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Towards zero leprosy. Global leprosy (‎Hansen’s Disease)‎ strategy 2021–2030

WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO), REGIONAL OFFICE FOR SOUTH-EAST ASIA
April 2021

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The Global Leprosy Strategy 2021–2030 “Towards zero leprosy” was developed through a broad consultative process with all major stakeholders during 2019 and 2020. Valuable inputs were provided by national leprosy programme managers, technical agencies, public health and leprosy experts, funding agencies and persons or members of communities directly affected by leprosy.

The Strategy aims to contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. It is structured along four pillars:

(‎i)‎ implement integrated, country-owned zero leprosy road maps in all endemic countries;
(‎ii)‎ scale up leprosy prevention alongside integrated active case detection;
(‎iii)‎ manage leprosy and its complications and prevent new disability; and
(‎iv)‎ combat stigma and ensure human rights are respected. Interruption of transmission and elimination of disease are at the core of the Strategy

COVID-19 from the margins: Gendered-Disability experiences in Sri Lanka

KANDASAMY, Niro
PERERA, Binendri
SOLDATIC, Karen
2021

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Recent research in the global South has highlighted that persons with disabilities are a vulnerable category of persons during the COVID19 outbreak. This paper provides some preliminary insights into Sri Lankan government responses to the outbreak, which, as we will be highlighting, take an ableist approach that further neglect the interests of persons with disabilities while entrenching disability dependencies on informal structures of familial and household support and in turn, increasing their marginality and economic insecurity. The COVID-19 outbreak hit Sri Lanka during a period of political turmoil – national Parliament had been dissolved on 3 March 2020 with elections initially called for 25 April 2020, six months prior to the official end of the Government’s elected term. Drawing upon rapid interview narratives, we present the lived experiences of two women with disabilities and the unique challenges they are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic. As we write this paper in September 2020, we acknowledge that the longer-term impacts of COVID-19 will not become immediately visible, particularly for disabled people from ethno-religious minority groups, including those residing within the former conflict zones.

Disability & inclusion survey, Malakal Protection of Civilians site

International Organization for Migration’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (IOM DTM)
February 2021

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The International Organization for Migration’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (IOM DTM), Protection and Mental Health and Psycho-Social Support teams joined efforts with Humanity & Inclusion (HI) to undertake an assessment of the level of access to services and the barriers faced by persons with disabilities within Malakal Protection of Civilian site (PoC site). The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) contributed to the qualitative component of the study as the main Protection and Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) actors operating within the PoC site. The study, based on data collected between March 2020 and June 2020, aims to improve the knowledge base available to the humanitarian community about access to services by persons with disabilities living in the site. It provides a quantitative estimate of the prevalence of disabilities among the IDP population and an assessment of the barriers faced by persons with disability in accessing humanitarian services across sectors. It also seeks to empower persons with disabilities living within the PoC site, giving them the opportunity to express their concerns and preferences with regards to possible solutions and targeted interventions. It is hoped that the resulting data will help camp management and other service providers operating within Malakal PoC site, including IOM, UNHCR and DRC, to better account for the concerns and needs of persons with disability in humanitarian programming and service delivery. This study builds onto and expands previous studies in Naivasha IDP Camp (formerly Wau PoC AA Site) and Bentiu PoC Site.

Global Disability Summit - Civil Society Consultations 2020

INTERNATIONAL DISABILITY ALLIANCE (IDA)
February 2021

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In December 2020, IDA coordinated with local and regional partners 4 (four) GDS consultations involving persons with disabilities in Africa, Latin America and Asia. These were the beginning of a series of more than 20 workshops that IDA is planning with partner organizations in different parts of the world, to assess progress made against national commitments adopted in 2018, discuss thematic priorities, and plan events, discussions and training for the run-up to the main GDS event in Oslo.

In total, consultations have been carried in 15 countries with more than 100 participants, reaching 5 (five) underrepresented groups: persons with intellectual & psychosocial disabilities, indigenous persons with disabilities, youth, and women

Ending the neglect to attain the Sustainable Development Goals: A road map for neglected tropical diseases 2021–2030

WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO)
January 2021

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The road map sets global targets and milestones to prevent, control, eliminate or eradicate 20 diseases and disease groups as well as cross-cutting targets aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals. Three foundational pillars will support global efforts to achieve the targets: accelerate programmatic action (pillar 1), intensify cross-cutting approaches (pillar 2) and change operating models and culture to facilitate country ownership (pillar 3).

