A new network, led by Lancaster University, encouraging the inclusion of people with disabilities in Africa gets underway this month.

An Arts and Humanities Research Council Global Challenges grant will fund the foundation of a Disability and Inclusion in Africa (DIA) network.

“There is so much to do to understand the most effective ways to include people with disabilities in development and humanitarian programming,” said project leader Dr Charlotte Baker, whose research with the United Nations examining albinism and witchcraft is globally renowned.

“This project will highlight the impact of alternative explanations for disability, which often run parallel, to improve understandings of disability on the part of communities, civil society, activists and policy makers. It will share learning and practice across disabilities and sectors and share practice on the role of the Arts and Humanities in effecting social change.”

The DIA network will use the AHRC grant to bring together researchers and stakeholders at a series of four workshops across Africa (Nigeria, Tanzania, Cameroon and South Africa), culminating in an international conference at Lancaster University.

Participants will include academics from different disciplines, representatives from local and national disability associations, activists and policy makers.

The network will facilitate discussion, learning and networking between stakeholders, whose expertise is often focused on a specific disability or region, enabling them to enhance their understanding of the shared and distinctive experiences of people with a range of disabilities in sub-Saharan Africa.

It will explore new methods to address problems of knowledge, attitude and behaviour, and promote inclusion using the tools offered by the research team’s different disciplines across the Arts and Humanities - creative forms, strategies for collaboration, critical tools and methodologies.

The project will act as a catalyst for disability studies research across Africa, encouraging comparative research and publications, including reports and articles. A policy report will be produced for DFID in collaboration with partner organisations to communicate key findings on the value of alternative explanations to the inclusion of people with disabilities in international development.

“The DIA network sets out to provide more nuanced understandings of disability in sub-Saharan Africa, underlining the importance of awareness of different experiences and understandings of disability across African contexts, which must inform the design of programmes and country-level disability inclusion strategies,” added Dr Baker.

“Without measures to include people with disabilities in development, the ambition of the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals to ‘leave no-one behind’ will not be attained.”