Persons with disabilities experience several risks in humanitarian crises. However, they are often overlooked in humanitarian responses and experience high barriers to access the assistance and protection they need. Even humanitarian actors which take their specific needs into account in policy and planning, still encounter challenges in making their assistance truly inclusive. To ensure that persons with disabilities have access to equal and effective participation, safety and protection in international humanitarian action in general and in German-funded assistance in particular, HI-CMB created the project “Phase 2: Leave no one behind: Mainstreaming Disability in Humanitarian Action.”
The aim of the project is threefold: It seeks to root disability in humanitarian coordination mechanisms; improve data on the inclusion of disability; and to build and expand the capacities of German humanitarian actors and their local and global partners to become disability inclusive. 

Despite growing awareness of the inadequate protection of persons with disabilities and growing political will to incorporate disability in humanitarian action, evidence that underpins, plans and helps investment in systematic capacity building processes is still lacking. There is still no research on supporting factors, resources and obstacles for mainstreaming disability in German or global humanitarian action. The existing findings are often anecdotal and based on the practical learning and project assessments of humanitarian actors, such as HI and CBM.
Research carried out under this project shall:

• Map the most important current literature on organizational and operational change processes of disability-inclusive humanitarian action;
• Identify lessons learned and good practices on organizational and programmatic change processes for the inclusion of persons with disabilities;
• Establish to which degree external factors influence change in global coordination mechanisms, donor regulations, and political will.

The research incorporates desk and literature analysis as well as field research in two target regions that will be determined in the first year of the project.
In addition to the research, guest lectures on disability-inclusive humanitarian action will be implemented in the NOHA Master program and disability will be established as a component of the NOHA master.

Project site: https://www.hi-deutschland-projekte.de/lnob/en/

Handicap International e.V. and Christoffel Blinden Mission Deutschland e.V. 

The German Federal Foreign Office 

15 November 2018 – 31 August 2021

Persons with disabilities are disproportionately affected by humanitarian crises and natural disasters. Environmental, institutional and attitudinal barriers prevent them from participating in and accessing humanitarian assistance. 

Since 2016, the Leave No One Behind! project series focused on mainstreaming disability in humanitarian action through capacity development, applied research and awareness raising. Phase 2 also significantly supported the development, translation and dissemination of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee’s (IASC) Guidelines on the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action - the first system-wide globally accepted guidelines on inclusive humanitarian action.

The project Phase 3 – Leave No One Behind! is a combination of global and local action that aims to benefit the entire humanitarian community by disseminating and operationalizing the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Guidelines on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action (hereafter: IASC Guidelines) through disability-inclusive programming.

For Phase 3, HI, CBM and IFHV will continue to develop and share their pooled technical expertise in the field of inclusive humanitarian action with German and international humanitarian organisations and their local partners, International Organisations (IOs)/ United Nations (UN) agencies and Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs). This will contribute to closing the gaps in meaningful participation and equal access to humanitarian assistance, which men and women, boys and girls with disabilities affected by emergencies still experience.

As a leading research institute with broad experience in the fields of humanitarian studies and international humanitarian and human rights law, the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (IFHV) at Ruhr University Bochum will research and document good practices on the operationalisation of the IASC Guidelines. Activities include:

• A scoping review to assess the literature and identify research gaps on the implemen tation of the IASC Guidelines;
• Field research in international organizations to explore how disability inclusion can be strengthened in pooled funds, humanitarian response planning, resourcing and/or coordination;
• A collection of case studies of good practices on disability inclusion in humanitarian crises worldwide;
• Comparative longitudinal participatory research in East and West Africa to examine how policy changes inform humanitarian practice in the field;
• Dissemination of findings in conferences and workshops;
• Guest lectures and module supervision in the NOHA Master Programme “International Humanitarian Action”.

Project site: https://www.hi-deutschland-projekte.de/lnob/en/

Handicap International e.V. and Christoffel Blinden Mission Deutschland e.V. 

The German Federal Foreign Office

1 January 2022 – 31 December 2024