Equity & Disability Inclusion Federal Level

Awareness Workshop Organized by the National ONE WASH Coordination Office under the

Equity & Disability Inclusion Taskforce

May 14, 2019

Funded by COWASH

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The Meeting was opened by Arto Suominen COWASH Chief Technical Advisor. He started by giving the background to the meeting. The Equity and Disability Inclusion Taskforce established under the National ONE WASH Coordination office was started after MSF 8 that prioritized Enhanced actions towards Inclusive and Equitable WaSH program as an undertaking. Since July 2017 taskforce worked on short term, immediate priorities that mainly relate to implementing the MSF undertaking.

The taskforce aims at leading and insuring that equity and inclusion concerns are incorporated in upcoming review of policy and strategies and coordinating joint roll out of equity and inclusion at woreda and Regional levels.

Members of the taskforce are Ministry of Water

Irrigation & Energy (MoWIE), Ministry of

Education (MoE), Ministry of Health (MoH),

Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MoLSA),

Community Led Accelerated WASH (COWASH),

WaterAid, UNICEF, FENAPD (Federation of

Ethiopian National Association of Persons with

Disabilities), Ethiopian Centre for Disability and

Development (ECDD) SNV and World Vision

The COWASH project is a bilateral funding and 65% of the project cost is covered by the government of Ethiopia and is supporting capacity building on Equity and Inclusion and specifically disability inclusion.

Arto invited Zebider Alemneh from the Water Development Commission to make the opening address representing the Commissioner Dr Besha Mogesse.

In her key note address W/ro Zebider said:

“Good morning ladies and gentlemen on behalf of

the government of Ethiopia and myself I welcome you all to this important one-day Equity &disability inclusive WASH awareness creation event. For me personally this mark one step forward on the journey of the WASH sector focusing on the issue of Equity and Disability Inclusion. What is being proposed here is a process of reconnecting a large and important part of the Ethiopian community to their dignity and rights to access water supply, sanitation and hygiene. About 17% of the total population in Ethiopia are persons living with different type of disability and a way to increase their active participation during planning design implementation and post construction management of WASH projects. As part of the environment and social safeguard implementation of the OWNP I, social safeguard tools (ESMF, RPF and SA) focus on the vulnerable and disadvantaged community: persons with disabilities and women- this will insure the accomplishment of the GTP II targets & SDG agenda “leaving no-one behind”

Finally, it is my government dream that all Ethiopians especially women, children and persons living with disability of persons with disabilities have a future

W/ro Zebider Alemneh, Environment, Social and Climate

Change Directorate, Acting Director, Water Development

Commission, MoWIE

Opening Speeches

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where they can live, learn and grow with safe, reliable, equitable and inclusive Water supply, sanitation and hygiene services. Thank you once again the awareness creation event is officially open, and I wish you all to have a fruitful one-day event.

On the other hand, Marjaana Pekkola from the Embassy of Finland said:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Colleagues, Good

Morning to everyone

It is a great pleasure for me to participate in the WASH national awareness raising event of Equity and Inclusion.

Reducing poverty and inequality and the promotion of sustainable development goals form the main objectives of the current development policy of Finland. The commitment to Leave No one Behind -principle is an inherent part of the implementation of our development policy programme. The rights of persons with disabilities are taken into account in all Finnish programs.

In order to ensure that persons with disabilities are not left behind, it is important not only to have programmes that target only to persons with disabilities, but also to ensure that persons with disabilities and their needs are addressed in all programs through mainstreaming.

Finland has supported African Union to develop a

Protocol on the rights of persons with disabilities in

Africa to complete the Charter of Human and Peoples'

Rights. The Protocol is an important tool to translate

the key messages of the UN's Convention on the

Rights of Persons with Disabilities into the context of

African continent. The protocol was adopted in 2018,

and it urges the governments to take appropriate and

effective measures to ensure, respect, promote,

protect and fulfil the rights and dignity of persons

with disabilities, without discrimination on the basis

of disability. These measures include, for example o

Mainstreaming disability in policies, legislation,

development plans, programmes and activities and in

all other spheres of life;

Promoting positive representations and

empowerment of persons with disabilities through

training and advocacy;

Taking measures to eliminate discrimination on the

basis of disability by any person, organisation or

private enterprise;

Ensuring effective participation of persons with

disabilities or their representative organisations

including women and children with disabilities, in all

decision-making processes

In Ethiopia, Finland has promoted education of

children with disabilities through various projects

since 1980s. We have also worked for long time with

Civil Society Organizations and disabled people's

organisations (DPOs) in Ethiopia to ensure that

persons with disabilities equally benefit from our

development cooperation activities.

