This document outlines lessons learned from including people with disabilities in a food security programme for ultra-poor women in Bangladesh. Key lessons include: ensuring inclusion is addressed in project proposals and selection criteria; budgeting and training staff for disability inclusion; collecting disability disaggregated data; and considering accessibility, disability-specific services, and social inclusion from the start of project design. Overall, the project found that women with disabilities were able to equally participate in and benefit from income generation activities, which improved their empowerment, status in the family, self-esteem, and community acceptance.

1. Food Security Programme for
Ultrapoor Women Bangladesh
Lessons learned from the inclusion of people with disabilities

2. Disability Mainstreaming
in Food Security

3. Improve foodsecurity of 40.000
women headed households
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Formation of women groups (1600)
Income Generating Activities
Health & Nutrition education
Acces to government schemes
Disaster risk response
Disability specific service delivery
Disability mainstreaming

4. LIGHT FOR THE
WORLD
ICCO
The Leprosy
mission NL/UK
RDRS
GUK
UST
GBK
TLMIB
CCDB
CDD

5. Target Group
• Focus on Ultrapoor women headed
households.
• Many of them are widow, divorced or
abanded, or have a chronically ill, or
disabled husband.
• Most of them landless, working as
housemaids, begging, poor housing
conditions, illiterate.
• Special focus on women with disabilities,
incl. women affected by Leprosy.

7. Targets & Results for disability
• 20% of the included households have a disabled family
member
• Service provision for an estimated 9800 people with
disabilities.
• Inclusion of women with disabilities in all project
activities

8. % of the households
People with a disability
8573
People who received support from the
disability/leprosy team, but do not have a disability
Total nr. of people who received services from the
disability/leprosy team
direct beneficiaries with disabilities
4048
direct beneficiaries who received support from the
disability/leprosy team, but do not have a disability
Total nr. of Direct beneficiaries who received
support from the disability/leprosy team ,
21,4%
12657
3792
3207
6999
9,5%

9. Type of disability – direct beneficiaries
Speech & Hearing
impairment
16%
Visual impairment
16%
Intellectual disability
6%
Leprosy
4%
Multiple
4%
Physical disability
54%

11. Social status
•
•
•
•
•
•
When a woman aquires a disability she is often
sent away by her husband.
Difficult to marry for a disabled girl, she often is
fully dependent on her family.
For a disabled man it is easier, often a marriage
arranged with a girl from a very poor family.
Husband often leaves the family if a child gets a
disability.
Care for disabled family members comes down to
women.
Neglect/physical abuse of people with disabilities.

12. Lessons Learned – Proposal writing
Inclusion starts right at proposal writing! It is
unlikely to expect that people with disabilities
will automatically be included in a project if
there are no specific strategies formulated in
the proposal to enhance their equal
participation.
-> FSUP Gaibandha compared to similar FSUP programmes
-> FSUP Gaibandha compared to Char Livelihood Programme DFID

13. Lessons learned- selection criteria
Make sure that your selection criteria do not
exclude people (on the basis of age or
disability, or anything else)
-> we needed to be more flexible on our selection criteria
-> example WFP Bangladesh “Exclusion criteria actively prevented the
selection of women over the age of 49 years, and selection practice prevented
the participation of the majority of disabled or chronically ill women.”

14. Lessons learned- selection practice
Make sure that the people who do the
selection are well trained and do not apply
their own criteria: “Such as ability to learn”
“Fit to work”
-> people with disabilities often not considered as participants for
income generating projects by the project staff, by the community, by
their family members and by themselves.

15. Lesson Learned – budget
Inclusion of people with disabilities isn’t very
costly. But you have to reserve budget in
advance.
Be flexible with this budget.
->In this project 6%, this includes disability specific
service delivery.

16. Lessons Learned – staff training
Training of staff is the most crucial part of the
inclusion process, because the major barrier
that prevents people with disability from
participation in projects is the attitude of
development practitioners
-> don’t forget to train the management and proposal writers as
well

17. Lesson Learned – M&E
Having accurate data on disability during
proposal writing is essential to make a good
planning for your project.
All data collected should be disaggregated for
people with disabilities; otherwise it will be
impossible to measure equal participation.

18. Lesson Learned – M&E
Include (disability) inclusion indicators in the
M&E framework right from the beginning.
-> start with a clear definition of disability
-> Do a good baseline survey on the disability
specific needs

19. Lessons learned - accessibility
Accessibility needs to be taken into account in
all aspects of the programme, right from the
beginning. Undoing inaccessibility later on is
more costly and less efficient.
-> offices were not make accessible, some shelters
were accessible, but the toilets were not…

20. Lessons learned – disability
specific needs
Make sure people with disabilities have access to
disability specific services, such as physiotherapy,
medical care or assistive devices. Refer to other
service providers or hire specialists who can provide
these services within the programme.
-> not every person with a disability in need of services.
Majority can do without specific interventions
-> think of sustainability right from the start

21. Lesssons learned – social inclusion
Don’t forget that the provision of
rehabilitation services is only one aspect of
the inclusion process. Social inclusion and the
removal of barriers within the project and
society is equally important.
-> raising awareness in groups about disability and leprosy
-> counselling for people with low self esteem
-> inclusion in DRR activities

22. Lessons learned – social inclusion
There’s no need to organize special training
for people with disabilities. The women with
disabilities could participate in all income
generating activities and reached the same
results as beneficiaries without disabilities.
-> family members involved in income generating activities
-> also women with disabilities represented in leadership of women
groups

23. Lessons learned- organisational
change
Inclusion of people with disabilities is not a
one time activity in a single project. It can
only be sustainable if organisations
incorporate the inclusion of people with
disabilities throughout all programmes and
incorporate it in the systems and structures of
their organizations.
-> doing one inclusive project doesn’t make you an inclusive
organisation

24. Overall conclusions
•
•
•
•
Participation in the women groups is very
empowering for the women with disabilities
Earning own income also improves position of
disabled person in the family
Earning own income increases self-esteem
Earning own income increases acceptance in the
wider community

26. Questions
thanks!