Monthly Newsletter | Issue 16 - December 2021
Reference Group on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action
Welcome to the 16th edition of the DRG Newslette
r and the last one of 2021!The year is coming to a close and we do not want to end it without wholeheartedly thanking you all for your continuous engagement, commitment, interest, support and fabulous contributions which have no doubt helped start delivering on a strong footing the long term DRG mission and mandate.
In 2021 we have made great progress in the implementation of our workplan and managed to secure some funding for critical activities aiming at supporting humanitarian practitioners and organisations of persons with disabilities be better equipped to deliver and engage in inclusive humanitarian action. We also organized and contributed to a number of global events to further promote and roll out the IASC Guidelines on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action and keep raising awareness on the importance of protecting the rights of persons with disabilities and ensuring their full participation in crisis situations. Last but not least, the DRG reached more than 200 members from across the globe making it an incredibly rich and diverse group, energy of which we should capitalize on to keep delivering, coordinating, exchanging and learning in the new year.
We look forward to an enhanced collaboration in 2022 and your ongoing inspiration!
Elham Youssefian (International Disability Alliance), Christian Modino Hok (CBM Global) and Kirstin Lange (UNICEF)
© CDPF
Child Rights Resource Centre - Save The Children
Would you like to have your knowledge materials on disability inclusion displayed on the Child Right Resource Centre? Submit for inclusion by uploading directly on the platform or emailing resourcecentre [at] savethechildren.org.

Alt Text: Smiling boy leaning against his walking stick in Rohinya Refugee Camp with text reading “Sharing Knowledge for an Equitable Future: https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/
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Launch of Good Practice Documentation from Rohingya Response in Bangladesh
- accessibility of services
- the multidisciplinary team approach
- provision of home-based rehabilitation
>> Link to the Good Practice Documentation from Rohingya Response in Bangladesh
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Prolonged COVID-19 Pandemic Deepens Hardship for Over 12 Million Forcibly Displaced People with Disabilities
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In recent years, global attention to disability inclusion in humanitarian and development contexts, notably comprising disability inclusion within the Sustainable Development Goals, has significantly increased. As a result, UN agencies and programmes are increasingly seeking to understand and increase the extent to which persons with disabilities are accounted for and included in their efforts to provide life-saving assistance.
To explore the effects and effectiveness of such measurement, this paper applies a complexity-informed, realist evaluation methodology to a case study of a single measurement intervention. The goal is to assess how a disability measurement intervention operated in practice, to help improve understanding of how best data can be leveraged to support inclusion in humanitarian and development activities.
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Using the global Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Guidance on the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action, the Leave No One Behind Project jointly delivered by Humanity and Inclusion, CBM and the Institute for International Law of Peace and Humanitarian Law (IFHV) at the Ruhr-University Bochumis supports humanitarian actors better understand the human rights-based approach to disability in their work. To better understand the challenges of implementing inclusive humanitarian assistance, and to document best practices, part of the project is dedicated to researching inclusive humanitarian assistance. The first case study focuses on disability mainstreaming in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, where more than 854,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar have found refuge.
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Falling Through the Cracks: Inclusion and Exclusion in Humanitarian Action
The humanitarian sector continues to struggle to be inclusive of all groups and needs in crises. Agencies operating in emergencies find it difficult to address the needs of ‘new’ categories of ‘vulnerability’ – or for that matter to think outside the restrictive categories of ‘vulnerability’ and embrace a more holistic and flexible approach to people’s needs in crises.
Through a focus on needs in internal displacement settings, ODI explores how vulnerability is conceived and operationalised, and therefore how needs are perceived and understood. The research aims to understand the concept of vulnerability in humanitarian action, and explore why material assistance, service delivery and protection programmes often fail to consider certain groups or individuals that end up being excluded from humanitarian action. The project will aim to inform humanitarian action that is more systemically inclusive.
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A Call for Action on Disability Inclusive Humanitarian Commitments
For this, it is necessary to break the siloes that challenge the power of our collaboration. All stakeholders, including humanitarian actors, States, private sector, communities, organizations of persons with disabilities and others working to promote inclusion of persons with disabilities need to join efforts to scale up investment in disability inclusive emergency preparedness and response.