The disease summaries annexed to the road map detail the current epidemiological status and burden of disease, core strategic interventions and progress towards the 2020 targets of the previous road map. The targets, sub-targets and milestones for 2030, and the critical actions required to achieve them, were used to generate the evidence in the road map document endorsed by the World Health AssemblY

Rights of persons with disabilities : note / by the Secretary-General

DEVANDAS-AGUILAR, Catalina
November 2020

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The Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, Catalina Devandas-Aguilar, examines the importance of international cooperation to support the implementation of the rights of persons with disabilities and provides guidance to States on how to ensure that international cooperation is inclusive of and accessible to persons with disabilities.

 

In preparing the report, the Special Rapporteur analysed 40 responses to a questionnaire sent to Member States, national human rights institutions and civil society organizations, including organizations of persons with disabilities.  She also commissioned a study to assess the extent to which international cooperation was inclusive of and accessible to persons with disabilities, which included surveys and interviews with 26 bilateral and multilateral agencies and 10 private donors

Message to Covid-19 Disability Rights Monitor

TESORIERO, Paula
October 2020

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A message by the chair of the Disability Working Group at GANHRI (Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions), on the occasion of the launch of the COVID-19 Disability Rights Monitor Global Report.

Disability inclusion in the United Nations system - Report of the Secretary General

SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS
October 2020

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When launching the Strategy in June 2019, the Secretary-General stated that the United Nations would lead by example and raise its standards and performance on disability inclusion across all pillars of its work, from Headquarters to the field. The present report outlines the first steps on the path to achieving transformative and lasting change for persons with disabilities across the United Nations system

 

The report is organized into seven sections. Following the introduction, an overview of the advances made in the United Nations on disability inclusion, including the adoption of the Strategy, is provided in section II; the first year of implementation of the Strategy at the entity and country levels is reported on in section III; coronavirus disease (COVID-19) response and recovery efforts are the focus of section IV; the overarching actions for implementation of the Strategy are considered in section V; challenges and opportunities are highlighted in section VI; and the conclusion and recommendations for consideration by the General Assembly are contained in section VII. The report provides an analysis of information from 57 United Nations entities1 that reported under the Strategy ’s entity accountability framework and seven United Nations country teams that completed the accountability scorecard on disability inclusion as part of a targeted roll-out.

Global humanitarian response plan COVID-19. United Nations Coordinated appeal April – December 2020

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
May 2020

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The COVID-19 Global HRP is a joint effort by members of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), including UN, other international organizations and NGOs with a humanitarian mandate, to analyse and respond to the direct public health and indirect immediate humanitarian consequences of the pandemic, particularly on people in countries already facing other crises. It aggregates relevant COVID-19 appeals and inputs from WFP, WHO, IOM, UNDP, UNFPA, UN-Habitat, UNHCR, UNICEF and NGOs, and it complements other plans developed by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

Ear and hearing survey handbook

WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO)
May 2020

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This survey handbook provides guidance for planning and implementing hearing loss surveys, including information on possible data collection tools. The survey handbook aims to enable countries – particularly low- and middle-income countries – to gather data by planning and implementing population-based epidemiological surveys.

The main uses of data collected by such surveys are:

  • to provide an accurate picture of hearing loss prevalence in a given area, which could be a country or an area within the country (e.g. district or state);
  • to provide an overview of the most common probable causes of deafness and hearing loss in the study area;
  • assess global and regional prevalence and trends

 

Using this survey handbook for data collection will help to ensure comparability of data collected through studies conducted in different countries and by different investigators. This will facilitate the estimation of global prevalence and the examination of hearing loss trends over time.

