DfID to require partners to include disability, old age in proposals

After a long wait, the U.K. Department for International Development released last week its much-anticipated disability framework, which sets out how the British aid agency will be mainstreaming disability in its humanitarian and development programs. The framework sets how DfID plans to build in-house capacity, raise staff awareness and capability in ensuring funded programs are disability-sensitive, and push and encourage the agency’s implementing partners to do the same. Much of the strategy has been welcomed by disability-focused nongovernmental organizations that for years have been calling for DfID to come up with more inclusive aid programming that takes into account the needs of people with disabilities. The department has already appointed a director-level disability “champion,” boosted the numbers of its central disability team, announced the establishment of its own disability expert group, and will soon be issuing technical guidance notes for staff and partners. And while they feel there is still room for improvement on some elements of the framework — like DfID making partner governments “aware of their responsibility to deliver” on their disability commitments or “advocate” for the development of a disability policy for partners delivering water, sanitation and hygiene programs instead of requiring them to ensure the outcomes of those programs will reach disabled people — aid groups are generally satisfied, particularly with the fact that DfID has promised to review the strategy annually and make adjustments if necessary. “I think it’s very honest,” Plan U.K. CEO Tanya Barron told Devex. “I think what they’re saying is they are going to need some time to build up their own expertise, and they recognize that some of the bigger agencies would need to do the same.” DfID, as the agency previously committed in a response to the International Development Committee’s recommendations, will start requiring its implementing partners to produce disaggregated data on old age and disability in their humanitarian funding proposals. Some NGOs focused on disability are already doing this, but most don’t because it’s not their main area of work, they think it’s going to require a lot of time and resources, or there’s not enough evidence to prove this system really works. “I think one of the challenges is that a lot of people in mainstream agencies have been a little bit resistant to disability inclusion,” Barron explained. “Certainly not everybody, but I think there has been an element of some people feeling that disabled people is just another group of people that has to be included. A bit like, we don’t want to add anything more to the laundry list.” Challenges and opportunities The new disability framework provides new impetus for humanitarian organizations seeking DfID funding to find a way to include people with disabilities and those in old age in their programming, for instance how to evacuate people with reduced mobility before or after a natural disaster strikes. “At the moment what happens quite often is that relief distribution is really inaccessible, including the warning system, and that’s because governments and policymakers don’t know where the PWDs are or they won’t seek help because of the stigma,” Fred Smith, policy adviser for social inclusion at Sightsavers, told Devex. With feedback from several disability groups like Handicap International and HelpAge International, DfID is developing a technical guidance note for its humanitarian advisers that would help them assess proposals that should now include old people and people with disabilities. The idea is for them to “have a better sense of how to look at a proposal from a disability sense and see whether partners have adequately included those two populations in the proposed project,” Handicap International U.K. CEO Aleema Shivji told Devex, adding the current system is just one part of a series of guidance notes DfID will be coming up in the near future. Disability groups value this as an important first step. “I don’t think we’re asking for new processes — but that [organizations] just think through how their current systems are inclusive of PWDs. A lot of organizations do community-level assessment, but groups need to assess how inclusive of PWDs they are,” Smith explained. “If you just go into a community, and ask what everyone’s priorities are … PWDs may not participate in that process. So at the moment, there’s a gap between talking to a community and actually including everyone.” Shivji meanwhile thinks it’s all about a mindset shift. “It’s really about recognizing that no matter what population you work with there is going to be always disabled and older people, and if we can get that mindset shift, then it’s actually not that complicated,” she said. Next steps Several aid groups are already looking at ways on how they can adopt DfID’s new requirement. CARE International U.K., for one, is consulting its global gender advisers on how to include old age and disability in its “sex data marker” — the tool it currently uses to ensure women and girls are identified and their needs are met in an emergency situation — but Colin Rogers, the organization’s head of emergencies, doesn’t envision this to be that difficult. “I think it’s good that DfID is actually challenging us now to really look at this and to figure out how to put it into action … [but] I don’t think it will [require] too much work,” he told Devex. “If you’re doing needs assessment in the community — meeting at the household level or through focus group discussions — these are issues you can include in the discussion and collect data,” he said. Rogers admitted, though, that this will require them to ensure guidance notes are in place, especially for country office staff, and tools such as forms that take into account old age and disability are available. He hopes the aid agency will give them a time frame to analyze the strategy and figure out the best way to implement it, as well as for organizations to share best practices and lessons learned. Plan International U.K. has appointed its own global disability adviser, is currently running a disability network to disseminate information and raise awareness about the issue across the federation and partners, and working with other disability organizations to make sure the issue is mainstreamed across its work. Barron, who joined Plan in 2013 after years of working on disability with British nonprofit Leonard Cheshire, said they are now in a better position — although still not quite there yet — to take on the workload now than three years ago, when Plan considered gender equality more over disability in its programming. As for when DfID will require partners to effectively implement the disability framework, the organizations consulted by Devex all said the understanding is that they will have at least a year to prepare and mainstream the requirement in their programming. The important point now is making sure aid organizations don’t just mention it in their proposals to secure funding, but actually follow through with the project cycle. Read more international development news online, and subscribe to The Development Newswire to receive the latest from the world’s leading donors and decision-makers — emailed to you FREE every business day.