Social Inclusion (video)

It is important to understand and plan for the barriers that marginalized communities face before, during, and after disaster situations. DRM practitioners need effective strategies to assess gaps and challenges to inclusion throughout the DRM cycle. This webinar will serve as a basic overview of who are at risk of being excluded and what inclusive DRM entails, and how to identify entry points to ensure that the needs of all citizens are taken into account.

In particular, the webinar will focus on persons with disabilities. One billion people - 15% of the world’s population - live with some form of disability. Persons with disabilities face unique constraints and challenges at each stage of DRM and face a disproportionately higher risk of being left behind during disasters and emergencies. Lack of accessible evacuation and sheltering facilities, challenges in accessing information, loss of necessary aids and medical equipment, and disruptions in critical service delivery chains are just some of the obstacles that can significant ramifications for the survival and welfare of persons with disabilities. Similar barriers also affect children and the elderly.

In this webinar, presenter Margaret Arnold, Senior Social Development Specialist, and host of this webinar Charlotte McClain-Nhlapo, Global Disability Advisor, will jointly discuss:

What are the social dimensions of DRM? How disasters affect excluded populations differently?

How to identify and work on entry points for inclusive DRM?

What are the most significant challenges that excluded populations, such as persons with disabilities, face in disaster situations?

Effective practices and case studies on disability-inclusive DRM.

Exclusion based on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Gender Expression (SOGIE) exists in different forms across cultures, countries and regions. Homosexuality is punishable by death in some countries and illegal in many others, although it is common for lesbian, gay, or bisexual people to face social exclusion even where homosexuality is not illegal. Transgender or intersex people may not be homosexual at all, but are frequently classified as “gay” regardless. Social stigma driven by homophobia, transphobia, and discriminatory laws fuels the exclusion of LGBTI people, creating barriers to accessing markets, essential services, and spaces. Such social stigma also often precludes participation by LGBTI persons in social institutions and decision-making, and exposes them to violence. Social inclusion that is accepting of human diversity is key to sustainable development. As Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group stated, “LGBTI inclusion will help alleviate poverty and give everyone the respect, dignity they deserve.”

During this webinar, Chloe Schwenke will give an overview of SOGIE issues in development, share her experience with the design, implementation, and evaluation of LGBTI programs and policies, and highlight examples of successful initiatives from around the world that focus on LGBTI inclusion. Prof. Schwenke will discuss the role development could and should play to help address SOGIE-based exclusion, and how best we could forge a more inclusive society.

Building the evidence base for inclusion of indigenous peoples is a complex task. In different countries, and within them, indigenous peoples are described by different names: ethnic minorities, scheduled tribes, first peoples/nations, aboriginals, ethnic groups, Adivasi, hill people and others. There is no single definition. Estimates of the number of indigenous peoples worldwide also vary, from 300 to 370 million people.

At the micro level, there are many ethnographic and anthropological studies about individual indigenous groups. What is still needed, in order to get clearer understanding of development challenges faced by indigenous populations around the world, is systematic, comparable research on a global scope.

In the developing world, most research on indigenous peoples has focused on Latin America. However, widening the lens to capture the entire developing world reveals a stunning result - the largest share of indigenous peoples actually live outside of this region; and while there are some encouraging instances where indigenous peoples are beginning to close the development gap, the global indigenous population often remain among the poorest of the poor, and faces many common challenges.

During this webinar, Gillette Hall, the co-author of the first global study on indigenous populations and poverty, will recap some the research findings from the book Indigenous Peoples, Poverty and Development, and discuss holes in the research that are still needed to be addressed.

One billion people - 15% of the world’s population - live with some form of disability. They make up one of the largest excluded groups. Facing multiple barriers, persons with disabilities are more likely to be poor, less educated, discriminated against and unemployed.

To understand disability and design evidence-based and inclusive policies, governments and development organizations need reliable disability disaggregated data. However, multidimensional nature of disability makes measurement difficult. Data is patchy; where it is available, definitions and methodologies vary, making comparisons across countries problematic. Finding ways of collecting better data on persons with disabilities will help identify strategies to improve their well-being and implementing the SDGs.

In this webinar, Daniel Mont, an international expert on disability measurement and inclusive development, will discuss:

What are known data gaps on disability, and how they can be filled?

What are existing sources of data on disability?

What datasets could be analyzed from disability perspective?

How can we build and use evidence for more inclusive policy and development decisions?

How do policies that have social inclusion at their core, differ from ordinary polices? How can practitioners design more inclusive interventions? Designing inclusive policies and programs will be the focus of the third webinar in the social inclusion series.

Change – either towards exclusion or inclusion - is inevitable and can happen by stealth or by design. This session highlights examples where change has taken place and provides a menu of options for policy makers.

This webinar proposes steps practitioners can take to develop and execute more inclusive interventions.