Supriya Akerkar introduces the latest in our Work in Progress seminar series: Tackling Persistent
exclusions of older people and people with disabilities in humanitarian
responses: Challenges and Way Forward
The sustainable
development goals promise to leave no one behind and call for social
inclusion of the excluded or groups marginalised in the development processes
and all its SDG goals. Pursuance of these goals in inclusive ways would require
various institutions to have the capacities to deliver this agenda. This
research is a contribution towards this global ambition and reflects on the
evidence from the Age and Disability Capacity Programme (ADCAP) to deliver it,
particularly in relation to two social groups – older people and people with
disabilities in the context of humanitarian responses and humanitarian
organisations.
In
this relation, it asks two questions: How and why does persistent exclusion of
older people and people with disabilities take place in humanitarian responses?
How can humanitarian organisations be capacitated to enable inclusion of older
people and people with disabilities in their work?
The research identifies the dominant approach of humanitarian
organisations which work with ‘special needs’ or ‘checklist’ approach to older
people and people with disabilities as one of the main barriers to inclusion. Integrating
concepts from critical disability and ageism studies, and the empirical
evidence from the ADCAP initiative, the research develops a transdisciplinary
framework for ‘critical capacity building’
of the humanitarian organisations to enable inclusion. Conceived as a ‘social-political discursive’ (SPD) framework for critical capacity building, it
calls for facilitating structural changes within humanitarian organisations through
focused and sustained SPD engagements over a period of time. The research
shows that facilitation of such a critical capacity building
approach is more demanding and requires more efforts than organising technical trainings,
the conventional approach to capacity building in humanitarian organisations.
The seminar is from 16.30 to 18.00 on Thursday, 31 October in JHB307.
