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COVID-19 Resources and templates

MOTIVATION AUSTRALIA
October 2020

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Links to resources on information about COVID-19 for the general public and also specifically for health workers are provided. Links are provided for country specific information.

A COVID safe workplace plan template and a COVID workplace attendance register template have been developed to help health services and departments in the Pacific region to plan for and prevent the spread of COVID-19 in their workplace.

 

Addressing disability-related costs through social protection systems

COTE, Alexandre
CARRARO, Ludovico
SIJAPATI BASSNET, Bimbika
NASIIR, Mercoledi
SRISOM, Sawang
WAKANIYASI, Josh
O'BRIEN, Felicity
October 2020

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Understanding disability-related costs is critical to building social protection systems that truly support inclusion, participation, and sustainable escape from poverty of persons with disabilities across the life cycle. It challenges some usual approaches with regards to targeting, mutually exclusive benefits, and focus on incapacity to work rather than support to inclusion. 

Supporting the dissemination of a background paper, the webinar presented the diversity of disability-related costs and the role of different methods used to assess them. It also presented some practices of accounting for disability costs in the design of mainstream social protection schemes as well as how low and middle-income countries can progressively build the combination of cash transfers, concessions, and services needed to address them.

 

Speakers topics were:

Understanding disability-related costs for better social protection systems.

Accounting for disablity related costs in design of mainstream family assistance schemes, the case of Moldova and Mongolia.

Supporting a survey to estimate the good and services required for basic participation in Indonesia.

How social protection systems can progressively address disability-related costs: the case of Thailand. 

Not either or Disability allowance and economic empowerment in Fiji.

Fiji Gender, disability and inclusion analysis: COVID-19 and TC Harold, June 2020

COWLEY, Anna
June 2020

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While Fiji only had 18 cases of COVID-19, all of whom have recovered, the economic and social outcomes are significant and will be felt for years to come. The closure of international borders led to visitor arrivals contracting significantly by 43.5 percent up to April and the economy is projected to decline by 4.9% in 2020 under COVID-19. The impacts will extend to government revenue, which is expected to decrease by almost 50% in the next financial year.

In addition to the pandemic, Fiji was also struck by Severe Tropical Cyclone Harold on 08 April, causing States of Natural Disaster to be declared for COVID-19 and for TC Harold within the same week. Although Fiji is used to cyclones, prevention and movement restriction measures in place for COVID-19 made it difficult to respond to the trail of destruction left by the Category 4 cyclone. A total of 250 evacuation centers were opened in all four divisions and around 10,000 people were displaced.

The objectives of the Gender, Disability and Inclusion Analysis are:

- To analyse and understand the different impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic and TC Harold potentially have on women, men, girls and boys, people with disabilities and people of diverse SOGIESC and other marginalised groups in Fiji;

- To inform humanitarian programming in Fiji based on the different needs of women, men, boys and girls, people with disabilities and people of diverse SOGIESC with a particular focus on Gender Based Violence (GBV), Health, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Education in Emergencies, Food Security and Livelihoods, and Coping Strategies; and

- To provide recommendations for organisations responding to COVID-19 and TC Harold.

Disability and global health: Special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

KUPER, Hannah
POLAK, Sarah
Eds
2019

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Papers included in this special issue are:

 

Deaf people in Pacific Island countries. A design for the Pacific deaf strenthening program

JENKIN, Elena
WATERS, Philip
SEN, Krishneer
ADAM, Robert
2019

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Pacific Disability Forum (PDF) is committed to advancing the rights of people with disabilities living in Pacific Island Countries (PICs). Developing an evidence base to understand more about deaf children and adults’ experiences and priorities will better assist communities, DPOs, organisations and governments to plan inclusive communities, policy and programs.