Finland has supported the WASH sector in Ethiopia for 25 years. At the moment, Finland supports a bilateral COWASH programme, which covers 5 regions and 76 rural woredas and we contribute also to the CWA in Ethiopia. Previously, in the Finnish support to the WASH sector, disability inclusion was not explicitly emphasised. It was assumed that persons with disabilities would automatically benefit from the support in the same way as others. During ongoing phase of Cowash it was realized that in order to ensure that persons with disabilities are able to equally benefit, participate and contribute to the planning, design, implementation and management of WASH services, specific activities and actions are required. We understood that inaccessible services are discrimination on the basis on disability because the persons with disabilities couldn't use WASH services on an equal basis with others.

Particularly important entry point in realizing the

rights of persons with disabilities in WASH services is

to reduce "Harmful practices" that persons with

disabilities face. These practices include behaviour,

attitudes and practices based on tradition, culture,

religion or other reasons, which negatively affect the

human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons

with disabilities or perpetuate discrimination.

Persons with disabilities are often exposed to

targeted violence and abuse, including sexual and

gender-based violence. Women and girls with

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disabilities often face double discrimination on the

grounds of the gender and their impairments. Due to

stigma and discrimination, physical barriers and lack

of accessible information and communication

materials on issues related to sexual health and

hygiene, the participation of women and girls with

disabilities in their families, education and other

aspect of social life is seriously limited.

COWASH has developed a disability inclusion in WASH guideline as well as a guidebook for the community level use. These have been translated to the COWASH regional languages (Amharic, Afaan, Oromo and Tigrigna). Over the last two years, COWASH has had a strong focus on capacity building and awareness raising in the WASH sector from the regional level all the way to the kebele level. Over 1 1 ,300 people have taken part in Cowash trainings and awareness raising events in 2017/2018. Further 4,500 people are planned to be trained in inclusiveness in 2019. The trainings have included office heads and technical experts from sector offices and disability issues are also part of community level trainings.

COWASH has worked together with a number of Ethiopian Disabled peoples' organizations at federal, regional and woreda levels. COWASH has built the capacity of DPOs through training and using persons with disabilities as trainers and resource persons in all trainings organised. We consider important that persons with disabilities and their representative organizations (DPOs) have meaningful participation in the implementation and processes of the development cooperation - "nothing about us without us"(slogan).

I have seen the fruits of the capacity building on the

ground level when visiting Cowash program in

different woredas and communities. I have been

impressed to see how proud the WASH officers have

been in telling about their inclusiveness activities and

showing their new innovative designs of improved

access to the water supply facilities and to the latrines

for people with disabilities. I have also met people

with disabilities as members of the WASHCOs or as a

guard of the water point. The awareness level on

disability issues has largely improved.

Although good progress has been made, there is still

a long way to go to ensure full accessibility and

participation of all towards the goal Leave no-one

behind. I highly encourage all partners in the sector

to work further towards the inclusion of persons with

disabilities in WASH.”

The first session was presented by W/ro Lakech

Haile, Gender, Equity & Inclusion Specialist

National WASH Coordination office focusing on

how Equity and Inclusion concerns are

addressed in the ONE WASH Coordination office.

Lakech started by defining Equity and Inclusion

The process of Equity and inclusion is not only

about making sure that excluded people have

access to services but also participate fully in the

decisions about those services (Gosling, 2010).

She also described the enabling environment for

improved Equity & Inclusion (E&I).

International Provision

Two of the most significant UN frameworks are

the Sustainable Development Goals and the

Convention on the Rights of Persons with

Disabilities.

Sustainable development goal 5 and 6 calls for

the special attention to the needs of women,

girls and persons with disability in realizing

universal access to WASH and ending open

defecation.

In addition to the Constitution at a national level

Governments of Ethiopia (2010) have signed

and ratified the Convention for the Rights of

Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) which means

that people with disabilities should be

considered and included in all development

efforts, including clean water and sanitation.

