Lessons learned from the inclusion of people with disabilities

Food Security Programme for Ultrapoor Women Bangladesh

Disability Mainstreaming

in Food Security

Improve foodsecurity of 40.000 women headed households • Formation of women groups (1600)

• Income Generating Activities

• Health & Nutrition education

• Acces to government schemes

• Disaster risk response

• Disability specific service delivery

• Disability mainstreaming

ICCO The Leprosy mission NL/UK

LIGHT FOR THE WORLD

RDRS

CDD

TLMIB

GUK UST CCDB GBK

Target Group

• Focus on Ultrapoor women headed households.

• Many of them are widow, divorced or abanded, or have a chronically ill, or disabled husband.

• Most of them landless, working as housemaids, begging, poor housing conditions, illiterate.

• Special focus on women with disabilities, incl. women affected by Leprosy.

Targets & Results for disability

• 20% of the included households have a disabled family member

• Service provision for an estimated 9800 people with

disabilities. • Inclusion of women with disabilities in all project

activities

% of the households

People with a disability

8573 21,4%

People who received support from the

disability/leprosy team, but do not have a disability

4048

Total nr. of people who received services from the

disability/leprosy team

12657

direct beneficiaries with disabilities 3792 9,5%

direct beneficiaries who received support from the

disability/leprosy team, but do not have a disability

3207

Total nr. of Direct beneficiaries who received

support from the disability/leprosy team ,

6999

Type of disability – direct beneficiaries

Visual impairment

16%

Intellectual disability 6%

Leprosy 4%

Multiple 4%

Physical disability 54%

Speech & Hearing impairment

16%

• When a woman aquires a disability she is often sent away by her husband.

• Difficult to marry for a disabled girl, she often is fully dependent on her family.

• For a disabled man it is easier, often a marriage arranged with a girl from a very poor family.

• Husband often leaves the family if a child gets a disability.

• Care for disabled family members comes down to women.

• Neglect/physical abuse of people with disabilities.

Social status

Lessons Learned – Proposal writing

Inclusion starts right at proposal writing! It is unlikely to expect that people with disabilities will automatically be included in a project if there are no specific strategies formulated in the proposal to enhance their equal participation.

-> FSUP Gaibandha compared to similar FSUP programmes

-> FSUP Gaibandha compared to Char Livelihood Programme DFID

Lessons learned- selection criteria

Make sure that your selection criteria do not exclude people (on the basis of age or disability, or anything else)

-> we needed to be more flexible on our selection criteria

-> example WFP Bangladesh “Exclusion criteria actively prevented the selection of women over the age of 49 years, and selection practice prevented the participation of the majority of disabled or chronically ill women.”

Lessons learned- selection practice

Make sure that the people who do the selection are well trained and do not apply their own criteria: “Such as ability to learn” “Fit to work”

-> people with disabilities often not considered as participants for income generating projects by the project staff, by the community, by their family members and by themselves.

Lesson Learned – budget

Inclusion of people with disabilities isn’t very costly. But you have to reserve budget in advance.

Be flexible with this budget.

->In this project 6%, this includes disability specific service delivery.

Lessons Learned – staff training

Training of staff is the most crucial part of the inclusion process, because the major barrier that prevents people with disability from participation in projects is the attitude of development practitioners

-> don’t forget to train the management and proposal writers as well

Lesson Learned – M&E

Having accurate data on disability during proposal writing is essential to make a good planning for your project.

All data collected should be disaggregated for people with disabilities; otherwise it will be impossible to measure equal participation.

Lesson Learned – M&E

Include (disability) inclusion indicators in the M&E framework right from the beginning.

-> start with a clear definition of disability

-> Do a good baseline survey on the disability specific needs

Lessons learned - accessibility

Accessibility needs to be taken into account in all aspects of the programme, right from the beginning. Undoing inaccessibility later on is more costly and less efficient.

-> offices were not make accessible, some shelters were accessible, but the toilets were not…

Lessons learned – disability specific needs

Make sure people with disabilities have access to disability specific services, such as physiotherapy, medical care or assistive devices. Refer to other service providers or hire specialists who can provide these services within the programme.

-> not every person with a disability in need of services. Majority can do without specific interventions

-> think of sustainability right from the start

Lesssons learned – social inclusion

Don’t forget that the provision of rehabilitation services is only one aspect of the inclusion process. Social inclusion and the removal of barriers within the project and society is equally important.

-> raising awareness in groups about disability and leprosy

-> counselling for people with low self esteem

-> inclusion in DRR activities

There’s no need to organize special training for people with disabilities. The women with disabilities could participate in all income generating activities and reached the same results as beneficiaries without disabilities.

-> family members involved in income generating activities

-> also women with disabilities represented in leadership of women groups

Lessons learned – social inclusion

Lessons learned- organisational change

Inclusion of people with disabilities is not a one time activity in a single project. It can only be sustainable if organisations incorporate the inclusion of people with disabilities throughout all programmes and incorporate it in the systems and structures of their organizations. -> doing one inclusive project doesn’t make you an inclusive organisation

• Participation in the women groups is very empowering for the women with disabilities

• Earning own income also improves position of disabled person in the family

• Earning own income increases self-esteem

• Earning own income increases acceptance in the wider community

Overall conclusions

Questions

thanks!