The effect of school leadership on implementing inclusive education: how transformational and instructional leadership practices affect individualised education planning

LAMBRECHT, Jennifer
LENKEIT, Jenny
HARTMANN, Anne
EHLERT, Antje
KNIGGE, Michel
SPÖRER, Nadine
2020

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Fostering equity by offering the best education possible to all students is one of the main goals of inclusive schooling. One instrument to implement individualised education is individualised education planning (IEP). IEP requires cooperation between special and regular teachers. From research on school leadership it is known that leadership styles are connected to the way, school leaders use their scope of action with respect to fostering collaboration. However, little is known about the relationship between the leadership of a school, the provision of structures for collaboration, and the implementation of IEP in an inclusive context. The article focuses on the question to what extent transformational (TL) and instructional leadership (IL) are connected to the provision of structures for collaboration and how TL and IL as well as structures for collaboration relate to the implementation of IEP directly and indirectly. Based on data of N = 135 German schools, a path model was calculated. It revealed medium relations between TL, IL, and structures for collaboration as well as a medium effect from structures to collaboration on implementation of IEP. The effect from TL towards implementation of IEP was fully mediated by structures for collaboration, while the effect from IL persisted.

Teachers’ strategies for enhancing shy children's engagement in oral activities: necessary, but insufficient?

NYBORG, Geir
MJELVE, Liv Heidi
EDWARDS, Anne
CROZIER, W R
2020

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Shy children can present challenges for teachers aiming at inclusive classrooms. Their educational attainments can be lower than their peers, they may have difficulties in adjustment to school and they can be at risk of meeting clinical criteria for social anxiety disorder. One recurrent finding is that they are often quiet across a range of school situations. The study reported here focused on teachers’ strategies to engage shy students in frequently occurring oral activities, such as group work, in elementary school classrooms. Data were gathered through post-observation stimulated-recall interviews with eight teachers who had experience of success with shy students and three focus groups with 11 similarly experienced teachers. The analysis examined teachers’ actions with these children to enhance their visible engagement in activities that require oral participation. The findings suggest that although teachers attended to the psychosocial aspects of student engagement, there was little emphasis on the pedagogic purposes of oral activities with these children. We conclude that more attention should be paid to the academic aspects of oral activities when aiming at inclusion for shy children.

United Nations Disability Inclusion strategy

UNITED NATIONS
June 2019

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The United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy provides the foundation for sustainable and transformative progress on disability inclusion through all pillars of the work of the United Nations: peace and security, human rights, and development.
 
The Strategy enables the UN system to support the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and other international human rights instruments, as well as the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Agenda for Humanity and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The Strategy includes a policy and an accountability framework, with benchmarks to assess progress and accelerate change on disability inclusion. The policy establishes a vision and commitment for the United Nations system on the inclusion of persons with disabilities.

 

The strategy is based on three over-arching approaches to achieve disability inclusion: twin track approach; intersectionality; and coordination

There are four core areas of responsibility: leadership, strategic planning and management; inclusiveness; programming; and organisational culture

Rehabilitation in health systems: guide for action

WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO)
May 2019

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There is great variation across countries regarding the rehabilitation needs of the population, characteristics of the health system and the challenges that face rehabilitation. For this reason, it is important for each country to identify their own priorities and develop a rehabilitation strategic plan. A rehabilitation strategic plan should seek to increase the accessibility, quality and outcomes of rehabilitation.

To assist countries to develop a comprehensive, coherent and beneficial strategic plan, WHO has developed Rehabilitation in health systems: guide for action. This resource leads governments through a four-phase process of (1) situation assessment; (2) strategic planning; (3) development of monitoring, evaluation and review processes; and (4) implementation of the strategic plan. This process utilizes health system strengthening practices with a focus on rehabilitation.

The Rehabilitation in health systems: guide for action provides practical help that directs governments through the four phases and twelve steps. The process can take place at national or subnational level. Typically phases 1 to 3 occur over a 12-month period, while phase 4 occurs over the period of the strategic plan, around 5 years. The four phases and accompanying guidance are outlined below

Guidance on strengthening disability inclusion in Humanitarian Response Plans

PERRY, Stephen
LANGE, Kirstin
MITRA, Gopal
WOOD, Gavin
April 2019

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This guidance provides support to seven UN entities on how to strengthen inclusion of disability in Humanitarian Response Plans (HRPs) as part of the UK Department for International Development (DFID) Humanitarian Investment Program. The aim of this work is to make humanitarian programming more responsive to the needs of people with disabilities affected by crisis. Humanitarian Response Plans are the product of a strategic planning process that is informed by humanitarian needs assessment activities. Therefore, this guidance focuses primarily on the steps in the humanitarian program cycle (HPC) leading to the HRP, including the process of developing the Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO). This guidance has been aligned to the 2019 revision of this process

Developing country-specific wheelchair service provision strategic plans for Romania and the Philippines

GOWRAN, Rosemary
et al
March 2019

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The process used to support the development of wheelchair service strategic plans in Romania and the Philippines is described. The paper considers the influences, meaning, challenges and developments when producing strategic priorities within two different contexts.