The ONE WASH program is guided by a

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed

by the federal Ministers of MoWIE, MoH, MoE

and MoF. And a WASH Implementation

E&I in ONE WASH Program

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Framework (WIF). Program pillars for OWNP

considers gender responsive programming

based on existing global and local Gender Action

Plan (GAP). In addition, in phase II programing

empowering women in WASHCOs and decision-

making forums, incorporating

provision of Menstrual Hygiene Management

(MHM) and WASH access for people living with

disabilities is also a priority. Attention is also

given to refugees and internally displaced

People, people living with HIV Aids and Baby

WASH. In 2017 the ministry of health approved

the baby WASH guideline that provide guidance

on how to implement programs with safe

disposal of child faces. In the phase II OWNP, the

baby WASH activities are expected to be scaled

up.

OWNP considers equity focused situation

analysis with the objective of guaranteeing

WASH outcomes and other results that benefit

vulnerable or marginalized groups thereby

reducing disparities

Critical barriers

Equity and inclusion for the OWNP extends beyond focusing on the specific need of marginalized groups

It is about Empowering people who are marginalized and improving wider systems of governance

Changing the power dynamics between those without access and the duty bearers

Bringing sustainable and long term structural and systemic change in policies, procedures and laws

The program will provide service to users by ensuring facilities are accessible and easy

for all to use.

It mainstreams a rights-based approach to support people to engage in wider processes and ensure their rights are recognized.

The Program seeks to reduce regional and social disparities by targeting low access areas to safe water and sanitation.

It will use disaggregated indicators to track gender equity in roles and benefits.

Technology adaptations will be monitored to ensure they continue to provide an inclusive service, are of high quality and are accessible and used by all.

The ONE WASH program needs to prioritize:

good coordination between the program and other stakeholders.

Improved E &I through advocacy at all levels.

Lakech specified the challenges to Equitable Access:

The Water Resource policy doesn't have

related provisions on equity and

inclusion

Arto Suominen opening the workshop

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The OWNP need to ensure that this goal of

‘including all’ is properly integrated into

plans and schemes and that all the diverse

needs of the different groups of

marginalized and vulnerable people are

considered

There are no clear gender sensitive

indicators which can measure progress in

relation to equity and inclusion

Existing Monitoring and Evaluation systems

not sufficiently disaggregated to track

changes on the gender, equity and inclusion

issues.

Most of the Institutional WASH programs

design and guideline does not fully address

the gender, equity and disability inclusion

issues.

There is no shared understanding among

stakeholders on the equity and inclusion at

all levels.

Weak program management at all levels and follow up for equity and inclusion concerns in the WASH program cannot be easily performed

Lakech presentation was followed by a presentation from Dr Abebe Yehualawork, an expert on Disability Inclusion. Dr Abebe has supported COWASH’s disability inclusion trainings in the regions over the last two years and currently works as a lecturer in Special Needs Education at Addis Ababa University. He is himself visually impaired. Dr Abebe started by asking participants to define disability and impairment. He also described the different type of impairments:

Physical impairment Sensory impairment (visual, hearing,

speech) Intellectual Impairment Psychosocial impairments

Persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with attitudinal, environmental or institutional barriers hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others (CRPD, Article 1, 2008).

Dr Abebe also described Disability Policy and Rights:

• The SDG 6 is “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”.

• The Convention on the rights of persons with disability (CRDP) is an international human rights treaty intended to protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities.

o Adopted 2006 by the UN General Assembly

o The Government of Ethiopia ratified the CRPD in 2010.

o Governments are required to promote, protect, and ensure the full enjoyment of human rights by persons with disabilities and ensure that they enjoy full equality under the law.

o Article 28: governments shall ensure equal access to clean water for all

Ethiopian National Plan of Action of persons with Disabilities (NPA)

o Following the ratification of the CRPD, the Government of Ethiopia developed a ten-year National Plan of Action of Persons with Disabilities (NPA).

o The plan was prepared to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of fundamental rights, public services, opportunities for education and

Understanding Disability

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work, and the full participation in family, community and national life by all persons with disabilities in Ethiopia.

o The goal is to improve the situation of persons with disabilities and to achieve an inclusive society (a society for all).

The FDRE Constitution (1995), GoE The Constitution emphasises equity and provision for all

The WASH Implementation Framework (2011)

o The WIF emphasizes that the needs of persons with disabilities must be “addressed in all the steps of implementing the National WASH Program.”

o The WIF also states that a major responsibility of WASHCOs is developing “mechanism of addressing the disabled and marginalized groups of the community”.

o The WIF requires that the issue of “gender and social inclusion (disabled, disadvantaged, sick, etc.) is mainstreamed in all WASH training, learning and exposure, and in WASH policy and plans.”

