Mainstreaming Disability in Internatioal Development Projects
Harnessing practical lessons from gender
Investigators:
| Dr Maree Pardy | Gender Studies, Nossal Institute for Global Health |
| Mia Urbano | Nossal Institute for Global Health |
| Fareem Walji | Nossal Institute for Global Health |
Summary
Over the years the field of gender and development has accumulated a wealth of strategies, methodologies, practical tools and field-based examples for gender mainstreaming. Yet there are only a handful of studies which attempt to transfer gender mainstreaming lessons learned to inform disability mainstreaming (Albert and Miller 2006). There is a need to harness these practical lessons learned to inform the practice of disability mainstreaming.
There is a need for practice guidelines detailing “what worked” in gender mainstreaming and “how-to” materials drawing on practical field-based experiences in gender and development. These guidelines will be drawn from practical field-based experiences of organisations involved in gender specific and mainstreaming projects. It is anticipated that these experiences would bring practical insight into recommended approaches, such as AusAID’s “twin-track” approach to disability inclusive development.
Representatives from Women with Disability Australia (WWDA), International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA), Oxfam and the Nossal Institute-CBM Partnership are partnering in a project towards mainstreaming disability in international development projects through harnessing practical lessons from gender.
The objectives of the research are to:
- To review existing published materials and tools in the fields of gender mainstreaming
- To analyse patterns and principles for gender mainstreaming and their relevance to disability mainstreaming
- To design an operational research project on disability mainstreaming
This will be achieved through:
- A literature review of publications on gender mainstreaming
- Interviews with key informants working in development in gender mainstreaming
- A workshop with priority partners to present the findings of literature review and key informant interviews; critique the application of lessons learnt from gender mainstreaming to the disability field; and establish an operational research plan for the development, application and evaluation of practice guidelines for disability mainstreaming. It is anticipated that this will inform future research proposals within the scope of this ongoing project.