 

Journal of Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology, Volume 14, 2019 - Issue 6

Uniting to combat neglected tropical diseases 2018 Action Framework Report

UNITING TO COMBAT NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES
2019

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From 2013 to 2017, the Uniting to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases (“Uniting”) partnership has produced an annual scorecard and report to celebrate progress and highlight the principal challenges. The Uniting partnership reviewed the scorecard approach in 2017. The initial scoring process was associated with several challenges in terms of inconsistent indicators across diseases and the number of subjective judgements required to arrive at a final score. The scorecard review resulted in a transition from a scoring approach to a collaborative assessment of progress, gaps and priorities, and identification of areas for collective action. Two new tools replaced the scorecard: the Action Framework and the Impact Dashboard. The Action Framework is a standardized gap analysis tool. It uses qualitative input from stakeholders across the NTD community and fosters dialogue and collective action among a broad set of stakeholders. The Impact Dashboards display quantitative data sourced from WHO and pharmaceutical companies, with standardized indicators across the PC and IDM diseases, to provide a high-level view of impact and gaps at the global level. 

What do Dutch general education teachers do to facilitate the social participation of students with SEBD?

DE LEEUW, Renske Ria
DE BOER, Anke
MINNAERT, Alexander
2018

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Few studies have addressed the daily practice of applied teacher strategies aimed at facilitating the social participation of students with social-emotional problems or behavioural difficulties (SEBD). In this paper, we present two interlinked studies that address this topic. The main study reports on the development of the Teacher Strategy Questionnaire on Social Participation in the Classroom (TSQ-SPC). We tested the questionnaire’s construct validity by performing a second-order confirmatory factor analysis. The follow-up study presents the results of a survey of 163 Dutch general primary education teachers of inclusive classes using a modified version of the TSQ-SPC. It provides insights on the strategies that teachers apply in their daily practice to facilitate positive social participation of students with SEBD. The findings of both studies suggest that general primary education teachers apply a limited repertoire of strategies. Accordingly, there is an urgent need for further research focusing on the development of interventions and revisions of the pre- and in-service teacher development curricula aimed at adequately supporting and preparing general education teachers.

Scaling up inclusive approaches for marginalised and vulnerable people. K4D emerging issues report

CARTER, Becky
JOSHI, Anu
REMME, Michelle
July 2018

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This rapid review summarises the evidence on how to scale up inclusive approaches to complex social change. It looks at how to design scalable inclusive change interventions, as well as how to plan and manage the scale-up process. Focusing on interventions with the aim of reaching the most marginalised and transform social norms, it covers programmes aiming to deliver inclusive outcomes for women and girls (with a particular focus on preventing violence against women and girls) and persons with disabilities. To date, many interventions seeking to change harmful gender and disability norms have been implemented as small-scale projects. There are limited experiences of scale-up and fewer evaluations of these experiences. However, there are some documented case studies as well as emerging analysis that draw out lessons learned. From this evidence base, this rapid desk review identifies eight critical issues commonly highlighted as important considerations when scaling up inclusive change interventions:

1. Opportunities for systemic approach, including integrating political and community-level scale-up, and coordinating across multiple sectors and stakeholders

2. Political support for scale-up

3. Strategic choices: balancing reach, speed, cost, quality, equity, and sustainability

4. Catalysing change: tipping points, diffusion effects, and local champions

5. Locally grounded, participatory, and adaptive approaches

6. Long-term approaches with funding models to match

7. Cost-effective and financially feasible scale-up strategies

8. Measuring impact and sustainability.

 

Scale-up pathways are discussed including: horizontal, vertical, functional and organisational.

A number of case studies are given.

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