Key Points
- Persons with disabilities face many barriers in accessing humanitarian services.
- During the immediate Rohingya crisis response in 2017 and 2018, humanitarian actors did not consider the rights and specific requirements of persons with disabilities.
- The camps’ infrastructure has been developed in such a way that persons with disabilities face many barriers and cannot easily benefit from the humanitarian response.
- Humanitarian actors recognize the need to reduce attitudinal, environmental and institutional barriers and are striving to become more inclusive in their work.
- Humanitarian actors are increasingly reaching out and collaborating with disability-focused organizations and establishing formal partnerships and consortia. Nevertheless, the actual inclusion of persons with disabilities remains an ongoing challenge as they often continue to be excluded and left behind.
- Donors have short funding cycles, which prevent long-term planning and activities. Reliable and flexible funding are crucial for successful disability mainstreaming.
- Relaxation of approval requirements by the relevant government authorities will enable humanitarian actors to spend more time on capacity-building and technical support.
- International humanitarian organizations lack the capacity to mainstream disability into their programmes. Building internal capacity at headquarters, the programme level and in the field and developing and closely monitoring the implementation of long-term strategies and action plans reduces the risk of the inclusion of persons with disabilities remaining in the hands of only a few individuals.
- National and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) make a vital contribution to the humanitarian response, but as is the case with international organizations, need to build their capacities on disability mainstreaming and gradually assume a leading role in the response.
- The work of disability-focused NGOs in providing targeted assistance to persons with disabilities and in building the capacity of various humanitarian partner organizations to include persons with disabilities remains key to protecting their rights and enabling their participation in the humanitarian response.
- Persons with disabilities need to become familiar with their rights and be empowered to speak up for themselves. In the host communities they have the right to form organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs). In the camps, persons with disabilities sometimes form informal disability committees. Organizations should encourage the formation of more informal groups and strengthen their capacity to meaningfully participate and contribute to matters of their concern inside the camps. Enjoying their right to form OPDs would enable persons with disabilities to specify their preferred ways of inclusion.
- The ADWG is an initiative of HI, CBM, CDD and HelpAge International. Thanks to collaboration with the protection sector, the ADWG strongly contributes to age and disability inclusion in the humanitarian response. A joint registration exercise with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the REACH Initiative will be a first step in closing important data gaps and enhancing the visibility of persons with disabilities. However, sustained advocacy of their human rights in different clusters and capacity-building on inclusion remain necessary to support long-term change.
- Strategic partnerships and consortia projects with disability-focused NGOs are evaluated positively in this study but their overall long-term impact is still hard to assess.
- Disability-inclusive humanitarian action is an under-researched topic. More long-term ethnographic and impact studies as well as a comprehensive review of the compliance with and implementation of international normative instruments on the inclusion of persons with disabilities are necessary to better inform daily practice.