Disability in Humanitarian Responses

Please note that participation in workshop is by registration. Please register on Eventbrite.

Regardless of a country’s level of prosperity, people with disabilities and older people are the most affected in humanitarian crisis, facing disproportionate impacts. Even with positive frameworks such as the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, age and disability inclusion in Sendai Framework of action (2015-2030), there are adoption and implementation gaps that lead to discrimination and lack of assistance to older people and people with disabilities.

The age and disability capacity project (ADCAP) funded by OFDA and DFID has partnered with international development organisations to tackle these exclusions. CENDEP, Oxford Brookes as a research partner has followed the work of these organisations who have sought to ensure inclusion of older people and people with disabilities in humanitarian responses. The learnings from this project are captured in the recently completed the Good Practice Guide: embedding inclusion of older people and people with disabilities in humanitarian policy and practice (2018, In press).

Findings from ADCAP’s experience reveals that there are significant barriers to inclusion of people with disabilities in humanitarian responses. Some of these barriers are to do with the ‘signification of people with disabilities’ within humanitarian organisations and the larger contexts within which they operate. These significations also carry with them certain discursive assumptions about people with disabilities and their operational environments, often normalizing the stigmatizing assumptions rather than critically questioning them. The aspirations of women and men with disabilities are also made invisible by humanitarian organisations who sometimes have their specific organisational focus. The ADCAP partner organisations have questioned these discourses by engaged work within their organisations, challenging and changing the organisational policies and processes which institutionalized these exclusions.

Public Seminar 13th March, 1-2pm, Glass Tank exhibition space
The main learnings from ADCAP’s experience will be captured in the public seminar by Dr Supriya Akerkar as a part of the Oxford Human Rights Festival. Dr Richard Carver will be the discussant for the talk, followed by open questions and answers.

Workshop 13th March, 2-5pm, JHB 128
This public seminar will be followed by a workshop which will continue these discussions. The workshop will include speakers from ADCAP organisations which have led disability inclusion within their respective organisations. The speakers will reflect on their organisational experiences and also on ‘what remains to be done further to embed disability inclusion in humanitarian responses.

The speakers for the workshop, organised by CENDEP are:
Claire Grant, Inclusion Advisor, Christian Aid UK
Sherin AlSheikh Ahmed, Inclusion Advisor Islamic Relief International UK
Diana Hiscock, Disability Advisor, Help Age International UK