Education Sector Development Programme (ESDP) V, (2015/16 - 2019/20), MoE

o Special needs and inclusive education are given priority as a cross-cutting issue in the Programme.

Health Sector Transformation Plan (HSTP) (2015/16 - 2019/20), MoH

o The only reference made to disability is on Indicators and Targets for HSTP monitoring: Proportion of health institutions with gender and disability sensitive complete WASH package.

Ethiopian Building Regulation (2011) and Proclamation (2009)

o The requirement of accessibility of design and construction for all is addressed in both

o “Any public building shall have a means of access suitable for use by physically impaired persons, including those who are obliged to use wheelchairs and those who are able to walk but unable to negotiate steps.

o Where toilet facilities are required in any building, an adequate number of such facilities shall be made suitable for use by physically impaired persons and shall be accessible to them.”

One memorable quote from Dr Abebe was “what I cannot tolerate is exclusion I can live with my impairment”

Dr Abebe finally also asked participants to prioritize the following points from the perspective of a person with disability:

Dr Abebe Yehualawork during the session

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o Empathy (1) o Conducive environment (3) o Accessible Environment (2) o Sympathetic

The learning was that empathy is the key expectation and will make us have the right attitude and an inclusive action in all sectors.

Louisa Gosling from WaterAid started with the quotes from the Human Development Report

Lack of access to WASH is not only a technical concern. Fundamentally, lack of access is a result of poverty, inequality and unequal power relationships (Human Development Report, 2006).

She explained the different dimensions of

Inequalities exist at global level, within

countries, within communities and within

households. So, what are the dimensions of

inequality? Who is most likely to be left behind?

The diagram helps to show the different factors

that may contribute to making some people

more or less advantaged.

Spatial factors are very important in relation to

water supply. If you live in an area that is very

remote, affected by water scarcity or climate

change, by pollution, or perhaps living in an

informal urban settlement without land rights or

access to services.

The second circle shows inequalities that are

related to the population group you belong to.

This could be due to your religion, ethnicity,

language, politics or perhaps of your occupation

or because you are migrant or a refugee.

The third circle is about the individual factors

that affect your relationships with power. These

are gender, age, disability, and health status.

They will cause more or less disadvantage

depending on the social norms and beliefs.

power, poverty and the human life cycle all

have a big influence on all of the factors.

Intersectionality is an important concept –

Different aspects of identify overlap to increase

or decrease your disadvantage.

E&I can also be seen at the macro & micro

levels: MACRO level contextual factors

o Geography, urban, rural, remote, slum

o ethnicity, language, religion, caste, tribe,

political party

o Migration, refugee status

o Economic situation, land ownership

MICRO level contextual factors

o Gender, age, disability, health status (i.e. HIV or Aids, chronic illnesses)

Participation & Partnership

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Louisa also discussed in detail how participation need to happen. The diagram above shows the different steps on the participation ladder.

At the lower steps our participation can be tokenistic. We might be at the meeting but not able to influence anything. At the higher level of the ladder we can start to influence and even control what happens. This is a very important concept for inclusion. Louisa facilitated an exercise where participants in groups were asked to identify good practices and gaps in existing WASH facilities (reviewing photos from different projects. On the other hand, meaningful participation of DPOs comes through: o Provide training & joint monitoring plan

and actual projects o Make service providers part of DPO

meetings build thrust regular engagement

o Engage DPOs & BOLSA at all levels Accessible solutions need to be prioritized: such as rural piped systems with door to door provision and providing more rationing for people with disabilities. One key message here was that” we do things for people with disability without their consent and/or their contribution” With regards to standards blue print is good but we need to ensure that contractors are doing the right thing with the right quality. We need to ensure the involvement of the users at all levels.

This was followed by a squatting exercise where participants had a role play on how a traditional pit latrine is accessible for people with different type of disabilities (visual impairment, mobile impairment, moving with a wheel chair)

Participants assessing sample photos of WASH services

Allowed to join(Other’s rules)

Attend Meetings

Speak Up

Listened to

Influence decisions

Make the decisions

Set Own Rules

Decision making

Active Participation

Token Participation

Ownership & Control

Participants during squatting exercise

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Melaku Tekle from ECDD (Ethiopian Centre for Disability and Development) had the final presentation on the benefits of including persons with disabilities in WASH.

