We are Able! News #1 - April 2022
Everyone – regardless of disabilities – should have access to basic services and participate in society. That is the aim of We are Able!, focused on inclusion of people with disabilities in DR Congo, Ethiopia, Burundi, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda.
The five-year-programme, funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, helps people with a disability achieve a sustainable, fully-fledged place in their community, so that they have greater food security. Six organisations are working together in the We are Able! consortium: ZOA, African Disability Forum, SeeYou, VNG International, The Hague Academy for Local Governance, and The Leprosy Mission.
We are Able! has been running for one year. Lots of people have joined our programme. Lots of plans have been made and executed. Lots of work has been done and events took place. We figured it’s about time to inform you about We are Able! via a newsletter. You’ll find one in your inbox every quarter.
Welcome to We are Able! News. We hope you’ll enjoy! If you have anything to share in the next issue, please let us know via info@weareable.ngo. And please help us grow the number of people receiving this newsletter by sharing it through your own networks.
Thanks!
The WaA! Communications Working Group
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Power of Disability Inclusion
On February 1st, the Dutch Coalition on Disability and Development (DCDD) hosted a successful first Exchange Session on the ‘Power of Disability Inclusion’ with more than 50 participants from 11 different consortia. It was the first of a series of sessions, organised by DCDD in collaboration with the We are Able! consortium and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The aim is to explore the most effective ways to make disability inclusion happen within various civil society programmes that are receiving funding from the Ministry. These sessions are meant to facilitate the exchange of experience, share tools and resources and to make connections.
Where to start off when an organisation wants to become more inclusive of persons with disabilities? In answer to this question, guest speaker Shuaib Chalklen, director of the African Disability Forum (WaA! consortium partner), stated: “It is shifting responsibility to people with disabilities, that leads to full inclusion.”
Read more on DCDD’s First Exchange Session | ‘The Power of Disability Inclusion’ – Dutch Coalition on Disability and Development
More sessions on this subject will follow. Would you like to join? Contact DCDD via dcdd@dcdd.nl.
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WaA! and ADF jointly hosted a side event at the Global Disability Summit 2022
The second Global Disability Summit, jointly hosted by the International Disability Alliance, the Government of Norway and the Government of Ghana, took place virtually from February 16-17, 2022. A side event was organised on February 17, 2022 from 10h00-11h15 CET titled “We are Able! Are you able too? - Co-creating Inclusive Governance for Access to Basic Resources that Leaves No-One Behind.” This event was jointly organised by African Disability Forum (ADF), a continental organisation that seeks to strengthen and unify the representative voices of Africans with disabilities, and the We are Able! (WaA!) programme, which focuses on lobbying and advocacy by and for persons with disabilities and other marginalized groups to increase their access to basic services such as land and water for food production.
The panelist from ADF, National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda, Sud-Kivu Provincial Health Authority of DRC, the UN World Food Programme, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs shared some highlights on: The design of rights-based approach for inclusive food security; challenges and finding innovative interventions to strengthen voices of persons with disabilities; roles and responsibilities of OPDs and local authorities in creating synergies; investing in an inclusive food security situation for persons with disabilities. Read more about the event at our website and watch the recording of the event here.
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Shift of Power workshop
How can we work together towards mutually reinforcing partnerships? This was a central question in the ‘Shift of Power’ workshop that was held on the 24th of March. There were two participants from each WaA! country team and a number of participants from the working group. Gerrit de Vries and Charles Kojo VanDyck guided the participants through a presentation and a number of exercises to create a shared understanding of the shift of power and practical ways to move forward.
Shifting the power is an important component of We are Able! and it touches on a great number of aspects of the programme. Co-creation is a key term in this process: how can we appreciate each other’s added value and work together towards mutually reinforcing partnerships? The participants discussed concrete, small steps that can be taken to make this happen.
It was a fruitful workshop that provided a lot of food for thought. This workshop was a first step in a process that will be developed further over the next years. The results will be discussed further in the working group and a workshop will also be held with the executive board.
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Updates from our programme countries
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South Sudan
The We are Able! (WaA!) programme showed significant development during the year 2021 in South Sudan. Although the project kicked off late, the consortium partners together with the implementing partners started all the activities outlined in the workplan.
In the first year of the project, ZOA under the Pathway One of the project carried out community mobilization and sensitization activities targeting three payams in Bor County, namely Anyidi, Makuach and Kolnyang. Various stakeholders were targeted including persons with disabilities, their families and caregivers, influencing their understanding of persons with disabilities, their rights and participation in community affairs and public life. ZOA was also able to conclude various partnership assessments with local partners participating in the project and draft capacity-building plans.
SeeYou and the African Disability Forum under Pathway Two of the project concentrated on building the capacity of staff of consortium and local partners. The Jonglei Disability Organization for example, in understanding the concept of Disability Inclusion and how staff can include people with a disability in the execution of the project activities.
Meanwhile, VNG International and the The Hague Academy under Pathway Three primarily focused on assessing the capacities of stakeholders/public authorities at the county and payam levels, identifying gaps and areas of weaknesses for capacity building. In September 2021, the South Sudan consortium organised a planning and review workshop, which was held in Nairobi, Kenya.
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Burundi
Burundi dealt with certain challenges including a lockdown and the delayed rainfall that resulted in reduced food production and consumption. However, We are Able! has managed to make a significant headway in the implementation of the programme. From community mobilisation to strengthening capacities of the organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs). Under community mobilisation, there were three activities planned: training and deployment of inclusion model households on disability inclusion (UPHB); training on the PIP approach and the farmer-to-farmer training (ZOA). Peer education has played a vital role in sensitising the households with persons with disabilities. There are now approximately 629 households in Makamba and Cibitoke provinces that sensitise other households to support persons with disabilities.
