Partnering with UNICEF to support disability inclusion
Background
CBM Global’s Inclusion Advisory Group (IAG) supports UNICEF Australia and Headquarters staff to embed disability inclusion in their work at country office or regional level.
Our work with UNICEF Australia
Since 2015, IAG Australia team advisors have had a strategic partnership with UNICEF Australia to bring together our respective expertise and networks in disability inclusive programming and policy with child rights. We continue to support UNICEF to work with governments in our region on ways to safely include children with disabilities in all their diversity across different settings.
Through this partnership, we have supported the UNICEF East Asia Pacific Regional Office (EAPRO) with the design of their regional initial action plan (RIAP) to implement UNICEF’S global Disability Inclusion Policy and Strategy (DIPAS). This will ensure increased disability-inclusive programming and practices across 28 countries in the East Asia and Pacific Region, with clear commitments and timelines.
We have also provided disability inclusion advice to support UNICEF Country Offices, primarily across Asia Pacific.
We have collaborated on a number of initiatives with UNICEF Timor-Leste that support children with disabilities. For example, we supported the development of modules and activities for children with disabilities so they could run Child Friendly Spaces (CFS) in emergencies.
“In one community there is a 16-year-old with an intellectual disability [sic] who has never attended school but has been attending the CFS since the floods. These CFS have provided a safe space for him to go, and acceptance with the other children – when often he couldn’t play with them because of fear and stigma and was often alone in his house.”
– Alexandra Eaves, UNICEF Australia, International Programs Manager
In Cambodia, we have been involved in several pieces of work in recent years, such as reviewing the social welfare workforce curriculum to respond to the needs of children with disabilities and child protection systems to be disability inclusive.
Visit the IAG Global website to find out more about IAG’s work with UNICEF HQ.
https://www.cbm.org.au/stories/partnering-with-unicef-to-support-disability-inclusion