ED3–Empowering People with Disabilities in Development & DRR

We will create an interactive digital platform to empower people with disabilities to pursue careers in international development. Through online trainings, an accessible e-resource center, and e-networking, people with disabilities will be better equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to become change-makers and tackle complex social and environmental issues.

Over 1 billion people worldwide have some form of disability. 650 million people with disabilities (PWDs) live in Asia-Pacific, a region facing multiple development challenges spurred by poverty, urbanization, climate change, and recurrent disasters.

PWDs face unique challenges, and opportunities, in development and disaster risk reduction (DRR). PWDs, particularly women, experience higher rates of unemployment, leading to poverty and worsening disaster impacts. The need for disability inclusion is gaining recognition within the international development community. Yet, one major gap exists: PWDs are largely absent from employment within development organizations. The potential of PWDs, particularly youth, to become active contributors within the development community, including through governments and the private sector, remains untapped.

To address this, we will develop an interactive digital platform, ED3, to support young PWDs in Southeast Asia in pursuing international development careers. It will consist of:

• Online trainings on: 1) The international development field, including DRR and humanitarian aid; and 2) Current and emerging social, economic and environmental issues;
• Skills-building exercises for PWDs to increase their marketability, focusing on digital literacy, critical thinking, soft skills and sector-relevant writing skills;
• An e-resource center with key development frameworks in accessible formats;
• An interactive forum that brings together PWDs and development practitioners to promote knowledge-sharing;
• Stories of regional ‘disability and development champions’, especially young women champions.

We will also host face-to-face networking events for PWDs and development practitioners to link PWDs to potential employers, and support development organizations in becoming more ‘disability confident’.

Initially, ED3 will focus on users in selected ASEAN countries, with the aim of scaling-up this approach to other countries by adding region-specific information and translating contents into different languages. Our long-term vision is to establish a global network of users with disabilities who become change-makers in the international development community.

PWDs face serious disadvantages in the labor market. This stems from multiple factors, including discrimination and limited access to vocational training.

Development actors are trying to tackle this issue. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Article 27) and Sustainable Development Goals (Goal 8) mandate improved employment opportunities for PWDs. However, PWDs are underemployed, including within the development sector itself. While they’re increasingly consulted as stakeholders and as beneficiaries of development interventions, they seldom hold central roles within mainstream development organizations. This hinders their ability to lead disability-inclusive development efforts, and is a critical gap in ‘inclusion’. 

Recent literature focuses on disability’s relevance to development, DRR, and humanitarian aid, and on how PWDs can meaningfully contribute to these fields (CBM 2016, Alexander & Sagramola 2014, WHO 2011). The employment of PWDs, especially young people, brings multiple benefits including improved performance and workforce morale (ILO 2014).

Our team has extensive experience working on disability. We’re currently engaging governments, NGOs, and Disabled People’s Organizations (DPOs) to operationalize inclusive DRR in Southeast Asia. This work demonstrates that PWDs can become active DRR agents if offered appropriate skills-building opportunities, pointing to their potential to become change-makers in the wider development community. 

The target beneficiaries of this solution are young (18-23 years old) PWDs in Southeast Asia. ED3 will increase their international development knowledge and build 21st century skills needed for development careers with NGOs, governments, or the private sector. Development practitioners will also benefit by learning how to better operationalize ‘inclusion’ within their organizations or agencies.

The key expected outcomes are: 

• PWDs develop marketable skills that empower them to pursue careers in development.
• PWDs are able to participate on more equal terms in the development labor market. 
• Development practitioners become 'disability confident' and recognize the value of hiring PWDs.

Track online registrations and disaggregate registration data by gender and disability status. - Within the first year, 1,000 PWDs have become members of the platform to better prepare themselves for careers in international development.

Conduct pre- and post- training surveys, and in-depth interviews with participants to gauge success. - 85% of PWDs who participate in the platform’s skills-based trainings have gained knowledge/feel better equipped to contribute to the international development field.

