Two studies on OPD capacities in Humanitarian Action in Cameroon and Niger released

The Phase 3- Leave No One Behind! project has released two studies exploring the capacities of Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) and Disability-focused NGOs in humanitarian action in the CBM pilot countries Cameroon and Niger. The mappings were conducted from October 2022 to February 2023.

The objective of the studies was to analyse the involvement of the OPDs and NGOs in humanitarian response and coordination, as well as their capacities and understanding of humanitarian action and the humanitarian coordination mechanisms. The findings serve the project in addressing capacity development needs of humanitarian organisations, OPDs and NGOs in the two countries and will help to promote better collaboration between the different actors.

Both studies identified barriers and enablers for meaningful participation of OPDs in humanitarian response and looked at best practices of successful disability-mainstreaming in programmes of humanitarian actors. They also give an insight into the different landscape of OPDs in Cameroon and Niger: Niger with a strong, government-backed federation at the national level and a centralized structure, accumulating resources and capacities but resulting in weak representation in the regions; Cameroon with a diverse landscape of professional structured and powerful OPDs spread over the country, but a lot of internal concurrence which hinders them to speak with one voice and makes collaboration with other actors less efficient. Looking at the commonalities between the two countries, it becomes clear that OPDs located in crisis areas often have a very good understanding of humanitarian action and are much more involved in humanitarian response than their peers.

However, both studies clearly state, that OPDs and disability-focused NGOs, even those with a good understanding of humanitarian action, often have little knowledge and awareness about the functioning of the humanitarian coordination system. They also lack resources and access to, for instance, cluster meetings and specialized working groups. Best practices in terms of disability inclusion of humanitarian actors include official partnerships with OPDs from the beginning of programmes or systematically reserving 2% of project budgets for reasonable accommodation and participation of persons with disabilities (best-practice from Niger).

Findings from the study of Niger shows that under time pressure, which is commonly the case while conducting rapid needs assessments in humanitarian settings, humanitarian staff tends to overlook the specific needs of persons with disabilities. This underlines the necessity to develop easy-to-handle and disability-inclusive needs assessment tools and to train and technically support staff of humanitarian organisations.

Download reports & summaries

Cameroon Reports:

Niger Reports: