Dhaka Conference on disability and disaster risk management - December 2015

1. Disability, disasters and empowerment
Dhaka Conference on disability and disaster risk management -
December 2015

2. © Sightsavers
Presentation outline
•Evidence from qualitative research with participants from Satkhira in a
Sightsavers and Disabled Rehabilitation and Research Association (DRRA)
disability inclusive disaster preparedness programme
•Outline the forms of empowerment accessed by people with disabilities
participating in self-help groups formed in the programme; within groups
and externally reaching outwards to influence change
•Research findings demonstrate the importance of engaging people with
disabilities and the bodies responsible for decision-making at all level
•Engagement has led to changing attitudes and tangible linkages and
representation with the bodies responsible for disaster management
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Sightsavers and DRRA programme
DRRA and Sightsavers agreed disaster preparedness and livelihoods are a priority
in this region
Funded through Sightsavers Innovation Fund (UK Department for International
Development)
Formed 24 self help groups in 12 Unions; three Upazilas in Satkhira; one in Khulna.
Each self help group has 15 members
Aimed to:
• Address vulnerability of people with disabilities to disasters by forming self-
help groups of people with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities
(identified by DRRA)
• Increase participant's knowledge of disaster preparedness
• Access existing support for livelihoods and identify innovative livelihood
opportunities
• Build capacity of participants to engage with bodies responsible for disaster
management
• Advocate for disability rights at local and national level
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Context for people with disabilities
Nationally:
•Increasingly disability-inclusive legislation (gaps in implementation)
•Negative family and community attitudes
•Stigma and discrimination
•Inaccessibility
•Challenges accessing employment, health care and education
•Existing gender inequality heightens barriers for women and girls with
disabilities – ‘double and multiple forms of discrimination’
Satkhira:
•Poorest and most conservative region – extremely challenging, very limited
resources
•Lack of knowledge of disability issues – local leaders and service providers
•Women and girls with disabilities face additional constraints around
mobility due to conservative belief systems
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Natural hazards or disasters?
•Impacts of disasters are socially constructed, hazards only become
‘disasters’ for certain people: poorest people in a community are often the
most vulnerable to impacts; those with strong livelihoods and resources
tend to be more ‘resilient’
•Particular relevance for people with disabilities: poverty and disability are
inextricably linked due to the number of barriers people with disabilities face
accessing education, health care and employment
•Lack of evidence on the relationship between disability and disasters; and
practice of inclusive disaster risk reduction / humanitarian intervention
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Types of environmental hazard
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Types of environmental hazard
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Main types of environmental hazard
Cyclones
•Sidr (2007)
•Aila (2009)
Flooding
•Frequent flooding
•Complex river systems
•Heavy rainfall / monsoon climate
Waterlogging
•Waterlogged for months at a time (up to 6 months)
•Results from tidal surges / floods / storm surges
•Blocked dams / creating sluices
•Sometimes deliberate – shrimp cultivation
•Government Official claimed 2011 waterlogging only occurred as canals
had been tampered with
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Types of environmental hazard
Flooding
Waterlogging
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Types of environmental hazard
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Types of environmental hazard
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Context in Satkhira
Poverty and housing
•Despite conditions people are often reluctant to leave shelters as they
have nothing left to return to
•Majority of houses are made of mud, bamboo and/or tin
•Located in highly vulnerable positions
•After previous disaster do not have resources to rebuild with anything other
than the same vulnerable materials
•Exposed to the next environmental hazard
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Context in Satkhira
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Context in Satkhira
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Context in Satkhira
Limited range of livelihoods
• Land owners cultivate crops, poultry, livestock
• Salinity limits crop production
• Majority of people work as day labourers
• Fishing, shrimp, crab cultivation – vital to the region
• Increasingly undermined by hazards:
• Assets washed away
• Render fertile land unproductive
Poverty, challenging livelihoods and disruption due to regular
disasters
“Everything gets disrupted…everything, every livelihood, because
everything is empty…they have to rebuild from scratch”
Quote from a Union Chairman
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Research methodology
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Research objectives • Identify the causes of vulnerability to disasters for
people with disabilities in Satkhira
• Assess how participation in self-help groups has
influenced participants access to forms of
empowerment
Data collection • Group discussions / semi-structured interviews
• Satkhira / Dhaka
• Bangla / English
• Recorded and transcribed
Sampling / site selection • Purposive sample (participants / relevant
stakeholders)
• Three out of four Upazilas in project

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Data collection
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Research findings

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Vulnerability to disasters
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Poverty and barriers accessing livelihoods: wider context of poverty and
hazards; discriminatory attitudes of employers; economic pressure
Increased risk factors for women: existing gender inequalities; daily
responsibilities; reduced social mobility in comparison to men; social taboos
on physical contact even during evacuations; abuse at shelters
Reduced mobility: widespread inaccessibility; hazards change the
environment; lack of specific evacuation plans; discrimination
Inaccessible shelters and relief distribution: shortage of space;
inaccessible physical environment and sanitation facilities; lack of specific
measures to ensure relief is accessed at shelters and in communities
Inaccessible warning systems: lack of consideration for people with
sensory, multiple or complex disabilities

