ReliefWeb

Introduction

One billion people around the world experience some form of disability, and 80 percent of persons with disabilities live in low-middle-income countries. Disability is an evolving concept and “results from the interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.” The obstacles may be further complicated by the intersection of disability with other identities such as gender, race, and ethnicity, and a combination of these factors can lead to systemic disadvantages and disparities. Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated the inequalities experienced by persons with disabilities including widening the digital learning divide, increasing domestic violence, and increasing discrimination.

The link between disability and poverty is now well-accepted: “disability is a risk factor for poverty, and poverty is a risk factor for disability.” However, disasters not only worsen the conditions of those living in poverty but can also push millions into poverty through a single event. This is especially pertinent with the increase in disaster events and the worsening climatic effects due to climate change. The intersection of poverty and disability, along with other sources of marginalization, can also play a significant role in undermining a person’s resilience to disasters.

People’s vulnerability to the impacts of natural hazards and climate change are determined by social, economic, political, and environmental factors. A survey conducted by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) found that only 20 percent of persons with disabilities felt that they could evacuate their living spaces without difficulty in the event of an emergency, and 72 percent of respondents said that they did not have a personal preparedness plan in the event of a disaster. Yet 51 percent of respondents expressed a desire to be involved in community-based disaster risk management (DRM) activities. These figures indicate a gap in the participation of, and protection measures for, persons with disabilities, despite their willingness to engage in preparedness activities.

Recognizing the importance of supporting persons with disabilities, the UN community has developed a robust global DRM and humanitarian architecture to promote the engagement and needs of persons with disabilities in the event of disasters, including the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-203011 and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). International organizations have also expressed their commitment to protecting the rights of people with disabilities, for example, the World Bank Group Commitments on Disability-Inclusive Development, which includes Commitment 5: People with Disabilities in Humanitarian Contexts – Our projects financing public facilities in post-disaster reconstruction efforts will be disability-inclusive by 2020. Further, several national legislations have paved the way for project- and policy-level implementation of these commitments.

A 2017 report published by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), Disability Inclusion in Disaster Risk Management, recommends that the World Bank should undertake specific efforts to include persons with disabilities in DRM activities while better aligning these efforts with the Sendai Framework’s call for an inclusive approach to DRM. The report highlights five broad areas for disability-inclusive actions:

1. Include persons with disabilities as valued stakeholders in DRM activities;

2. Help remove barriers to the full participation of persons with disabilities;

3. Leverage policies and legal frameworks to address the needs of persons with disabilities;

4. Collect data that is disaggregated by disability type; and

5. Ensure that new construction, rehabilitation, and reconstruction are accessible to persons with disabilities.

The long-term socio-economic impact of exclusion far outweighs the cost of inclusion if it is undertaken at the onset of development programming. Facilitating an environment with accessible infrastructure and appropriate support modalities would enable more than 1 billion people with disabilities to fully participate in society and contribute productively to the economy. In Latin America and the Caribbean, by contrast, approximately 195 million people who live in households with persons with disabilities are affected by the lack of robust disability-inclusive policies and thus are unable to “fully participate in social, cultural, economic, and political spaces.” Similar trends are observed in other regions.

Building on the findings and recommendations of the 2017 GFDRR report, this note aims to update good practices of inclusive DRM in the five key areas outlined by the report, in the context of rapidly evolving multiple crises, especially punctuated by the COVID-19 pandemic. By highlighting World Bank-financed projects and stakeholder expertise, this note provides development practitioners with an array of examples to leverage more effective support for disability-inclusive DRM activities. The findings presented in this note are the result of a desk review, consultations with World Bank staff, and in-depth interviews conducted with a range of stakeholders. The examples and resources featured in the note are relevant to both operational and analytical work.