 

The development of the design was deliberately planned to be highly collaborative and the team met with 161 people who shared their views. This provided opportunities for deaf people and DPOs to contribute to the design, along with representatives from government, non-government and regional organisations. This collaboration occurred in three countries in the Pacific, namely Solomon Islands, Samoa and Fiji. Within Fiji, the design team met with deaf and DPO representatives of other PIC’s along with regional multi-lateral organisations such as UNICEF and the Pacific Island Forum Secretariat (PIFS). Consultations also occurred remotely with supporting organisations and development workers that are focused on disability inclusion in the Pacific. The design undertook a desk review to learn what is known about deaf children and adults in the Pacific region. Participatory methods ensured the process was highly respectful of the views of deaf people. DPOs, other organisations and governments will be asked to identify to what extent deaf children, adults and their families are participating in services, programs and establishments, and to identify potential supports required to increase deaf people’s participation.  A capacity building element has been carefully built into the design. The report is divided into three parts. Part A rationalizes the design, with background information and a brief desk review to collect evidence from and about deaf children and adults in the Pacific. Part B describes the design development process and reports findings. Part C details the design for the situation analysis.  

Disability inclusion policy brief - Gap analysis on disability-inclusive humanitarian action in the Pacific

SHERRER, Valerie
et al
January 2018

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This policy brief presents findings from a gap analysis of disability-inclusive emergency response in the Pacific. 

The two main focuses of the gap analysis were:

A review of the level that New Zealand based non-governmental organisations (NGOs) include persons with disabilities in their emergency responses. This analysis was based on a review of the two recent significant disaster responses - tropical cyclone Pam in Vanuatu and tropical cyclone Winston in Fiji. 

An assessment of the capacity of Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (DPOs) to engage in the humanitarian responses and capture their perception of current humanitarian practice in the region - both the challenges and good practices observed

The analysis focused on identifying practical lessons learned from recent humanitarian responses with a view to identifying priority actions that can improve disability inclusion within future Pacific disaster preparedness and responses. The gap analysis comprised a literature review, surveys, interviews and focus group discussions

Communication Disability in Fiji: Community Cultural Beliefs and Attitudes

HOPF, Suzanne C
MCLEOD, Sharynne
MCDONAGH, Sarah H
RAKANACE, Epenisa N
2017

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Purpose: Beliefs about communication disability vary according to the cultural context, and influence people’s attitudes and help-seeking behaviour. Little is known about Fijians with communication disability or the communities in which they live, and specialist services for people with communication disability are yet to be established in Fiji. An understanding of Fijian beliefs about the causes of communication disability and attitudes towards people with communication disability may inform future service development.

 

Method: An interpretivist qualitative research paradigm and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework informed this project’s design. Scenarios of adults and children with communication disability were presented to 144 participants, randomly sampled across multiple public spaces in two Fiji cities. Thematic analysis of responses to 15 survey questions revealed participant beliefs about the causes and attitudes towards people with communication disability.

 

Results: Three clusters describing perceived causes emerged from the analysis - internal, external, and supernatural. Major clusters across child and adult scenarios were similar; however, response categories within the scenarios differed. Community attitudes to people with communication disability were predominantly negative. These community attitudes influenced individual participants’ beliefs about educational and employment opportunities for Fijians with communication disability.

 

Conclusion: Determination and acknowledgement of individuals’ belief systems informs development of culturally appropriate intervention programmes and health promotion activities.

 

Implications: Speech-language pathologists and other professionals working with Fijian communities should acknowledge community belief systems and develop culturally-specific health promotion activities, assessments, and interventions.

Disability & the Global South (DGS), 2017, Vol. 4 No. 1 - Special issue: Disability in the Sustainable Development Goals: Critical Reflections

2017

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Articles include:

  • Editorial: Disability and the SDGs: is the battle over?
  • Entering the SDG era: What do Fijians prioritise as indicators of disability-inclusive education?
  • SDGs, Inclusive Health and the path to Universal Health Coverage
  • No One Left Behind: A review of social protection and disability at the World Bank
  • The capacity of community-based participatory research in relation to disability and the SDGs
  • Measuring Disability and Inclusion in relation to the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development

Disability, CBR and inclusive development (DCID), 2017, Vol. 28 No. 1

2017

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Titles of research articles in this issue of the journal are:

  • Community Action Research in Disability (CARD): An inclusive research programme in Uganda
  • The Impact of Community-Based Rehabilitation in a Post-Conflict Environment of Sri Lanka
  • Communication Disability in Fiji: Community Cultural Beliefs and Attitudes
  • The Search for Successful Inclusion
  • Effect of Music Intervention on the Behaviour Disorders of Children with Intellectual Disability using Strategies from Applied Behaviour Analysis
  • The Effects of Severe Burns on Levels of Activity

Brief reports

  • Towards Accessible Built Environments in Universities in Ghana: An Approach to Inclusiveness Assessment
  • Physiotherapy Students’ Awareness of Community Health in India

Entering the SDG era: What do Fijians prioritise as indicators of disability-inclusive education?

