Resources search

Increasingly consulted, but not yet participating: IDA global survey report on participation of Organisations of Persons with Disabilities

INTERNATIONAL DISABILITY ALLIANCE (IDA)
November 2020

Expand view

This new report presents the findings of the first-ever global survey led by OPDs on their participation in decision making processes of governments, the UN system and funding agencies.

The IDA Global Survey is part of a strategy to hold decision-makers accountable for their commitments under Articles 4.3 and 32 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Based on testimonies collected from OPDs in 165 counties, the report assesses the quality, depth, scope and relevance of the OPDs participation in programmes and policies, and offers recommendations for governments, the UN system and funding agencies.

Inclusion and education: All means all. Global Education Monitoring (GEM) report 2020

GLOBAL EDUCATION MONITORING REPORT TEAM
June 2020

Expand view

The 2020 GEM Report assesses progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) on education and its ten targets, as well as other related education targets in the SDG agenda. The Report also addresses inclusion in education, drawing attention to all those excluded from education, because of background or ability. The Report is motivated by the explicit reference to inclusion in the 2015 Incheon Declaration, and the call to ensure an inclusive and equitable quality education in the formulation of SDG 4, the global goal for education. It reminds us that, no matter what argument may be built to the contrary, we have a moral imperative to ensure every child has a right to an appropriate education of high quality.

The Report also explores the challenges holding us back from achieving this vision and demonstrates concrete policy examples from countries managing to tackle them with success. These include differing understandings of the word inclusion, lack of teacher support, absence of data on those excluded from education, inappropriate infrastructure, persistence of parallel systems and special schools, lack of political will and community support, untargeted finance, uncoordinated governance, multiple but inconsistent laws, and policies that are not being followed through.

COVID-19 Disability Rights Monitor

2020

Expand view

Evidence is emerging that persons with disabilities are being disproportionately affected by the Coronavirus pandemic and emergency measures being taken by governments worldwide. As governments rush to respond to the virus, it is more critical than ever to guarantee that measures taken are fully inclusive of persons with disabilities and prevent human rights violations from taking place.

 

With the endorsements of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Mr Dainius Pūras, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Ms Catalina Devandas Aguilar, a coalition of six disability rights organisations is today launching a major international monitoring initiative entitled “COVID-19 Disability Rights Monitor” to conduct rapid independent monitoring of state measures concerning persons with disabilities. The first element of this global initiative is the launch of two surveys requesting official information from governments and requesting the testimonies of persons with disabilities and their representative organisations. The surveys aim to collect information about what states are doing to protect core rights of persons with disabilities including the rights to life, access to health and essential services.

Disability and gender analysis toolkit

THOMSON, Teresa
et al
March 2020

Expand view

CBM’s Disability and Gender Analysis Toolkit has been developed to support staff, partners and allies in strengthening capacity to address systemic and deeply entrenched discriminatory practices and specifically to meet their Programme Quality Standards. It provides practical tools for stronger disability and gender analysis to inform planning, practice and systems. The toolkit provides practical assessment templates and guidance for individuals, organisations and programmes to identify strengths and gaps and to develop focussed action plans to improve practice.

United Nations Disability Inclusion strategy

UNITED NATIONS
June 2019

Expand view

The United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy provides the foundation for sustainable and transformative progress on disability inclusion through all pillars of the work of the United Nations: peace and security, human rights, and development.
 
The Strategy enables the UN system to support the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and other international human rights instruments, as well as the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Agenda for Humanity and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The Strategy includes a policy and an accountability framework, with benchmarks to assess progress and accelerate change on disability inclusion. The policy establishes a vision and commitment for the United Nations system on the inclusion of persons with disabilities.

 

The strategy is based on three over-arching approaches to achieve disability inclusion: twin track approach; intersectionality; and coordination

There are four core areas of responsibility: leadership, strategic planning and management; inclusiveness; programming; and organisational culture

Protection of civilians in armed conflict (S/2019/373) [EN/AR/RU]

UNHCR SECRETARY GENERAL
May 2019

Expand view

The present report is submitted pursuant to the request contained in the statement by the President of the Security Council of 21 September 2018 (S/PRST/2018/18). It also responds to the Council’s requests for reporting on the protection of medical care and on conflict and food insecurity, contained in resolutions 2286 (2016) and 2417 (2018), respectively. Section II provides a summary of achievements and challenges to the United Nations work on protecting civilians over the past 20 years. Section III reviews the current state of the protection of civilians and emphasizes the enduring relevance of the protection agenda 20 years on. Section IV focuses on the central challenge of enhancing respect for the law – the first of three protection priorities identified in the report of 2017 (S/2017/414) and discussed in the report of 2018 (S/2018/462) – with a particular focus on the conduct of hostilities. Section V discusses how the Council and Member States can rise to meet this challenge and, moreover, strengthen the practical impact of the protection agenda in the years ahead.

