Adolescents with disabilities Enhancing resilience and delivering inclusive development Nicola Jones, Elizabeth Presler-Marshall and Maria Stavropoulou July 2018 a About GAGE Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) is a nine-year (2015-2024) mixed-methods longitudinal research programme exploring the gendered experiences of young people aged 10-19 years. We are following the lives of 18,000 adolescents in six focal countries, two each in Africa (Ethiopia, Rwanda), Asia (Bangladesh, Nepal) and the Middle East (Jordan, Lebanon). GAGE aims to generate new evidence on ‘what works’ to transform the lives of adolescent girls and boys to enable them to move out of poverty and exclusion, and fast-track social change. GAGE research involves the most vulnerable adolescents, including adolescent refugees, adolescents with disabilities, those out of school, married girls and adolescent mothers. The results will support policy and programme actors to more effectively reach adolescent girls and boys to advance their wellbeing and what is needed to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, including the commitment to Leave No One Behind. The GAGE consortium, managed by the Overseas Development Institute, convenes 35 research, policy and programming partners globally and is funded by UK Aid from the UK government. About ODI ODI is an independent, global think tank, working for a sustainable and peaceful world in which every person thrives. ODI harnesses the power of evidence and ideas through research and partnership to confront challenges, develop solutions, and create change. ODI's work addresses four key global challenges – poverty and inequality, economies and work, sustainability, and conflict and fragility – and explores the tools and approaches needed to enable progress and address risks. Our multidisciplinary approach combines research, advisory work, convening and communications. Cover photo 1: An adolescent girl with a hearing impairment, Ethiopia © Nathalie Bertrams / GAGE 2018 Cover photo 2: An adolescent girl, with a hearing impairment, and her brother with a hearing impairment, Ethiopia © Nathalie Bertrams / GAGE 2018 Disclaimer This document is an output of the Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) programme which is funded by UK aid from the UK government. However, views expressed and information contained within do not necessarily reflect the UK government’s official policies and are not endorsed by the UK government, which accepts no responsibility for such views or information or for any reliance placed on them. Adolescents with disabilities Enhancing resilience and delivering inclusive development Nicola Jones, Elizabeth Presler-Marshall and Maria Stavropoulou Sarah Baird, Bassam Abu Hamad, Letisha Lunin, Kifah Bani Odeh, Joan Hamory Hicks, Jennifer Muz, Paola Pereznieto, Workneh Yadete, Kassahun Tilahun July 2018 Enhancing resilience and inclusive development for adolescents with disabilities About the authors Dr Nicola Jones is the Director of the Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) programme and a Principal Research Fellow in the Gender and Social Inclusion (GESI) programme at ODI Dr Elizabeth Presler-Marshall is an independent consultant and GAGE research associate Maria Stavropoulou is a Senior Research Officer in the GESI programme at ODI and a researcher with GAGE Dr Sarah Baird is an Associate Professor at George Washington University and the quantitative research lead for GAGE Dr Bassam Abu Hamad is an Associate Professor at Al Quds University in Gaza and the Associate Director for GAGE in the MENA region Letisha Lunin is the GAGE Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor Kifah Bani Odeh is an independent consultant and GAGE research associate based in Ramallah, West Bank Dr Joan Hamory Hicks is an Assistant Professor at University of Oklahoma and a quantitative researcher for GAGE Dr Jennifer Muz is an Assistant Professor at George Washington University and a quantitative researcher for GAGE Paola Pereznieto is an ODI Research Associate and independent consultant Workneh Yadete is the Research Uptake and Impact Coordinator for GAGE in Ethiopia and a senior qualitative researcher Dr Kassahun Tilahun is an Assistant Professor at Debre Berhan University and is the qualitative data manager for GAGE in Ethiopia Acknowledgements We would like to thank nine expert peer reviewers for their very insightful feedback and inputs: Professor Hannah Kuper, Director of the International Centre for Evidence in Disability at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; Dr Maria Kett, Head of Research at the Leonard Cheshire Disability and Inclusive Development Centre at UCL; Dr Ola Abu Alghaib, Director Global Influencing and Research at Leonard Cheshire Disability; Dr Gerison Lansdown, Child