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Empowerment within groups
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Forms of empowerment produced through participation in self help
groups
Evidence within self help groups:
Trust Knowledge Norms / actions
• Shared
experiences
• Common
aspirations
• Functioning groups
• Collaboration
• Disability rights
• Understanding
impairments
• Disaster
preparedness
• Disaster response
• Reaching out
• Organisational
activities
• Changing attitudes
• Inclusive changes
in the community

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Empowerment within groups
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Shared experiences of exclusion / growing confidence from
participation
“They think I am not effective, I am not useful for them, I am a burden, I
have no income, I cannot help…so we cannot give him respect”
“We are all a little bit deprived from the society, society cannot give us
proper respect, proper opportunity to flourish. So I think if we join this group,
it will be helpful for us to become like one of them”
Quotes from Self Help Group members

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Empowerment within groups
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Forms of empowerment produced through participation in self help
groups
Evidence within self help groups:
Trust Knowledge Norms / actions
• Shared
experiences
• Common
aspirations
• Functioning groups
• Collaboration
• Disability rights
• Understanding
impairments
• Disaster
preparedness
• Disaster response
• Reaching out
• Organisational
activities
• Changing attitudes
• Inclusive changes
in the community

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Empowerment within groups
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Disaster preparedness
•Use meetings to prioritise issues to address
•Learn about types of hazards
•Discuss warning signs / signals to be aware of
•Identify family members or carers to take specific action
Disaster response
•Clear knowledge of measures to take
•Plans for helping each other
•Agreed actions with highly vulnerable members of the group (Assigning
group members; agreed meeting points)
•Cyclone Mahasen (2013)

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Empowerment within groups
12/16/15 To edit, go to View > Header & Footer
Forms of empowerment produced through participation in self help
groups
Evidence within self help groups:
Trust Knowledge Norms / actions
• Shared
experiences
• Common
aspirations
• Functioning groups
• Collaboration
• Disability rights
• Understanding
impairments
• Disaster
preparedness
• Disaster response
• Reaching out
• Organisational
activities
• Changing attitudes
• Inclusive changes
in the community

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Empowerment: reaching outwards
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Forms of empowerment produced through participation in self help
groups
Evidence of self help groups reaching outwards:
Trust Knowledge Norms / actions
• Information sharing
• Group lobbying
• Livelihood support
• Welfare support
• National and
international
disability rights
• Representation on
UDMC and CPP
• Inclusive changes
• Advocating leaders
• Advocating service
providers
• Changing attitudes

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Empowerment: reaching outwards
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Representation
•Self help group members have been invited to join Union Disaster
Management Committees
• 21 people with disabilities have joined UDMCs in 11 out of 12 Unions
covered
•Self help group members have also joined or are advising Cyclone
Preparedness Programme Units
•Links have developed through engagement
•Hugely positive impact – these are the bodies that conduct disaster
preparedness and evacuations at the local level

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Empowerment: reaching outwards
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Representation
Self help group members were already noting the impact:
•Included meaningfully in plans and meetings
•One Union Parishad had a ramp installed (used as a shelter)
•CPP units are starting to use lists given to them by members
•CPP also calling for people with disabilities, pregnant women and older
people to evacuate ahead of others
•This was not the case before Cyclone Aila (2009)
•Participants felt this was clear in preparation for Cyclone Mahasen (2013)

30. © Sightsavers
Empowerment: reaching outwards
12/16/15 To edit, go to View > Header & Footer
Forms of empowerment produced through participation in self help
groups
Evidence of self help groups reaching outwards:
Trust Knowledge Norms / actions
• Information sharing
• Group lobbying
• Livelihood support
• Welfare support
• National and
international
disability rights
• Representation on
UDMC and CPP
• Inclusive changes
• Advocating leaders
• Advocating service
providers
• Changing attitudes

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Empowerment: reaching outwards
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Changing attitudes of local leaders
•Initially self help group members felt UDMC members questioned what
they – as people with disabilities – could contribute
•The input of self help group members is now actively sought
•Union members have expressed gratitude – aware of disability issues and
are making changes (schools / hospitals)
•Still have concerns (attitude of health workers) but confident that through
these links Union leaders will make positive changes
“If you can do something about persons with disabilities, it can be an
example to other Chairmen in other Union Councils to follow”
Quote from a Union Chairman

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Recommendations
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• Target and engage people with disabilities – giving particular focus to the
inclusion of girls and women with disabilities – agree minimum standards
for disability-inclusive programmes; provide training to workers; and
include disability audits in evaluations
• Strengthen national information systems, data collection and use
participatory – and disability-inclusive – vulnerability and capacity
assessments to collate information on people with disabilities to identify
existing risks
• Strengthen the capacity and resources of people with disabilities;
representative organisations and actively involve them in all stages of
disaster management, climate change adaptation and poverty reduction
processes

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Recommendations
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• Design and implement accessible and inclusive warning systems,
information and physical support systems
• Raise awareness of disability issues within communities and identify
local champions; target families and community networks
• Advocate for and promote the rights and representation of people with
disabilities at all levels of society
• Ensure a co-ordinated, sustainable and disability-inclusive approach to
the development challenges posed by poverty, environmental hazards
and the impacts of climate change

34. © Sightsavers
Dhonnobad / Thank you
Report and summary documents available
For more information please contact:
fsmith@sightsavers.org or bangladesh@sightsavers.org