RAAL-Workshop in Uganda: Adapting Assessment Tools

Our HI team organized the first Review, Adapt & Action Learning (RAAL) Laboratory workshop in Fort Portal, Uganda on 23rd – 25th October 2023. It was held as part of the three-day training focusing on Inclusive Humanitarian Action (IHA). 

To strengthen the capacities of local, regional and international humanitarian organisation in the field of disability inclusion, our project has developed the RAAL workshop methodology, particularly being used in our pilot countries.

The aim is to give humanitarian actors the opportunity to review, develop, learn jointly, and adapt their existing tools in order to be more disability-inclusive. The IASC guidelines on the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action are used as a reference document, providing practical tips on the different key aspects to be taken into account. Similar workshops have been organized previously in Somalia/Somaliland, South Sudan and Kenya. 

In Uganda, the most recent workshop was joined by 16 persons from the protection sector, coming from international and local humanitarian organisations. The training focused on following aspects: 

• To build and/or strengthen the capacity of protection partners in disability inclusive humanitarian action using the Disability Reference Group Learning Package. 
• To share lessons learned and ideas to enhance good practices on mainstreaming disability in humanitarian response. 
• To provide hands-on experience for the participants to review and adapt their existing assessment tools to align them with the recommendations of the IASC Guidelines on Inclusion. 

The feedback from the participants was very positive. They highlighted the interactive and collaborative style of the workshop, the relevance of the learnings for their work, and their heightened motivation to mainstream disability inclusion within their teams and organisations. When asked what benefits the participants have gained, one stated “The IASC guidelines, being a very essential tool in inclusive humanitarian action will help me and our organization to do our humanitarian work better with an open eye on disability inclusion.” 

Overall, participants walked away from the workshop with intent to share the learnings with their own staff, to adapt their organisations’ tools to become more disability-inclusive, and with keen demand for more capacity building by HI.