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The ideology of Emancipatory Disability Research (EDR) reflected in the phrase ‘Nothing about us without us’, was first put forward in the 1990s. Although it aimed to place research control in the hands of the ‘researched’, i.e., people with disability, this rarely happens even today, 25 years later.

The Community Action Research on Disability (CARD) programme in Uganda embraced and modified the EDR approach, recognising the need for including people with disability in the research process from concept to outcome, and nurturing participation and collaboration between all the stakeholders in achieving action-based research. The research teams always included people with disability and staff from Disability People’s Organisations (DPOs) as well as academics and service providers. It endeavoured to generate and carry out research around issues that mattered to people with disability and their families. Leadership roles were assigned by team members. The objectives of the CARD programme were: (1) to fund teams to carry out action-based research on disability in Uganda; (2) to develop research and administrative capacity to manage the initiative within the academic registrar’s office at Kyambogo University; (3) to incorporate new knowledge generated from the studies into the ongoing local community-based rehabilitation and special education courses; and, (4) to ensure wide dissemination of research findings to all stakeholder groups.

CARD ran for 5 years, commissioning 21 action research studies in the field of disability and community-based services. This paper describes the process, presents the 12 completed studies, examines the extent to which the objectives were achieved and evaluates the experiences of the participating research teams, particularly in relation to the inclusion of its members with disability. It concludes with recommendations for future initiatives designed to promote validity, good value and inclusive approaches in disability research.

This report highlights two big global challenges for the current state of data: whole groups of people are not being counted and important aspects of people’s lives and environmental conditions are still not measured; and there are huge and growing inequalities in access to data and information, and in the ability to use it. The report makes specific recommendations on how to address these challenges, calling for a UN-led effort to mobilise the data revolution for sustainable development: fostering and promoting innovation to fill data gaps; mobilising resources to overcome inequalities between developed and developing countries and between data-poor and data-rich people; leadership and coordination to enable the data revolution to play its full role in the realisation of sustainable development

Emphasizes the interdependence of global health knowledge and draw attention to inequities in the global flow of information that profoundly affect the evolution of the global knowledge base and its relevance to health priorities. Information and communication technologies have great potential to reduce these inequities, not only by disseminating information, but also by supporting such important activities as international co-operation and Southern-led development. Describes briefly some of the challenges, recent achievements, and priorities for the future

The Communication Initiative (CI) website provides information on communication and development experiences and thinking, facilitating horizontal linkages between people engaged in communication action, peer commentary on programmes and strategies and taking opportunities to promote strategic thinking on communication and development issues and problems. The health window provides a point of entry themed on health communication. The 'evaluation' section of the health window signposts to useful examples and case studies of evaluation