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In March 2020, a group of UK-based international NGOs, coordinated by Islamic Relief Worldwide in conjunction with HPG (Humanitarian Policy Group at ODI), hosted a roundtable discussion to identify strategies for using the IASC Guidelines to mainstream disability inclusion within humanitarian interventions. This roundtable learning note summarises the key points of discussion.

The objectives of the roundtable included:

• To identify strategies for using the IASC Guidelines, alongside other resources, to mainstream disability inclusion within the key components of all humanitarian interventions.
• To share challenges, opportunities and effective approaches for mainstream humanitarian actors to systematically build their internal capacities on inclusion of people with disabilities
• To discuss opportunities for further collaboration to promote innovation and learning

This briefing note identifies five key challenges that need to be addressed in order to promote disability inclusion in disaster risk reduction (DRR) and humanitarian action, relating to evidence and data, contextual understanding, institutions and programmes, representation and discrimination. It highlights the importance of rights-based approaches, together with improved standards and indicators, in overcoming these challenges.

The commitment to ‘leave no one behind’ has been a key feature of all the discussions on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Here are three papers setting out the first step to implementing this agenda - the step of identifying marginalised communities. The focus is on two case study countries for each of the three regions, sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the papers identify gaps in achieving a number of outcomes relating to key SDGs targets for marginalised groups. The paper on Asia highlights people with disabilities in Bangladesh.

Annie Patri, speaking in her capacity as Project Coordinator and Acting Domain Coordinator for Disaster Risk Management (DRM) at Handicap international at an ODI event, discusses the challenges faced by people with disabilities in the event of a disaster. Annie argues that not only is there too little data on the challenges facing people with disabilities in the event of a disaster, but there are also considerable access issues for people with disabilities. In this talk Annie outlines how people with disabilities can and must be embraced as active agents of change in the event of a disaster

ODI event “How to include and empower the vulnerable in disaster risk reduction”

London, UK

25 November 2015

 “This event is one of a new event series Rethinking International Policy for Reducing Disaster Risk hosted by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN). The series examines some of the more thorny issues involved in renegotiating the Hyogo Framework for Action, including public private partnerships, use of risk assessments, fragile states and conflict and effective governance for DRR, amongst others”

ODI seminar “How to include and empower the vulnerable in disaster risk reduction”

London, UK

25 November 2014

"This Background Note focuses on inequalities associated with old age, disability and mental health. It argues that these should be considered salient sources of group-based difference, given the numbers of people affected, their marginalisation and vulnerability, and their relative neglect in international agreements to date. This note identifies a lack of data as a particular concern, but one that can be addressed through revisions to standard household surveys. To this end, the paper discusses the available data and their limitations, constraints to better data collection and efforts needed to adjust key international survey instruments -the World Bank’s Core Welfare Indicator Questionnaire (CWIQ) and Living Standards and Measurement Survey (LSMS), Macro International’s Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and the UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS)- to collect reliable data on these issues. It sets out technical adjustments that would enable these surveys to broaden their coverage, collect richer information and improve their identification of these three groups. It concludes by commenting on how measures to address the inequalities that affect these groups could be incorporated within a new post-2015 framework agreement"
ODI Background note