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Evidence is emerging that persons with disabilities are being disproportionately affected by the Coronavirus pandemic and emergency measures being taken by governments worldwide. As governments rush to respond to the virus, it is more critical than ever to guarantee that measures taken are fully inclusive of persons with disabilities and prevent human rights violations from taking place.

With the endorsements of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Mr Dainius Pūras, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Ms Catalina Devandas Aguilar, a coalition of six disability rights organisations is today launching a major international monitoring initiative entitled “COVID-19 Disability Rights Monitor” to conduct rapid independent monitoring of state measures concerning persons with disabilities. The first element of this global initiative is the launch of two surveys requesting official information from governments and requesting the testimonies of persons with disabilities and their representative organisations. The surveys aim to collect information about what states are doing to protect core rights of persons with disabilities including the rights to life, access to health and essential services.

As part of the Department for International Development’s (DFID’s) Women’s Integrated Sexual Reproductive Health (WISH) programme, an evidence gap map (EGM) has been developed to map interventions on ‘what works’ to enable access to sexual reproductive health (SRH) services for persons with disabilities in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). EGMs are a user-friendly presentation of the available, relevant evidence for a particular sector, which is systematically gathered and mapped onto a framework, visually highlighting the gaps or concentration of evidence. This EGM aims to support WISH programming by consolidating evidence and identifying tools/approaches which could be brought into the programme. In addition, it aims to identify where evidence is weak and how the WISH programme can contribute to evidence generation.

This report provides a written accompaniment to the Evidence Gap Map (EGM) to explain the methodology, findings on the availability of evidence, and key recommendations. When scoping for this EGM, it was recognised early on that some of the best practices and interventions on ‘what works’ to support persons with disabilities access SRH services in LMICs are not always empirically tested. Therefore, a decision was made to develop an EGM which includes both peer-reviewed and grey literature. This approach diverges from the norm, as EGMs typically only include peer-reviewed literature.

Children with disabilities in Bangladesh have equal access to play, recreation and leisure, and sporting activities, including in the school system (contributing to enjoyment of article 30 5.d of UNCRPD).

Humanitarian organizations and donors have committed to change the way humanitarian action is carried out and create a “Participation Revolution.” In this webinar issues addressed included:

• inclusion of the people and communities affected by humanitarian crises in practice;
• how organizations are ensuring that the voices of the most vulnerable groups considering gender, age, ethnicity, language, and special needs are heard and acted upon;
• how program activities and budgets are designed to support the changes that affected people demand

In this webinar, organized on 26 March 2020 by PHAP and the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response, we took stock of the progress to date on workstream six of the Grand Bargain and heard success stories from the field that can help agencies achieve a sustained change in how they design and deliver their programs.

A full transcript is available. Webinar registrants were asked to provide what they thought, in their context, was the most important factor enabling participation in practice and what they thought was the most important factor preventing participation in practice. Answers are provided in an Annex.

In this blog, Rasak Adekoya (Programme Officer Inclusion Works, Sightsavers Nigeria) shares his career story, tells us about his role helping employers appreciate candidates and employees with disabilities, and what it’s like leading a film shoot as a blind person.

The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the UK government or members of the Inclusion Works consortium

The Agenda for Humanity sets out five major areas for action and change, the 5 Core Responsibilities, that are needed to address and reduce humanitarian need, risk and vulnerability, and 24 key transformations that will help achieve them.

This Gender Assessment Tool has been developed by ADD, based on existing good practice in the development sector, to support capacity building with DPOs in the following ways:

• To support discussion/ awareness raising of gender issues and practical action which can be taken to promote gender inclusion
• To analyse gender inclusion issues and practice within the organisation in a systematic way
• To identify specific areas for improvement on gender inclusion
• To identify CB support needed from ADD/other sources to address the issues raised
• To track progress on gender inclusion over time

NB: this tool replaces previous versions and has been updated based on input and discussion at the global MEL meeting in July 2016.

The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the UK government or members of the Inclusion Works consortium.

Following a short summary of factors limiting access to education for children with disabilities, Humanity & Inclusion (HI) work in inclusive education is briefly reported. HI's aims, main areas of activities (families and communities, making services inclusive (education, social, etc.) and developing policies) and ongoing projects are outlined. Examples of innovative practices and testimonies (from Mozambique, Gaza, Mali, Nepal and Sierra Leone) are given. The importance of inclusive education and HI's approach are discussed.

The unprecedented impact of COVID-19 on education systems worldwide and the HI #school4all campaign are also highlighted.  

United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) adopts a twin-track approach to ensure the full inclusion of Palestine refugees with disabilities. This entails ‘disability mainstreaming’, whereby all UNRWA programmes and services are universally designed to ensure that they are usable by and/or reach beneficiaries with disabilities, coupled with the provision of ‘targeted/tailored interventions’. During 2019, UNRWA implemented the following activities to address the specific needs of Palestine refugees with disabilities:

• Direct Specialized Services for Persons with Disabilities
• Disability Inclusion through Programmes
• International Cooperation