Towards Inclusion – A Guide for Organizations and Practitioners

Inclusive development aims to create societies that value and enfranchise all marginalized groups, including vulnerable girls, women and persons with disabilities. It thus contributes to equality of opportunity and equitable relations for all people around the world. It addresses a major issue: development organizations are reluctant to include certain types of people in their activities because they are afraid of bringing in additional issues that need to be dealt with.

This publication consists of three parts. It aims to establish the rationale for inclusion and provides technical advice and tools for putting theory into practice. It is intended to be used as a reference during organizational and program/project development with a focus on gender responsiveness and disability inclusion as well as a tool to support good practice in implementation. Users may include senior management and board members who wish to steer their organizations towards becoming more inclusive. It is not assumed that they will have prior knowledge of gender and/or disability, although familiarity with inclusive approaches is useful, as the document does not seek to repeat information about inclusion in a broader sense.

This first part guides the reader through the process of assessing whether or not the organization is ready to change towards becoming a more inclusive organization. The second part introduces the ACAP framework, which sets up a way of approaching inclusion via focus on the areas: Access, Communication, Attitude and Participation. It then demonstrates how the framework can be applied to projects and programmes. The third part provides guidelines for the people who will guide organizations through the process of change towards becoming inclusive of persons from marginalized groups.

The contents of this publication are based on in-depth study of existing toolkits, practices developed over Mission East’s 10 years of work in Nepal, and experience gained by ICCO Cooperation Nepal and Light for the World with local partner organizations. It is, however, still a work in progress, intended to be improved and upgraded with new knowledge.

Readers are strongly encouraged to provide feedback and stories about their experiences in inclusive development to the following email address: feedbackACAP@gmail.com

An accessible version of this publication is available upon request or at www.lightfortheworld.nl, www.miseast.org or www.icco-cooperation.org.