SPRUNT, Beth
DEPPELER, Joanne
RAVULO, Kitione
TINAIVUNIVALU, Savaira
SHARMA, Umesh
2017

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Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 is to ‘Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’ and the targets and indicators for SDG 4 emphasise the importance of measuring outcomes for children with disabilities (United Nations, 2015b). This paper reports on findings from qualitative research investigating Fijian stakeholders’ priorities for measuring success of efforts within a contextually and culturally meaningful process of disabilityinclusive education; that is, achievement of SDG 4 for children with disabilities. The priorities are presented in light of the specific challenges in Fiji to fulfilling this goal. The research presented in this paper is one part of a much larger mixed method study funded by the Australian aid program that aimed to develop and test indicators for the education of children with disabilities in the Pacific (Sharma et al., 2016). Fijian researchers with lived experience of disability undertook key informant interviews and focus group discussions with 28 participants. The findings include the need for or role of: an implementation plan and resourcing to ensure the national inclusive education policy is activated; improved awareness and attitudes; competent, confident and compassionate teachers; disability-specific services and assistive technology; accessible buildings and transport; and the important role of special schools. Inclusive education reform requires that Fiji incorporates and builds on existing strengths in special and inclusive education to ensure that systems and people are prepared and resourced for inclusion. The paper concludes that targets within SDG 4 are compatible with priorities within Fiji, however additional indicators are required to measure locally-prioritized changes related to barriers which need to be addressed if Fiji is to make progress towards the higher-order targets of SDG 4.

 

Disability & the Global South (DGS), 2017, Vol. 4 No. 1

Together towards an inclusive world (series of videos to celebrate CRPD's 10th anniversary)

Australian Disability and Development Consortium
December 2016

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ADDC and ten of its members have produced a series of short videos featuring persons with disability who are, or were, engaged in a disability-inclusive development (DID) project or initiative (in Australia or overseas). In these videos they share their personal stories and how disability inclusive development projects changed their lives, benefitted their communities and contributed to a more inclusive society.

The video series was officially launched during a parliamentary event in Canberra on 30 November 2016 in the presence of some of the persons featuring in the videos and of senior politicians from different Australian political parties.

The event was opened by an address by Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, Minister for International Development and the Pacific. In her speech, she confirmed both the Australian government’s and her personal strong commitment to ensuring that all Australian development programs are disability-inclusive and to championing DID internationally. You will find a transcript of the Minister’s speech here attached.​

How CBM Australia supports engagement with government for disability inclusion and prevention

CBM AUSTRALIA
March 2016

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CBM Australia engages both directly and indirectly with governments. Indirectly, CBM Australia supports other organisations, for instance disabled people’s organisations or civil society organisations to engage with governments. This report looks at the different ways that CBM partners seek influence government and promote sustainability. It considers the different roles and relevance of activism, advocacy, service delivery and advisory approaches.

 

The cases in this report were identified and gathered through semi-structured interviews with CBM’s Program Officers, Technical Advisors, regional/country office and project staff in-country, as well as drawing on reports and evaluations. The report starts with a section explaining the four different approaches to working with government, followed by a brief introduction to each approach, highlighting what CBM are doing and the key lessons learned. Each section is followed by case studies giving more detailed insight into how CBM are engaging, key achievements, challenges and the lessons learned. Fifteen case studies covering key projects from CBM Australia’s International Programs and the Inclusive Development Team are described in this report.

Disability-inclusive education handbook for teachers

SPRUNT, Beth
McALEER, Jennifer
STEELE, Megan
DAVETA, Mereoni
QELENI, Merelesita
NALIVA, Litea
2015

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The Disability-Inclusive Education Handbook for Teachers is a resource that was developed in Fiji to enable teachers to improve the inclusiveness of their schools and classrooms so that children with specific educational needs benefit from a quality education alongside other children.

It contains general information about creating an inclusive school, information about a range of different types of disabilities, case studies and a selection of reproducible resources in the appendices. It is hoped this provides a balance between general information to make the school a place of quality education and participation for all children, along with a degree of specific information on common impairments and approaches that may help in working with students with these impairments.

