1 ‘Reasonable accommodation’ means necessary and appropriate modification and adjustments not imposing a disproportionate or undue burden, where needed in a particular case, to ensure to persons with disabilities the enjoyment or exercise on an equal basis with others of all human rights and fundamental freedoms (Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Article 2).
2 The task team comprised United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs), and included United Nations member states as observers. (IASC 2019, https://interagencystandingcommittee.org/iasc-task-team-inclusion-persons-disabilities-humanitarian-action/documents/launch-iasc-guidelines, accessed 29 July 2021).
3 These points reflect the three key areas of inclusion in the Humanitarian Inclusion Standards (Age and Disability Consortium, 2018, p. 10): 1) data and information management; 2) addressing barriers; 3) participation of older people and people with disabilities and strengthening of their capacities.
4 The process was co-led by the International Disability Alliance of 14 global and regional organizations of persons with disabilities, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Handicap International – Humanity & Inclusion (HI).
5 OCHA manages Country-Based Pooled Funds, which allow donors to pool their contributions into single, unearmarked funds. They are available for NGOs, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and UN agencies. See: OCHA (n.d.) Country-based Pooled Funds.
6 Recent studies suggest that about 40 per cent of all households have a member with a disability (IOM, 2021a and 2021b). Nevertheless, it is important to note that these figures relate to the household level and do not indicate the percentage of persons with disabilities in the total population. There are no reliable figures about the latter.
7 Most of these suggestions would be part of development work and are not strictly humanitarian.
8 Members include the South Sudan Association of the Visually Impaired, the South Sudan Women with Disabilities Network, the South Sudan National Association for Deaf and the Jubek State Union of the Physically Disabled.
9 Importantly, donor demands differ greatly, ranging very high to very low requirements for their partners on promoting disability inclusion. While some donors expect information on persons with disabilities as part of the needs assessments related to the target group and expect active consultations during the project design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, others just request basic information on persons with disabilities and do not necessarily require active engagement with them. Further comparative research should closely investigate the effect of different donor requirements on the level of disability inclusion in humanitarian action.
10 Thanks to one of our reviewers for pointing this out.
11 There exists a School for the Deaf and Dumb (using an outdated and stigmatizing word) where persons with hearing impairments are taught sign language. The research shows that not all humanitarian actors are aware of this.
12 The internally displaced persons (IDP) camps, which used to be called protection of civilian sites, are officially under the control of the government and are currently being closed. The sites were formerly under United Nations protection but in 2020 South Sudan’s peacekeeping mission UNMISS decided to withdraw its peacekeepers from these sites; the World Food Programme has also been reducing its food rations (Hayden, 2020).
13 See HI, 2017a, 2017b, 2017c, 2017d.
14 Available at https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/sites/www.humanitarianresponse.info/files/documents/files/hi_south_sudan_notes_on_inclusive_covid-19_gbv_response_paper.pdf (accessed 16 September 2021).
15 Note: The Washington Group on Disability Statistics was founded in 2001 to develop standard indicators of disability in surveys and censuses by national statistics offices. It was established under the United Nations Statistics Commission. For more information on the Washington Group, see http://www.washingtongroup-disability.com/.
16 Developing and strengthening capacities is also a part of the removal of barriers. For descriptive and analytical purposes, the four ‘must do’ actions of the IASC Guidelines are not always useful because there are overlaps in these four actions.
17 Light for the World experienced an upsurge in demand for capacity-building after the signing of the Inclusive Education Policy that was developed with their support. Particularly, the Ministry of General Education and Instruction has begun to refer UN agencies and international NGOs to the organization for partnership and capacity-building. Until mid-July, they had received requests of seven organizations (Interview Light for the World).
18 “Universal design means the design of products, environments, programmes and services to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design. ‘Universal design’ shall not exclude assistive devices for particular groups of persons with disabilities where this is needed.” (Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Art. 2).
19 The Food Security and Nutrition Monitoring Survey are carried out by the IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix South Sudan and WFP, in collaboration with the Shelter Non-Food Items Cluster, the Camp Management and Camp Coordination Cluster, Protection Cluster, Gender-Based Violence Sub-Cluster, Child Protection Sub-Cluster, Education Cluster, Food Security Cluster, Water Sanitation and Hygiene Cluster and the Health Cluster.
20 For example, in 2020, the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID, now the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, FCDO) published its Guidance on Strengthening Disability Inclusion in Response Plans. FCDO also established an in-house disability inclusion helpdesk with over 60 disability inclusion experts to support the implementation of the Strategy for Disability Inclusive Development 2018–2023 (Social Development Direct, 2021).
21 We would like to thank one of our reviewers for pointing this out.
22 For one such study, see Inclusive Futures (2021) Consequences of Exclusion: A Situation Report on Organisations of People with Disabilities and COVID-19 in Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe.