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This advocacy brief from the UN Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) and Leonard Cheshire draws attention to the main barriers to education for girls with disabilities, in the context of major opportunities for advocacy and tangible change in 2021.  The recommendations outlined are targeted at world leaders, governments, ministries, UN agencies and NGOs. They offer a framework for rights-based action and principles towards gender-responsive and inclusive education, to ensure that no girls with disabilities are left behind. 

This Humanitarian Practice Network Paper (Number 83) explores the challenge of improving the collection, analysis and use of disability data to support more inclusive, impartial and accountable humanitarian action. It considers both the obstacles in this area and the potential opportunities for improving practice going forward. The paper draws directly on the experience and outcomes of a recent UK Aid-funded multi-partner action research project led by Humanity & Inclusion which explored how the use of the internationally validated Washington Group Questions on Disability can support the collection of more reliable and comparable quantitative data on persons with disabilities in humanitarian settings.

Based on a broader desk review of practice-based reports and case studies, this paper also draws on a further range of methods and approaches that have been taken to collect, analyse and use data and information to support inclusion of people with disabilities across different stages of the humanitarian programming cycle, focusing particularly on instances where qualitative information is used in combination with quantitative data. The paper looks at the collection and use of data on the accessibility and inclusiveness of humanitarian programmes, as well as data on the number, needs and capacities of persons with disabilities

These recommendations provide guidance on how to ensure more inclusive and effective implementation of Citizen Generated Data (CGD) initiatives and partnerships that engage communities effectively, and especially young people, persons with disabilities and civil rights defenders.

The recommendations focus on:

Inclusive Partnerships and Effective Collaboration including a "Spotlight from Uganda: Using WG questions in the national census"

Data Access and Disaggregation including a "Spotlight from Madagascar: Youth generated data and accountability"

Resourcing and Funding including a "Spotlight from International Non Government Organisations: Using Washington Group Questions (WGQ) in humanitarian and development settings"

This Guidebook supports the implementation of the Washington Group Short Set (WG-SS) – a set of questions designed to identify (in a census or survey format) people with a disability – in multi-topic household surveys, towards improving the collection of disaggregated disability data. The first section presents an overview of the disability definitions in the sociopsychological literature, exploring how disability is defined and who is considered disabled. The second section looks at three different methods for capturing disability in multi-topic household surveys: the Washington Group (WG) question sets, the World Health Organization (WHO) survey instruments for disabilities, and the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) module on disabilities. The third section presents the six core WG-SS functional domains, ‘seeing’, ‘hearing’, ‘walking’, ‘cognition’, ‘selfcare’, and ‘communication’, that are intended for the general population five years of age and above. Finally, the Guidebook offers a series of recommendations for ensuring the improvement of disability data collection in multi-topic household survey.

Published at the same time as the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Guidelines on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action, this report aims to support their uptake and promote learning by example. This report presents 39 short case studies on inclusive practices for persons with disabilities in humanitarian action and disaster risk reduction (DRR). It is designed for humanitarian stakeholders with limited experience of working with and for persons with disabilities, as well as for organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) planning to engage in humanitarian action and DRR. The report draws lessons from field practices, but does not provide technical guidance. The IASC Guidelines are the reference document to seek in-depth theoretical and technical information

The case studies focus on:

• Inclusive disaster risk reduction and preparedness
• Collecting and using disability disaggregated data for assessments and programming.
• Participation of persons with disabilities and their representative organizations in humanitarian response and recovery
• Removing barriers to access humanitarian assistance and protection.
• Influencing coordination mechanisms and resource mobilization to be inclusive

The evidence presented in this report was identified in 2017-2018 through a desk review of publicly available reports and internal documents on projects implemented by CBM, HI and IDA members, as well as their partners and affiliate members. Field visits to Lebanon, Jordan, Kenya, Nepal, and the Philippines conducted in 2018 also informed the case-study collection and documentation

The Evidence Digest aims to capture knowledge emerging from Helpdesk activities in a systematic manner and disseminate findings. This short summary will:

Share information on and learnings from the Disability Inclusion Helpdesk over the last quarter, highlighting headline messages and implications for programmers and policymakers;
Share relevant information and learning from other DID outputs;
Provide relevant information on recent evidence, policy changes and events in the field of disability inclusion, and;
Raise awareness on how to access the Helpdesk and demonstrate its offer.

Humanity & Inclusion has created a learning toolkit to improve the collection of quality data on persons with disabilities and improve its use by humanitarian organisations.

Until now, existing guidance on the Washington Group Questions (WGQs) has been specific to national data collection efforts on persons with disabilities. To address the lack of guidance for humanitarian actors, Humanity & Inclusion (HI) is launching a learning toolkit on collecting data in humanitarian action, which includes an e-learning, a training pack for enumerators and various supporting resources that can all be found on the HI website.

Gathering evidence on the use of the WGQs in humanitarian action:

To respond to the need to collect, analyse and use data on persons with disabilities in humanitarian action, HI has been implementing a project, funded by the UK Department for International Development, to test and assess the use of the WGQs in humanitarian action. An action-research was carried out with over 30 humanitarian partners in Jordan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Philippines, with the evidence used to develop learning materials.

Development of a learning toolkit for humanitarian actors:

In addition to the findings of the action-research, HI gathered inputs from over 30 humanitarian organisations working in 22 countries to inform the design of the learning toolkit. Specific focus was given to the development of open source materials that would be accessible with screen readers, on mobile phones, and in hard to reach locations. The content was then informed by selected subject matter experts in inclusive humanitarian action and data collection.

What is included in the toolkit?

An e-learning on Collecting Data for the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action – The Application of the WGQs providing an entry point for humanitarian actors who would like to understand how to plan for and use the WGQs.

A Training Pack for enumerators giving guidance, session plans and activities to deliver training on using the WGQs (developed in collaboration with RedR UK).

Supporting resources providing practical guidance on the application of the WGQs in humanitarian contexts.

Who is this for?

The toolkit is tailored to a full range of humanitarian actors who would like to understand how to use the WGQs in their own work and organisations. The content has also been designed to provide technical guidance for programme and technical staff: with a practical focus on different topics relevant for the use of the WGQs –from the human rights based approach that underpins them, to their planning, use and the analysis of the data produced.

Where is the Toolkit available?

The e-learning is available now on disasterready.com and on Kayaconnect.org (accessible for mobile phones and tablets). Organisations interested in hosting the e-learning are welcome to contact the project team members. Toolkit resources and more information about the project are available for download in the project webpage.

The Washington Group Questions on Disability are rapidly emerging as the preferred data collection methodology by the global community for national data collection efforts on disability. However, more and more development and humanitarian actors are now using the methodology in their own data collection efforts. This is beyond the original purpose of the questions, which was to generate usable data for governments. Leonard Cheshire and Humanity & Inclusion, two international charities focussed on disability and inclusion, have worked together to share learnings of recent research studies. These studies aim to understand how the Washington Group Questions (WGQ) have been used by development and humanitarian actors and the impact of using the methodology. This summary report outlines the key findings, analysis and conclusions about the application of the Washington Group Questions in a range of contexts. The report concludes with a number of recommendations for different stakeholders.

Four videos are provided which are live recording of an Introductory training for Non-Government Organisations on disability measurement

Session 1 Video: Overview of Disability Measurement and the Washington Group Short Set (1h 35m)

Session 2 Video: Collecting Disability Data (1h 42m)

Session 3 Video: The Importance & Feasibility of Disaggregation by Disability Status (57m)

Session 4 Video: The WG/UNICEF Module on Child Functioning (1h 14m)