This blog was also published on the INEE website.
Globally, 224 million young people are affected by crises. Based on recent estimates indicating 1 in 10 young people has a disability, there may be at least 22.4 million young persons with disabilities living in emergency and crisis-affected contexts.
This number is likely even higher given the health and safety risks affecting child development during crises.
Through a consultative process, the Inclusive Education Working Group (IEWG) at the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) has developed two reports on disability-inclusive education in emergencies (EiE). The first includes a resource repository and mapping. The second report presents a taxonomy of key concepts, examples of disability-inclusive education interventions from diverse regions and emergency contexts as well as these 7 principles for effective disability-inclusive EiE:
1. Encourage ownership of inclusive education efforts by meaningfully engaging communities in education, organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) in particular.
Principle 1 aligns with the UN CRPD and the definition of localization adopted by INEE. Localization is particularly important in emergency contexts where the presence of local actors, who understand cultural and contextual intricacies and the evolving needs of communities and individuals, is invaluable.
When community members, including learners with disabilities and their caregivers, are meaningfully involved in critical conversations and decision-making, educational initiatives are more relevant and effective, embedded into local practices and sustained over time.
2. Strengthen disability data collection tools and processes to enable more informed decision-making across all phases of an emergency.
Comprehensive and up-to-date data help identify where vulnerable children and youth are during times of crisis as well as their education, health and protection needs. Using the Washington Group Questions and disaggregated data are key to capturing how disability intersects with other characteristics such as gender and refugee status.
Improving data quality also requires better coordination among humanitarian actors to work together on collecting, analyzing and sharing disability-related information throughout an emergency as it relates to preparedness, response and recovery.