WHO consolidated guideline on self-care interventions for health: sexual and reproductive health and rights

WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO)
2019

Expand view

SELF-CARE is the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and to cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a health-care provider. 

The purpose of this guidance is to develop a peoplecentred, evidence-based normative guideline that will support individuals, communities and countries with quality health services and self-care interventions, based on PHC (Primary Health Care) strategies, comprehensive essential service packages and people-centredness. The specific objectives of this guideline are to provide:

• evidence-based recommendations on key public health self-care interventions, including for advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), with a focus on vulnerable populations and settings with limited capacity and resources in the health system

• good practice statements on key programmatic, operational and service-delivery issues that need to be addressed to promote and increase safe and equitable access, uptake and use of self-care interventions, including for advancing SRHR.

Working with persons with disabilities in forced displacement

UN HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES (UNHCR)
2019

Expand view

This note has been updated from its 2011 release and provides UNHCR and partners with specific guidance on meeting the protection needs of a diversity of persons with disabilities. While the document refers mainly to refugees, it applies to all of UNHCR’s persons of concern, including refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, returnees, and stateless persons.

This note provides guidance on: who persons with disabilities are; key principles (rights based approach, inclusion, participation and non-discrimination) and cross-cutting actions. 

Young persons with disabilities: Global study on ending gender-based violence, and realising sexual and reproductive health and rights

McCLOSKEY, Megan
MEYERS, Stephen
July 2018

Expand view

This study provides an analysis on the situation of young persons with disabilities concerning discrimination and gender-based violence, including the impact on their sexual and reproductive health and rights. It also provides an assessment of legal, policy and programming developments and specific good practices in service delivery as well as best-standard prevention and protection measures. Finally, policy and programming recommendations are provided to assist in greater promotion of the rights of young persons with disabilities, with a particular emphasis on preventing and responding to gender-based violence, and realizing sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Global education monitoring report, 2019: migration, displacement and education: building bridges, not walls

UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION (UNESCO)
et al
2018

Expand view

“The 2019 GEM Report continues its assessment of progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) on education and its ten targets, as well as other related education targets in the SDG agenda.


Its main focus is on the theme of migration and displacement. It presents evidence on the implications of different types of migration and displacement for education systems but also the impact that reforming education curricula and approaches to pedagogy and teacher preparation can have on addressing the challenges and opportunities posed by migration and displacement. It gives voice to experiences in host and home communities.


With the help of case studies, it illustrates approaches which work and could be scaled up. In this way, it aims to be a tool for practitioners. It will make the case for investing in education of good quality in rural areas suffering from depopulation and in slum areas suffering from large population inflows; in countries with high rates of emigration and those with high rates of immigration; in short-term refugee emergencies and in protracted crises. Its analysis, conclusions and recommendations advance the aims of SDG 4 and its call to leave no one behind.”

A guide for ensuring equity and inclusion in education

UNESCO
July 2017

Expand view

This guide is intended to support countries in embedding inclusion and equity in educational policy. It supports Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 on education calls for inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030. The guide is intended for use primarily by key government education policy-makers working with key stakeholders. The guide provides an assessment framework that can serve to: review how well equity and inclusion currently figure in existing policies; decide which actions are needed to improve policies and their implementation towards equitable and inclusive education systems; and monitor progress. The guide includes evidence that informs the assessment framework, examples of initiatives that are contributing to more inclusive and equitable education systems in different parts of the world, and recommendations for further reading. 

Inclusive disaster risk reduction

LAFRENIERE, Annie
WALBAUM, Veronique
2017

Expand view

This policy paper defines the themes of inclusive disaster risk reduction and explains how these activities fit into the HI mandate. It also identifies the target population and defines modalities of intervention–standard expected outcomes, standard activities–as well as monitoring and evaluation indicators.

