Paper details
| Paper authors | Dennis Dijkzeul |
| In panel on | Inclusion of Disadvantaged Groups in Humanitarian Action and Disaster Risk Reduction |
| Paper presenter(s) will be presenting |
In-Person / |
Abstract
In Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, more than 870,000 refugees have found shelter after fleeing from Myanmar. While all of them live in dire conditions, persons with disabilities face even more severe barriers in accessing humanitarian services and participating in the humanitarian response. This paper examines how humanitarian organizations mainstream disability into their response, along with the challenges they encounter. It demonstrates that short funding cycles, frequent staff turnover, and strict approval requirements by relevant government authorities reduce time and resources to create an inclusive environment and ensure meaningful participation of persons with disabilities.
To ensure the inclusion of persons with disabilities, it is crucial that donors guarantee sustainable and reliable funding. This will allow organizations to focus on capacity building and make the necessary investments to build an accessible environment. Humanitarian actors should promote the meaningful participation of persons with disabilities, collect, analyse, use and share data disaggregated by age, gender and disability, reduce attitudinal, environmental and institutional barriers, identify good practices and learn from one another’s experiences. Ideally, the Government of Bangladesh and humanitarian actors will facilitate longer-term programming to contribute to the inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian services until a return of the Rohingya to Myanmar becomes possible.