Fiji disability inclusive community based disaster risk management toolkit

FIJI DISABLED PEOPLES ASSOCIATION
2013

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The toolkit is part of the pilot project called ‘Disability Inclusiveness in Disaster Risk Reduction Management’ in Fiji in partnership with the Pacific Disability Forum from 2011 – 2013. Fiji regularly experiences natural disasters so the toolkit was developed for the inclusion of disability within disaster management.  The toolkit is divided into three parts: part one presents an introduction to disability; part two provides detailed about disability inclusive community based disaster risk management activities in practice; and part three presents the toolbox. It is adapted from the Disability Inclusive Community Based Disaster Risk Management Toolkit for South Asia developed by Handicap International

Disability, livelihood and poverty in Asia and the Pacific - An executive summary of research findings

UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC (ESCAP) SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT DIVISION
November 2012

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This publication on Disability, Livelihood and Poverty in Asia and the Pacific is an executive summary that draws from a wider body of primary and secondary research undertaken by the ESCAP research team. It considers both the quantitative and qualitative dimensions which shape the livelihood experiences of persons with disabilities. The primary research is derived from collaboration between ESCAP and its national research partners: disabled people’s organizations (DPOs) and organizations for the empowerment of persons with disabilities. The research included a survey with 1768 respondents (people with disabilities) in eight countires (Fiji, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea and Thailand

Disabilities and decent work in the Pacific. The case for disability inclusive employment.

LAMOTTE, David
COCCO, Bernardo
LAL, Iresh
2012

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This publication aims to highlight some of the challenges faced by persons with disability in accessing decent jobs and to identify relevant labour standards and other policy interventions that could advance disability in the workplace and assist Pacific Island countries address these challenges. It also celebrates the experience of eighteen people with disabilities in Fiji and Vanuatu who have been able to secure employment – sometimes against all odds and barriers. As employees or as self-employed persons, their stories emphasise the “business case” for hiring a person with disability. They are hard-working, reliable, loyal and productive workers. Through their own strong determination, access to education and vocational training, they have overcome the barriers to employment that too many other people face. They are a role model to all of us and show that it is not a person’s disability, but, rather, their ability, that makes them good employees and productive members of society

Violence affects everyone

UNICEF PACIFIC
THE FIJI ASSOCIATION OF THE DEAF
2011

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This video features two perspectives of members from the Deaf community in Fiji about violence against women and girls. The issue of violence is defined and examples of support services are provided. This video is useful for anyone interested in violence issues in Fiji

Annual review of HRH situation in Asia-Pacific region 2006-2007

DING Yang
TIAN Jiang
August 2008

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"This report reviews the Human Resources for Health (HRH) status in the targeted countries by mainly focusing on health education and training, distribution and retention of health workers, community health workers. Eighteen countries have been included in the report: Bangladesh; Cambodia; China; Fiji; India; Indonesia; Lao PDR; Myanmar; Nepal; Philippines; Papua New Guinea; Samoa; Sri Lanka; Thailand; Vietnam; Australia; New Zealand and Mongolia"

Training manual on disability statistics

UNITED ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC (ESCAP)
WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO)
2008

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This training manual enhances "the understanding of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) based approach to disability measurement. It provides an overview of the ICF framework as well as guidelines on how to operationalise the underlying concepts of functioning and disability into data collection, dissemination and analysis." This manual is useful for anyone who is interested in disability data collection and dissemination for both national and international disability policy analysis, formulation and evaluation

Comparing disability questions for censuses and surveys in Asia and the Pacific

SMIT, Jan
LIU, Wei
February 2007

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“"This paper compares the construct and predictive validity of a set of disability questions tested on a sample of respondents in five Asia-Pacific countries. It finds that the construct validity of the Washington Group questions for the seeing, hearing, mobility and self care domains is good when WHO questions for the corresponding domains are used as a benchmark; this does not, however, apply to the questions for the cognition and communication domains. The Washington Group questions perform similar to corresponding WHO questions in terms of predictive validity. For the four models examined - explaining difficulty with household responsibilities, work and school, and joining community activities, as well as employment status - the different question sets perform similar in terms of significance and magnitude of the odds ratios"

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