Research in Cox’s Bazar was carried out for four weeks in January and February 2020. It involved: key informant interviews with 32 individuals from 18 organizations; one focus group discussion with eight field staff from an international mainstream humanitarian NGO working in protection in the refugee camps and host communities in Teknaf and Ukhiya; and participant observations in three HI team meetings, one meeting of the Protection Cluster Working Group led by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and one meeting of the ADWG.
It also included field visits to Camp 17 and Kutupalong RC10 with HI staff, along with visits to Camps 13, 15 and 19 and to the host community in Ukhiya with the CDD (see Maps 1 and 2). Two Skype interviews with a representative from a disability-focused organization and one local government entity were conducted in October 2020 and January 2021 respectively to gain insights about the latest developments in the humanitarian response with respect to disability inclusion.
Thirty expert interviews were conducted in person in Cox’s Bazar and four expert interviews over Skype. HI and CBM staff contacted their project partners in advance of the research stay. The response rate for the interviews was very high, with some interviews arranged spontaneously by the researcher. All except one interviewee gave permission to record and transcribe their interviews. To ensure confidentiality, the names and affiliations of the interviewees and informants are kept anonymous in this report.
Interviewees were first asked general questions about the mission of their respective organization, the length of their presence in Bangladesh and Cox’s Bazar in particular and their fields of operation since the start of the Rohingya crisis in August 2017. Following this, questions focused on the measures or actions that organizations have taken to include persons with disabilities into their programmes and organizational structures. Of particular interest was how these organizations (attempt to) promote the participation of persons with disabilities, remove existing barriers, empower persons with disabilities and disaggregate data on age, gender and disability to monitor inclusion. Other questions explored the work within consortia and other formalized partnerships and the role of donors in supporting disability-inclusive programming. These questions aimed to uncover factors that enable or undermine disability mainstreaming, as well as ways to strengthen existing efforts to mainstream disability.
The study also included a review of internal HI and CBM documents (reports, internal evaluations, project proposals), which covered current and previous projects on disability-inclusive humanitarian action in Cox’s Bazar.