Virtual knowledge center to end violence against women and girls

UNITED NATIONS ENTITY FOR GENDER EQUALITY AND THE EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN
2017

Expand view

This Knowledge Centre is designed to serve the needs of policymakers, programme implementers and other practitioners dedicated to addressing violence against women and girls. It's primary purpose is to encourage and support evidence-based programming to more efficiently and effectively design, implement, monitor and evaluate initiatives to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls. To achieve this, the Global Virtual Knowledge Centre offers a ‘one stop’ service to users by making available the leading tools and evidence on what works to address violence against women and girls. It draws on expert recommendations, policy and programme evaluations and assessments, and fundamentally, on practitioners’ experiences from around the world

Rehabilitation in health systems

WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO)
2017

Expand view

This document provides evidence-based, expert-informed recommendations and good practice statements to support health systems and stakeholders in strengthening and extending high-quality rehabilitation services so that they can better respond to the needs of populations. The recommendations are intended for government leaders and health policy-makers and are also relevant for sectors such as workforce and training. The recommendations and good practice statements may also be useful for people involved in rehabilitation research, service delivery, financing and assistive products, including professional organisations, academic institutions, civil society and nongovernmental and international organisations. The recommendations focus solely on rehabilitation in the context of health systems. They address the elements of service delivery and financing specifically. The recommendations were developed according to standard WHO procedures, detailed in the WHO handbook for guideline development

Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities (theme: access to rights-based support for persons with disabilities)

DEVANDAS, Catalina
December 2016

Expand view

In her report, the Special Rapporteur provides an overview of the activities undertaken in 2016, as well as a thematic study on access to support by persons with disabilities. The study includes guidance for States on how to ensure the provision of different forms of rights-based support and assistance for persons with disabilities, in consultation with them. In preparing the study, the Special Rapporteur convened a regional expert consultation in Addis Ababa in September 2016 and analysed the responses to a questionnaire sent to Member States, national human rights institutions, agencies of the United Nations system, civil society organisations and persons with disabilities and their representative organisations. As at 5 December 2016, she had received 114 responses. 

Costing equity: The case for disability-responsive education financing

MYERS, Juliette
October 2016

Expand view

This report contributes to the global discourse on education finance by providing a disability perspective on donor and government investment into inclusive education. The report looks at the benefits of financing disability - inclusive education, the current state of education financing with regard to inclusion, and what needs to change in order for education financing to effectively support the realisation of Sustainable Development Goal 4 and Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD). Representatives of nine leading bilateral and multilateral education donors were surveyed on their agencies’ efforts towards disability inclusive education: DFAT (Australia), DFID (UK), European Union, GIZ (Germany), Global Partnership for Education, Norad (Norway), UNICEF, USAID (USA), and World Bank

Key findings

FOUNDATION CENTER
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS FUNDERS GROUP
2015

Expand view

A webpage from the Foundation Center, which gives hyperlinked access to the funding profiles of various international causes such as disability, access to justice, and gender equality. In addition there are links to the annual Key Findings on Global Foundation Grantmaking reports published by the Center 

mhGAP Humanitarian Intervention Guide (mhGAP-HIG) Clinical Management of Mental, Neurological and Substance Use Conditions in Humanitarian Emergencies

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
2015

Expand view

"The mhGAP Humanitarian Intervention Guide contains first-line management recommendations for mental, neurological and substance use conditions for non-specialist health-care providers in humanitarian emergencies where access to specialists and treatment options is limited. It is a simple, practical tool that aims to support general health facilities in areas affected by humanitarian emergencies in assessing and managing acute stress, grief, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, psychosis, epilepsy, intellectual disability, harmful substance use and risk of suicide....This new tool is an adaptation of WHO’s mhGAP Intervention Guide, a widely-used evidence-based manual for the management of these conditions in non-specialized health settings."

Discussion papers on the theme of the high-level political forum on sustainable development, submitted by major groups and other stakeholders

UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
May 2015

Expand view

A compendium of papers from various stakeholders setting out “established and maintained effective coordination mechanisms” for the high-level discussions on sustainable development and the post-2015 development agenda

High-level political forum on sustainable development, Convened under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council, 26 June-8 July 2015

E/HLPF/2015/2

The inclusion of persons with disabilities in financing for development

INTERNATIONAL DISABILITY AND DEVELOPMENT CONSORTIUM (IDDC)
INTERNATIONAL DISABILITY ALLIANCE (IDA)
December 2014

Expand view

This policy paper concerns the inclusion of persons with disabilities in financing for development. The paper presents a number of recommendations aimed at increasing inclusion in this area and provides detailed information on background information that leads to these recommendations

Pages

E-bulletin