China (two studies), Ethiopia, India (three studies), Kenya (two studies), Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, and Vietnam (two studies). Five of the studies concern interventions for people with physical or sensory impairments, nine for people with mental health or neurological conditions, and two for all disability types.

Gender equality reduces poverty

APUK, Hiljmnijeta
November 2015

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In this video Hiljmnijeta Apuk, Laureate of the UN Prize in the field of disability, discusses the volunteer work that lead her to her current success. The video presents Hiljmnijeta’s story, serving to increase awareness about the abilities of women with disabilities to act as global leaders in activism and campaigns within the disability movement

Disability and development GSDRC professional development

COBLEY, David
October 2015

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The reading pack highlights the importance of mainstreaming disability as a cross-cutting issue. Progress has been made since the post-2015 development framework especially in the legislation and in politics. However, in order to go further, “society itself needs to be radically reshaped (…) By mainstreaming disability into all areas of development assistance, general poverty and exclusion issues can be addressed in a way that does not leave out disabled people”

 

Disability and Development. GSDRC Professional Development Reading Pack no. 23

Empowerment in Community-based Rehabilitation and Disability-inclusive Development

KUIPERS, P
2014

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Purpose: This paper seeks to contribute to discussion on the understanding and measurement of empowerment of people with disabilities in developing countries. A novel, text analysis approach was used to depict the way in which empowerment is characterised in conventional measures in Western settings. This was then compared with depictions and analyses of the way in which empowerment is characterised in documents that have more relevance to developing countries.

 

Method: First, computer-based content and concept analysis was applied to three key empowerment measures. This was compared with analysis of responses to a recent online survey of empowerment conducted by the United NationsDepartment of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA). Visual representations in the form of “word clouds” were generated to depict key concepts within each data source. Second, to provide specific detail regarding how empowerment has been described in documents which relate to developing countries, more detailed computer-assisted lexical analysis was performed on the text of responses to the UN-DESA survey, and on the text of the Empowerment component of the CBR Guidelines.

 

Results: Initial “word clouds” illustrated considerable discrepancy between concepts inherent in the three most relevant empowerment measures when compared with responses to the UN-DESA survey relating to empowerment in a development context. Subsequent lexical analysis depicted greater specificity and ranked the concepts associated with empowerment in key disability and development-related documents.

 

Conclusions: Conventional Western measures of individual empowerment may not adequately encompass the broader social, economic and community orientation of empowerment as described in documents from disability and development circles. Further research is required to substantiate these novel and speculative indications.

Facilitating disability inclusion in poverty reduction processes: Group consensus perspectives from disability stakeholders in Uganda, Malawi, Ethiopia, and Sierra Leone

MACLACHLAN, Malcolm
MJI, Gubela
CHATAIKA, Tsitsi
WAZAKILI, Margaret
DUBE, Andrew K
MULUMBA, Moses
MASSAH, Boniface
WAKENE, Dagnachew
KALLON, Frank
MAUGHAN, Marcella
2014

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This paper addresses the challenge of how to get disability on the development agenda in four African countries. We explored perceptions of what initiatives would most help in achieving disability inclusion in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), and identified factors that can either promote or hinder these initiatives. Stakeholders from Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs), other civil society organisations (CSOs), development agencies, researchers and government ministries, participated in the Nominal Group Technique and Force Field Analysis procedures across Malawi, Ethiopia, Uganda and Sierra Leone. While each country had specific contextual factors, common ideas for promoting greater disability inclusion in PRSPs focused on policy action, the need for a stronger evidence-base, mechanisms for directly influencing the PRSP process, as well as strengthening central government and DPOs’ capacity in this regard. Common facilitators for these actions were seen as the existence of a national disability umbrella body, disability-specific legislation, named Ministries for Disability, ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), and the fact that disability was already mentioned (albeit inadequately) in some PRSPs. Common inhibitors included negative attitudes towards disability, poor capacity in DPOs and government ministries, poor policy implementation, little ‘domestication’ of the UNCRPD, little political will or consultation with people with disabilities, as well as aggregating disability with other vulnerable groups, a lack of research in the area and poor coordination between DPOs.

 

Disability and the Global South (DGS), 2014, Vol. 1 No. 1

Giving voice to the voiceless : a communicating for advocacy publication

September 2007

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Using a rights-based approach, this project sought to develop the capacity of poor and marginalised groups in South and South-East Asia both to influence practice and policy, and for information exchange and skills transfer by health and development agencies. The project focused on four main themes: training, advocacy, communication and networking, and the lessons learned from it are set out in the report

The disability archive UK

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The aim of the Disability Archive UK is to provide access to the writings of those disability activists, writers and allies whose work may no longer be easily accessible in the public domain, to help inform current and future debates on disability and related issues

EuRADE : European research agendas for disability equality

EUROPEAN DISABILITY FORUM

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This website provides information about the project European Research Agendas for Disability Equality (EuRADE). It outlines the project, provides updated news and events, and contains links to related resources. The aim of the project is to increase and enhance the full participation of disabled people's organisations (DPOs) as equal and active partners in future research initiatives. This website is useful for researchers and organisations interested in DPO involvement in Europe

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