Changing Systems Changing Lives © Ulrich Eigner

Inclusive Education and Disability Inclusion in Community Development

Why systemic change?

Education can be the most powerful equalising “[Inclusive education] requires an in-depth force in any society. More and better investment is transformation of education systems in needed to ensure the systemic change required, to legislation, policy, and the mechanisms for make this true for girls and boys with disabilities. financing, administration, design, delivery and monitoring of education.” X If the children who face the biggest challenges UNCRPD General Comment No. 4, 2016 succeed, everyone does. Real change towards an inclusive society requires The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development working at local, national, regional and international renews our commitment to transforming our world level. It involves strengthening the capacities of our to one that honours the rights of all, particularly local partners, in particular government authorities, the poorest and most vulnerable - persons with to drive change and development. It involves disabilities. Inclusive education is the segue to empowering civil society to push for change and achieving all other rights and central to building amplifying the voices of people with disabilities to an inclusive and prosperous society. Ensuring the call for better accountability. It requires adequate right to inclusive education for girls and boys with and appropriate investment from bilateral -and disabilities requires a transformation in culture, multilateral donors as well as private donors. policies and practices to accommodate differences, remove barriers, and progress by creating an While data on disability for planning purposes are enabling learning environment. scanty, embedding the principles of universal design Systemic change involves tackling discriminatory and holding those most at risk of exclusion first in attitudes in the community and negative stereotypes mind in designing education programmes can go a holding back persons with disabilities from long way in delivering the promise of leave no-on- developing to their fullest potential. behind and fostering systemic change.

How is Light for the World nurturing systemic change?

This document show-cases examples of systemic changing interventions from Light for the World programmes around the globe. These interventions affect the lives of individual families and catalyse changes in policies, financing, attitudes and workforce development. All of these will lead to lasting societal inclusion of people with disabilities in their respective settings.

Disability Inclusion in Community Development Changing hearts, minds and municipalities

X The deep transformation of education systems starts with changing negative social norms in the community about the education potential of children with disabilities.

Community based inclusive development is therefore the bedrock of our inclusive education work. The approach involves enrolling the support of local authorities, village chiefs, religious leaders, elders, parents and persons with disabilities. It creates a nurturing ecosystem in which girls and boys with disabilities can flourish. Trained volunteers go door to door to identify children with disabilities, counsel the family on their rights and accepting their child, do and teach simple rehabilitation exercises and connect with social services and economic empowerment initiatives. In Garango, a municipality in , where Light for the World supports a school-based inclusive education programme, we have seen an increase in the enrolment rate from 4 to over 60%. Working at municipality and village level makes it easier to operationalise the multi-sectoral approach and put communities and people at the heart of development. It is also at municipality level where budgets are drafted, so guidance is given to the authorities at this level to address the needs of persons with disabilities and their families in budgets and poverty alleviation strategies.

#CostingEquity A call for increased investment in disability-inclusive education

Light for the World and the International Disability and Development Consortium recognised that funding is one of the major barriers to realising ‘SDG 4: Quality, inclusive education for persons with disabilities’ and meeting the obligation to leave no-one behind. Many governments have already developed inclusive education policies and strategies aligned with the UNCRPD, but do not have the resource to fulfil the ambition. In the face of declining aid to education, it was even more imperative to build a strong case for investing in disability inclusive education. The #CostingEquity report and campaign to increase investment in disability- inclusive education attracted global attention. It highlighted the grave economic and social consequences for governments and individuals when neglecting the right to inclusive education for persons with disabilities. The current funding for inclusive education of leading donors falls considerably short of what is needed for ensuring systemic reform and supporting disability specific needs. X Over 259 organisations endorsed the call to action, building a strong and unified movement.

A discussion of the report in the House of Lords in 2017 urged the UK government to show leadership on disability-inclusive education. In addition, the report was launched in several donor countries and at several high-level events. A newsletter was started to encourage advocacy on increased financing at country level. Subsequently, we have observed that disability inclusion is increasingly being added as a core criterion for accessing funding and with the launch of the Inclusive Education Initiative at the World Bank, governments will receive better resources moving forward.

Papua New Guinea

In (PNG), 3.6 million people are deaf or hard of hearing due to malaria, middle-ear inflammation, meningitis PNG and other untreated diseases. Deafness, often referred to as a “hidden disability”, is a major cause for school-aged children dropping out of school.

Light for the World partnered with a local group, Callan Services, to address the issue in 17 provinces through direct support, capacity building and advocacy. Resource centres were established to assess, rehabilitate and support the placement of deaf and hard of hearing for students in mainstream schools. Specialists from the resource centre provide classroom inclusion advice and sign- language instruction to teachers and parents. The government now pays for key staff of the Deaf Education Resource Centres, namely, a health promoter responsible for hearing screenings, a education promoter who raises awareness, a deaf education teacher and Deaf assistant teachers. These Deaf assistant teachers work side-by-side the classroom teacher to support all students, lead lessons twice a week and promote sign-language development. They also serve as excellent role models, mentors, and catalysts for systemic change.