In 2021, 121 households were selected to become Innovative Farmers (PIs). These PIs were trained on the inclusive PIP approach and agricultural techniques. With the farmer to farmer training, the 121 PIs received refresher training in order to be able to deliver the training to the farmers that are going to be shortlisted by the PIs themselves.
VNG International and The Hague Academy for Local Governance conducted trainings on raising awareness of public authorities and persons with disabilities of the four districts in Burundi that were not aware of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities framework. It was also reported that the district authorities, CSOs and OPDs work in isolation and do not network, which makes the elaboration and implementation of the advocacy program very challenging.
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Meet Theophile Shukuru Kyolandawa, a trainer at We are Able! (WaA!) Theophile is part of the country team in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), operating in the South Kivu province. Theophile works on strengthening governments’ knowledge on key disability concepts and wishes to make the society around him disability-inclusive. He has completed a training with The Hague Academy for Local Governance on inclusive training methods for adults. Despite facing many challenges with his own disability, Theophile exhibits tremendous empathy towards those who face many barriers to living an independent and productive life citing their physical disability.
While persons with disabilities are entitled to the full spectrum of rights – including education, labour and wider societal participation – measures to consider persons with disabilities in policy are often seen as entirely optional, rather than a human rights-based mandate. Another challenge that persons with disabilities face is on the institutional level where the authorities remain unfamiliar with the rights of persons with disabilities. The DRC is a signatory of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), but it is not common to find local authorities that know of the DRC’s commitments nor of what the CRPD stipulates.
While addressing the difficulties for those with a disability and their support networks, Theophile says, “there is a notorious ignorance of disability-related issues”. A key step towards achieving disability-inclusive governance is to strengthen the knowledge of involved actors on key concepts related to disabilities.
In the future, Theophile’s dream is to become an internationally renowned humanitarian actor. He explains that he will never get tired of learning. However, in his environment, he reckons he will have to fight and survive to achieve this goal.
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Update from the WaA! coordinator - Joanne van der Schee
- Peter Das, as chair of the MEAL working group, is busy with coordinating the process of the annual report. He is available for any questions regarding this process. We are working hard to make the deadline.
- There are still vacancies for the position of Country Coordinator in Ethiopia and Uganda. Interviews are taking place and we hope to have new colleagues soon.
- Happy to share the date of the regional learning meeting in Burundi: 12-16 September 2022. We look forward to seeing each other again.
- A new addition to the WaA! Team in NL: Jonathan Don will be working on lobby for WaA!. The country teams will hear from him to strengthen the link between lobby in the countries and in the Netherlands.
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News from the WaA! working groups
Lobby and Advocacy Working Group
Lobby and advocacy are important tools for We are Able! to achieve its goals, focusing on connecting with other organisations on three levels.
Firstly, We are Able! works with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Organisation of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) in the project countries. For example, We are Able! has provided training to leaders and workers in OPDs and CSOs, and training of trainers, volunteers and community leaders about negotiation skills for disability rights and food security in Ethiopia. In South Sudan, a training was held on lobby and advocacy and accessibility for OPD participants as well as representatives from WaA! and governments. Similar trainings have taken place in Burundi and DR Congo.
Secondly, WaA! focuses on connecting local and national advocacy with the international level, by sharing good practices with local communities and a dialogue with United Cities and Local Governments. A side event was organised on February 17th (see: ‘WaA! and ADF jointly hosted a side event’ in this newsletter).
Lastly, WaA! carries out lobby and advocacy in The Netherlands, by setting up meetings with 11 different consortia about disability inclusive programming and advocacy. The first in these series was held on February 1st (see: ‘Power of Disability Inclusion’ in this newsletter).
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Communications Working Group
The Communications Working Group (CWG) consists of representatives of all six consortium partners. Most of us work as communications specialists within our organisations.
Our tasks are twofold. Firstly, we aim to inform the public - and our constituencies in particular- about problems, faced by disabled people and other marginalized groups in our programme countries. Secondly, we support the programme countries and other working groups with communications materials in reaching out to governments, other NGO’s and expertise partners.
So far, we’ve developed a visual identity, along with general communications materials like a brochure and a presentation. A basic website was setup, along with a presence on social media. To make our communications accessible for everyone involved with WaA! in both Africa and Europe, we aim to develop our materials in three languages: English, French and Dutch, with Arabic possibly added in the future.
Please have a look at www.weareable.ngo and provide us with more information to be presented on this website via info@weareable.ngo. Thanks! |
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Agenda
20 April: DCDD Network Meeting
On the 20th of April, DCDD hosts a network meeting on Digital solutions for disability inclusion' from 15:00 - 17:30 (CEST) in Utrecht (location to be confirmed). After the interactive exchange on 'digital solutions', there will be extra room for networking and catching up while enjoying some drinks & snacks. Register here
12-16 September: Regional Learning Event
We are Able! will be organising a “Regional Learning and Sharing Meeting” in Burundi from September 12-16, 2022. This meeting will be attended by consortium coordinators at country level, and members from the different working groups.
The five-day event will have sessions ranging from storytelling to lessons learnt in 2022; a field visit focusing on PIP, land rights and Food and Nutrition Security; adaptive programming and flexibility guidelines; and Annual Planning 2023.
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