Policy paper

HelpAge

Published 23 July 2018

This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government

Form for submitting commitments for the Global Disability Summit 2018

Your organisation

Type of organisation: Civil Society Organisation

Name of organisation: HelpAge International

Charter for Change

Please read the attached Summit Charter for Change: the principal legacy of the Summit. If your organisation is happy to sign up to the Charter, please confirm by putting a cross in the box below.

My organisation signs up to the Summit Charter for Change: X

Your organisation’s commitments to achieve the rights of people with disabilities in developing countries

A. Commitments to eliminate Stigma and Discrimination

Please select the category which your commitment most relates to: Representation and empowerment of persons with disabilities

Please enter the exact wording of the commitment/s, including details of others who has supported its development (75 words limit):

HelpAge International commits to action to eliminate age, disability and gender discrimination through ensuring that the voices and experiences of older women and men with disabilities are included in our advocacy and campaigning strategies and heard by decision-makers. We will support older people with disabilities to know about and claim their rights; and promote recognition and understanding of the rights of older persons with disabilities among development and humanitarian decision-makers at global, regional, national levels.

Timeframe and/or implementation plan (75 words limit)

Over the course of our Business Plan timeframe 2018 – 2020, we will promote implementation of global advocacy and campaigning guidance on ageing, disability and gender in collaboration with HelpAge regional hubs and network members; incorporate the voices and experiences of older people with disabilities in our participation in the WHO-led global campaign on ageism; and expand capacity-building activities in LMICs with older people with disabilities, including rolling out the Humanitarian Inclusion Standards.

B. Commitments for Inclusive Education:

Please select the category which your commitment most relates to: Choose an item.

Please enter the exact wording of the commitment/s, including details of others who have supported its development (75 words limit):

Timeframe and/or implementation plan (75 words limit)

C. Commitments for Economic Empowerment

Please select the category which your commitment most relates to: Inclusive social protection systems

Please enter the exact wording of the commitment/s, including details of others who have supported its development (75 words limit):

HelpAge commits to strengthen the evidence base on the intersectionality of disability, gender and ageing and the design of inclusive social protection systems in lower and middle-income countries, working to ensure that more older people with disabilities have access to appropriate and transformative social protection systems, which recognize social vulnerabilities. HelpAge will leverage ongoing projects in Kenya and Myanmar to better understand disabilities in older age and develop a strategy for inclusive social protection.

Timeframe and/or implementation plan (75 words limit)

Over the course of our Business Plan timeframe(2018 – 2020), HelpAge will have developed an organizational strategy for inclusive social protection, based on evidence generated through projects in Myanmar, Kenya and beyond.

D. Commitments for Technology and Innovation

Please select the category which your commitment most relates to: Join Global Partnership for Assistive Technology

Please enter the exact wording of the commitment/s, including details of others who have supported its development (75 words limit):

HelpAge commits to support the Global Partnership for Assistive Technology to ensure older people with disability are aware of relevant assistive technology to support their needs, understand their added value in maintaining and improving their quality of life and have timely access to affordable, quality equipment and assistive technology. As members of the Global Partnership, we will promote understanding among decision-makers of their role in enabling access to assistive technology for older people with disabilities.

Timeframe and/or implementation plan (75 words limit)

Under the leadership of our Global Disability Advisor, HelpAge will continue to engage in raising awareness of the Global Partnership for Assistive Technology among 130 global network members across 75 countries. As part of this work, Help Age is committed to developing train modules for specific assistive devices used by older people with disabilities living in low and middle income contexts.

E. Commitments for Data Disaggregation

Please select the category which your commitment most relates to: Sign up to the Inclusive Data Charter

Please enter the exact wording of the commitment/s, including details of others who have supported its development (75 words limit):

In the context of our commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we want to ensure that every person counts across their life course and will be counted. HelpAge is signing the Inclusive Data Charter.We are also committed to participating in the Titchfield City Group on ageing and age-disaggregated data which will promote standardised approaches to age, sex and disability disaggregated data across national statistical systems, including in humanitarian contexts.

Timeframe and/or implementation plan (75 words limit)

Help Age will act at the macro level through active participation in the work of the Titchfield City Group on ageing and age-disaggregated data. At the micro level, HelpAge has developed organisational Minimum Sex, Age, Disability Disaggregation Guidelines(SADDD) and, as signatories of the Inclusive Data Charter, is committing to the progressive implementation of those Guidelines across our programmes during 2018 – 2020

F. Commitments for Women and Girls with Disabilities

Please enter the exact wording of the commitment/s, including details of others who have supported its development (75 words limit):

Please enter the exact wording of any other commitment/s that do not fall under the themes above, including details of others who have supported its development (75 words limit):

Help Age commits to building our evidence base on the experience of older women with disabilities with regard to violence, abuse, neglect in development and humanitarian settings. We commit to raising awareness of this often hidden issue; to working in partnership with stakeholders at global, national, local levels (including women’s organisations, DPOs) to develop accessible, effective prevention and response interventions for older women with disabilities who are survivors, or at risk of violence, abuse, neglect.

Timeframe and/or implementation plan (75 words limit)

Help Age and network partners will implement our commitment to a stronger evidence base on prevalence, types and drivers of violence, abuse and neglect of older women with disabilities in India, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Malawi and Tanzania. We will work with local actors to promote more robust data collection, especially in age cohorts over 50+ and disability (WG questions), and to develop effective violence prevention and response interventions for older women with disabilities.

N.B. Some of the focus countries will depend on funding.

G. Commitments for people with disabilities in Humanitarian

Please enter the exact wording of the commitment/s, including details of others who has supported its development (75 words limit):

HelpAge commits to promote the inclusion of older people with disabilities, in humanitarian action, to help address the gap in understanding the needs, capacities and rights of older people with disability, and promote their inclusion in humanitarian action. With the Humanitarian Inclusion Standards now part of the SPHERE Humanitarian Standards Partnership(HSP), there is a broader commitment to collaborate at global, regional and country level on sharing standards, training and learning.

Timeframe and/or implementation plan (75 words limit)

HelpAge is part of the Age and Disability Consortium – ADCAP (CBM, IFRC, RedR, Oxford Brookes University), and copyright holders of the Humanitarian Inclusion Standards with CBM, IFRC and HI; we are developing a longer term plan in the next year to build up new direction under the HSP vision, which aims to improve the quality and accountability of humanitarian action through increased application of humanitarian standards.

We commit to working with the HelpAge network, local OPAs and DPOs to improve collaboration and coordination in humanitarian contexts. We will do this in part through the ADCAP consortium.

H. Other Commitments

Please enter the exact wording of any other commitment/s that do not fall under the themes above, including details of others who have supported its development (75 words limit):

HelpAge has committed from 2017 to raise the profile of disability inclusion across Help Age and among partners and network members by developing a Disability Inclusion Learning group. Key objectives are to:

• Build on shared experiences and lessons learnt from programmatic activity in humanitarian, fragile and development contexts.
• Promote further engagement and collaboration with disability networks such as IDDC and GAD and IDA in order to learn from their experiences and further strengthen Help Age’s work on disability inclusion.