One key reason is that a significant number of the community live with disabilities.

o In Ethiopia the report estimates the

prevalence at 17%

o However 2007 census puts disability

prevalence in Ethiopia at 1.2%

Number of PWD underestimated because varying data collection methods, scope of survey, the setting of the questionnaires, the level of understanding of the data collectors,

The invisibility of some impairments, and the

willingness of people to openly disclose the

information due to the stigma attached

Inclusive WASH contributes to improved self-

dignity and quality of life:

o Access to WASH facilities increases

independence of persons with disabilities

and reduces the workload of family

members /care-giving

o The participation of persons with disabilities

in WASH planning, implementation and

management brings a positive change to

the community’s attitude and behaviour

towards disability.

o The community starts to recognise that

persons with disabilities have potential and

a role to play in community development.

This empowerment process changes also

the attitudes of the persons with disabilities

themselves to believe in their own

potential.

Inclusive WASH contributes also to sustainable

development:

o An inclusive approach is also more cost-

effective in a long run. If inclusion is planned

from the onset of a project, the additional

cost is minimal or non-existent. E.g. in

Ethiopia the cost of accessible features in

school latrines amounts to about 2.5% of

the total cost of the latrines. Making WASH

facilities accessible after construction is

often much higher than if done in the

beginning.

o The economic cost of excluding persons

with disabilities outweighs the costs of

inclusion.

o In 2009 ILO conducted an assessment on 10

countries including Ethiopia entitled “the

price of excluding”. This assessment

indicated that Ethiopia loses 5.1% of its GDP

due to exclusion of PWDs from key

development activities.

o Melaku explained ECCD engagement with

the Federation on training data collectors

and supervisors as getting the right data is a

huge challenge in Ethiopia. Most people

with disability are hidden deep rooted

misconceptions.

o We should think about where to start: with

awareness on what it means?

o What are the challenges?

o participation is important but not a

tokenistic one

Melaku finally said all DPOs should strongly

challenge and insist: “Nothing about us without

us”.

Benefits of including

persons with disabilities

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Participants had different reflections on the

different presentations:

o How can the Count me in module be

accessible to woreda and Regional experts

what are you thinking in terms of roll out?

o With an Austrian Development Bridging the

Gap project CARE have been working on

establishing WASH units with women with

disabilities members we have developed

checklists to measure performance that we

are happy to share with the sector

o The water policy is 20 years old and lacks

any equity and inclusion section that needs

to be prioritized by the new Water

Development Commission

o We need to plan E&I right from the planning

stage, teams that will attend the next week

Programme Management Unit ONE WASH

planning will need to influence the planning

Planning should follow different steps

o There is an assumption that inclusion is expensive but to make a service accessible from COWASH experience the team only spent an additional 1000-birr for the construction of a rural water point when compared with old non-accessible design

o Guideline for water safety planning for instance consider how to make existing schemes accessible.

o Government procurement rules are against accessibility sometimes that change need to happen

Collect information on disability

Design

Monitoring

Disagregated data reporting

Discussion & Way Forward

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Annex 1: Agenda

Time Activity Responsible

8:30- 9:00 Registration COWASH

9.00-9.05 Introduction Arto Suominen, COWASH

9.00-9.10 Opening notes Dr Beshah Mogesse MOWIE Marjaana Pekkola, Embassy of Finland

9.10 – 9.30 E&I in One WASH programme phase II

Lakech Haile, NWCO

9:30 -10:30 Understanding disability

Dr Abebe Yehualawork COWASH

10:30- 11:00 Tea Break

11.00-11.45 Understanding disability continued

Dr Abebe Yehualawork COWASH

11: 45-12:30 Disability Policy & Rights

Dr Abebe Yehualawork COWASH

12:30-13.30 Lunch

13:30-14:30 Disability Inclusive Solutions in WASH

Louisa Gosling, WA UK

14:30-15:00 Equity & Inclusion & Participation and Partnership

Louisa Gosling, WA UK

15:00-15:30 Importance of including persons with disabilities in WASH

Melaku Tekle, ECDD

15:30-16:00 Discussion, way forward

COWASH/WA/NWCO

16:00 Tea Break

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For further details please contact

Lakech Haile

Gender, Equity and Inclusion Specialist

National WASH Coordination Office

lakechhaile423@gmail.com