Rights and Disability Rights Expert and Advocate; Professor Ernestina Coast, Professor in Population Studies at the London School of Economics; Rachel Marcus, Senior Research Fellow at ODI; Dr Fiona Samuels, Senior Research Fellow at ODI; Dr Martin Evans, Senior Research Fellow at ODI; and Nora Fyles, Director of the Secretariat for the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI). We also wish to acknowledge indispensable editorial support from Kathryn O’Neill and Roo Griffiths; and the invaluable design, layout support and dedication of Jojoh Faal Sy. For strategic communication advice we would like to thank Joanna Rea and David Watson at ODI, and for communication support we thank Amie Retallick, Merryn Lagaida, James Rush, Pia Dawson, Hannah Bass, Hannah Caddick, Tom Alwyn, Katy Harris and Caelin Robinson also at ODI. We wish to sincerely acknowledge the quantitative GAGE research teams in Bangladesh (Innovations for Poverty Action Bangladesh) and Ethiopia (Ethiopian Research Development Institute) for their data collection efforts, and also the work of the qualitative GAGE research teams in – including the translators and sign language interpreters, and the research assistants involved in transcribing and coding interviews – in Bangladesh (BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, and James P. Grant School of Public Health (JPGSPH) at BRAC University), Ethiopia, Jordan and the State of Palestine, alongside the inputs of Professor Laura Camfield at the University of East Anglia. We are also indebted to the background evidence review undertaken by Rachel Marcus, Maria Stavropoulou, Nandini Archer-Gupta, Taveeshi Prasad Gupta, Georgia Plank, Ella Page, under the guidance of Caroline Harper. We would also like to thank Anamika Vithlani, Eric Neumeister, Tamanna Majid, Eman Abu Hamra and Haneen Razq for valuable research inputs, and Muriel Kahane and Alexander Vaughan for project management support. Finally, we sincerely acknowledge all the adolescent girls and boys with disabilities and their families, as well as teachers and service providers, in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Gaza, Jordan and the West Bank for sharing their experiences without whom the study would not have been possible. We are also particularly grateful to the adolescents with disabilities and their guardians, who although not part of the research, provided their consent to be photographed, and to Nathalie Berthams, Ingrid Gercama, Marcella Pasotti and Rebecca Reid for visually capturing their realities. Enhancing resilience and inclusive development for adolescents with disabilities Preface The past thirty years has witnessed a significant global transformation in recognition and understanding of disability, in large part as a result of effective and persistent activism on the part of the disability community. In 1989, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child broke new ground in its explicit inclusion of disability as a ground for protection from discrimination for the first time in an international human rights treaty. It also contained a dedicated article addressing the situation of children with disabilities. While welcome, its language still perpetuated the focus exclusively on targeting services and support towards children with disabilities rather than removing the barriers that impede the realisation of their rights. It was only with the adoption by the UN of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2006 that the social and human rights based model of disability was unequivocally recognised, through the introduction of two fundamental propositions. First, it affirms that persons with disabilities are subjects of rights on an equal basis with others. And second, it acknowledges that those rights will never be realised unless and until the economic, social, cultural, attitudinal, communication and physical barriers that serve to discriminate and exclude are removed. It laid to rest the charitable or defectology approaches that treated people with disabilities merely as objects of pity, contempt or medical intervention. Even more recently, explicit recognition of persons with disabilities in the SDGs, as contrasted with their complete absence from the MDGS, has provided further testimony as to the commitment from the global community to action towards overcoming their social exclusion. Of course, there is a world of difference between on the one hand, international commitments to respect for human rights, and on the other, effective implementation on the ground. Huge progress still needs to be made for all people with disabilities, in almost every country in the world. But, as this report elaborates, for adolescents, particularly girls with disabilities living in low and middle income countries, the challenges