InfoPoint conference: Disability-inclusive livelihoods

Since 1992, Humanity & Inclusion (HI) has been implementing livelihoods projects to ensure inclusion of persons with disabilities in productive activities. Like other excluded and vulnerable groups, persons with disabilities should have equal opportunity to participate in economic life, while contributing to society as employees, entrepreneurs, consumers, and citizens. Building on its 20+ years of experience, HI has developed specific approaches and actions that tackle the barriers faced by persons with disabilities and address their needs.

This session is geared towards livelihoods practitioners who are looking for practical tools to ensure inclusion of persons with disabilities in livelihoods programming. It will provide participants with concrete examples from RECOSA, an EU-funded project in Burkina Faso and Niger, and IDMAG Employment and Social Inclusion in Egypt, funded by the Drosos Foundation.

Description

Disability and poverty reinforce each other, while disasters and conflict have a further two-fold effect on disability: they create new disabilities and heighten the vulnerability of people already living with disabilities. The World Health Organization estimates that 15% of the global population lives with a disability, and 80% of persons with disabilities live in low- and middle-income countries. The ILO further estimates that 82% of persons with disabilities across the globe live on less than a dollar a day; and that in low- and middle-income countries, 80-90% of persons with disabilities are excluded from the labour market. According to the ILO, this global employment gap is responsible for an annual loss of USD 1.37-1.94 billion in global GDP annually.

Livelihoods practitioners should seek to remove social and economic barriers that hinder individuals with disabilities in participating in economic life. HI promotes a twin-track approach that aims to

1. empower people at the individual level
2. transform the ecosystem at the service delivery level (public and private service providers, employers, legal framework, service coordination, etc.) to make it more inclusive.

Livelihoods projects have the power to mainstream inclusion of persons with disabilities. The session highlights three of the main actions livelihoods practitioners could adopt:

• Meaningful Participation – projects should ensure coordination with and participation of representative organisations in all steps of the project cycle management by partnering and working closely with Organization of Persons with Disabilities (OPD).
• Personalised Support - HI utilises this approach acknowledging that each persons have different and specific needs. This means that project holders or job seekers receive individual coaching with a range of social and economic services tailored to their needs. It also means ensuring that services are accessible and adapted to the needs / impairment of the person.
• Disability Data - collecting, managing and using disability data is essential to ensure inclusion of persons with disabilities. The use of the Washington Group set of questions is recommended for identifying and supporting persons with disabilities.

Participants will benefit from the panelists’ first-hand experience on how to effectively implement those actions in mainstream livelihoods projects. This session will feature two flagship projects led by Humanity & Inclusion:

• the RECOSA project (2019-2024), funded by the EU, that aimed at strengthening the resilience and social cohesion of vulnerable population in the cross-border regions of Burkina Faso and Niger
• Access to Employment and Social Inclusion for Youth with Disabilities in Informal Urban Areas of Cairo, commonly known as IDMAG project (2015-2020), funded by the Drosos Foundation, Egypt

‍

Speakers

• Cécile Billaux, Head of Unit, INTPA G.4 - Social Inclusion and Protection, Health and Demography
• Alexandre Goutchkoff, Economic Inclusion technical Specialist at Humanity & Inclusion
• Midiéba Fabrice Yonli, Consortium Coordinator of the RECOSA at Humanity & Inclusion
• Tanimoune Seibou, Président de la section régionale de Tillabéry de la Fédération Nigérienne des Personnes Handicapées (FNPH)
• Kazem Hemeda, Regional Economic Inclusion Specialist for HI in the Middle East
• Marianna Lipponen, Policy Officer, INTPA G.4

Language: English and French (live transcript EN & FR)

Q&A session languages: English and French (live transcript EN & FR)

‍