X The advocacy and success of the programme led to sign-language becoming Papua New Guinea’s fourth official language in 2015.

Mozambique Teacher Training Colleges (TTC) Stimulating and supporting districts to foster Inclusive Education In Mozambique, Ajuda de Desenvolvimento de Povo para Povo (ADPP) well known for training outstanding young teachers in Mozambique. Namanthanda, one of its 12 TTCs, is committed to being a centre of expertise in inclusive education. Their journey started in 1999, when they first began training blind and low vision youth to become teachers. The instructors at the college learned Braille in order to better support their students with disabilities and adapted their teaching approaches to include their blind trainees. All their pre-service students are taught to use inclusive education methodologies in order to be prepared for the variety of learners they will have in their classrooms.

X ADPP’s commitment continues to grow as they see the positive impact their alumni with and without disabilities are making in their communities to dispel negative stereotypes and ensure the right to education for the most marginalised.

The instructors at the college have taken on board the ‘learning by doing approach’ they practice in their pre-service curricula. While receiving regular coaching from international experts and engaged in post-graduate studies, they are supporting teachers, pedagogical directors and education authorities in 47 schools covering four districts. The support services include training teachers and mentoring schools and teachers that have girls and boys with disabilities in their classes. Through classroom observations and discussion, they support teachers to solve problems and improve their teaching strategies to include the diverse learning needs of all learners, not just those with disabilities. The web of support and leadership they offer reinforces the leadership role of teacher training colleges as critical players in promoting systemic change.

Burkina Faso Setting indicators to track success

Light for the World has been working as a technical partner to the Ministry of Education (MENA) and UNICEF on inclusive education since 2009. The country’s 10-year education strategy is disability- inclusive, however, only Burkina Faso recently big shifts in policy and plans are noticeable, in response to the promising practices on the ground. In 2014-2015, Light for the World supported the development of an inclusive education strategy. Through a highly participatory and iterative process a x year strategy comprising of five pillars was developed, with around 6 Mio EUR of budget for three years. Light for the World began working closely with three influential advocacy targets: • the local education group (LEG), chaired by UNICEF and the MENA • the national coalition for education (CNEPT) and • the forum of NGOs working on disability initiated by Light for the World, (CCI- Handicap).

During education sector reviews, Light for the World, raised concerns about the lack of indicators, inadequate management and leadership structures at regional and municipality level and the shortage of budget to implement the inclusive education strategy. In response to the lack of data for planning, Light for the World has encouraged the Department of Statistics of the Ministry of Education to collect more data on children with disabilities. The Ministry developed indicators to be inserted in the annual education statistics with the financial support of UNICEF and the technical support of Light for the World. In addition, the upcoming national census will include the Washington Group Questions.

X These initiatives will allow us to know what the needs are and can better serve the children with disabilities that are in school and out of school.

The individual and collective efforts of UNICEF, the World Bank, Humanity and Inclusion, supportive bilateral donors, and Disabled People’s Organisations are triggering systemic changes in measuring disability inclusion in education.

Ethiopia Child-led school system changes

In Ethiopia, disability inclusion clubs comprise of children with and without disabilities championing change in their schools and the wider community. After some initial input from a community based inclusive development worker on the right to education, etc., the children devise creative ways such as poetry competitions and art to sensitize other students and teachers on how to interact and include students with disabilities in their classrooms. The clubs support peer learning and ensure that students with disabilities attend school regularly and do not drop out. Other activities include learning sign-language and Braille together and child-led basic sign language lessons during the weekly assembly.

A primary school teacher in Gondar remarked, that membership to the club has increased significantly over the past five years and she has noticed a dramatic improvement in the performance of children with disabilities and a decline in bullying in general.

Ethiopia Community-based inclusive development embedded in government training and workforce Early childhood intervention will secure a better future for children with disabilities. This involves closer collaboration between health, education and social welfare ministries. Light for the World and the University of Gondar have worked together on systematising community-based inclusive development and inclusive education for a decade. In 2018, the government of Ethiopia has incorporated the field workers into the national structure under the Civil Service Proclamation of the Federal Government, like any other government civil servant. We recently piloted training of community health workers in early detection and referral of developmental delays.

X After 6 months, the referrals to Gondar University Hospital for people with disabilities went up from 87 to 187. As result, the authorities are looking at ways to streamline the referral system and include disability as part of the community health worker package.

Light for the World Nurturing Systemic Change

Systemic change is something that takes time and must be nurtured every step of the way. Through partnerships and planning, systemic change can lead to sustained inclusion of people with disabilities in their communities.

X We hope you to are inspire others to innovate, speak out and support the systemic changes required to leave no-one behind. © Maria Neumayr Light for the World

Niederhofstraße 26 www.light-for-the-world.org 1120 twitter: @lftwworldwide , Europe