Conduct surveys and in-depth interviews with development practitioners. - 85% of development practitioners who participate in the platform and related activities will recognize the value of employing young people with disabilities within their organizations.

Few resources exist for PWDs wanting to pursue international development careers. Existing resources are brief, designed for people in developed countries and lack interactivity.

ED3 is specifically designed for PWDs in developing countries. It offers accessible and context-specific knowledge and skills. It fosters connections between people with disabilities, helping to forge a novel, e-community of aspiring development professionals with disabilities. ED3 will encourage potential employers (development practitioners, governments and private sector actors) to engage with PWDs through the platform’s discussion forums to facilitate relationship-building and develop mutual understanding.

Collectively, ED3 users can drive inclusion efforts and reshape the development community.

Understanding the accessibility needs of PWDs is essential for inclusion. Our team includes people with different types of disabilities who will shape ED3’s design. We’ll adhere to existing accessibility guidelines and consult target end-users to provide input throughout the design process. Accessible resources on the platform will include: sign language videos for Deaf users, audio clips for visually-impaired users, ‘easy-read’ documents for users with intellectual disabilities, and materials in local languages.

We’ll adopt a development evaluation approach in which trainings are trialed, evaluated and revised to meet user needs. To promote user involvement, we’ll regularly solicit and feature crowd-sourced materials. 

ED3 will be free of charge for users. Internet use is expanding rapidly throughout Southeast Asia, making this platform accessible to a wide number of users. For people with weaker internet connections, low-resolution versions of resources will be made available, as well as downloadable versions of resources that users can access offline at a later time.

For people that have very limited to no internet access, or for those that prefer to learn in person, some face-face workshops will be held in target countries, in collaboration with provincial DPOs. These can be advertised offline through radio, posters and community centers.

We will adopt a rigorous Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system to gauge the platform’s effectiveness, and to establish a strong qualitative and quantitative evidence base demonstrating its ‘value for money’. This evidence will be used to get buy-in and attract funding from national government agencies in target countries, e.g. Ministries of Labor or Social Services. The team will build on government connections that have been established through our current projects in the target countries.

We will also seek funding from major NGOs and UN organizations. We will pursue both financial and in-kind contributions to the platform from development organizations by demonstrating how this platform can be aligned with organizational policies on human resources and diversity. 

Several project partners, including SEI-Asia, Monash University and the University of Sydney, have extensive fundraising experience and internal fundraising capacities, as well as long-standing relationships with key donors to bolster financial sustainability efforts.

The ‘charity model’, which sees PWDs as objects of care rather than capable agents, is still prevalent in Southeast Asia. Some PWDs may initially lack the confidence to independently participate in this type of platform. Some development practitioners may also be hesitant to participate because they lack experience directly interacting with people with disabilities. To address this, ED3 will feature a virtual ‘helpdesk’ to provide support to all users.

Lastly, platform users will likely have varying levels of education. To ensure equal access, we’ll feature a range of materials suitable to different audiences, and appropriate for their specific learning needs.

http://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/teams/disability-and-disasters/

http://www.preventionweb.net/experts/oped/view/53180

There is huge potential for PWDs to become pioneers within the development community. We see Solve as an ideal place to kick-start this effort given its emphasis on human-centered design and scalability. We want people with disabilities worldwide to have equal opportunities to participate in the international development labor market. To achieve this, they need access to resources. Solve can help us refine our technological approach to ensure it is on the cutting edge of accessible technology, and provide us with critical insights on how we can adapt and scale our approach to benefit people with disabilities in other regions. 

• University of Sydney, Australia
• Monash University, Australia
• Craigs Consultants International, Australia
• Cambodian Disabled People’s Organization (CDPO), Cambodia
• Inclusive Development and Empowerment Agenda (IDEA), Philippines
• Deaf Disaster Assistance Team- DRR (DDAT-DRR), Philippines
• KPC Consultants, Thailand

This idea is novel and therefore we have no known competitors in the region or globally.