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Governance and Inclusive Societies

Our societies are marked by stark inequality and the exclusion of different people, including women and girls, people with disabilities, LGBTQI+ people, and ethnic and religious minorities.  

At SDDirect, we work with communities, civil society, governments, businesses and others to foster a culture of active citizenship and greater accountability of all those who hold power.  

Young woman holds sign at protest which reads: I fight like a girl for my rights

What is Governance and Inclusive Societies?

 

We work to build inclusive societies where every citizen and community is valued and empowered to make their own choices about their development, act on these choices, and hold duty-bearers to account.  

By applying a gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) lens, poor and socially excluded people can be better supported to access and claim knowledge, resources, rights and services. This allows them to participate in public life and build fairer, more inclusive communities and become active agents of change.  

Our work in this area 

 

Our work is technically focused and grounded in practice which is objective and unbiased. Key products and services include:  

  • Gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) analysis, strategy development, training and implementation support 

  • GESI-aware political economy analysis (PEA), including SDDirect’s Gender, Inclusion, Power & Politics (GIPP) analysis 

  • Design and advisory support to active citizenship, community voice and participation, and social accountability initiatives   

  • Fast response ‘helpdesk’ facilities to provide the latest available evidence and analysis on key issues and questions 

  • Disability inclusion mainstreaming, research, review, and analysis 

  • Facilitation and advisory support to more inclusive and equitable development partnership-building   

  • Development of ethical, ‘do no harm’ and safeguarding frameworks  

  • Stakeholder mapping, engagement, and facilitation of multi-stakeholder dialogue 

  • Monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) for governance-related programmes 

  • Inclusive services, including promoting access to education and health services, including sexual and reproductive health and rights.  

We provide technical leadership on GESI in governance programmes, including developing GESI strategies and promoting GESI mainstreaming throughout programmes. We take an innovative ‘looking inwards and outwards’ approach, working on GESI inclusion within our partnerships and consortiums as well as our programme work.   

We deliver GIS programming in a diverse range of country contexts, including development and emergency settings. We take an intersectional approach to understanding and challenging the structural barriers that people face to social inclusion, including discrimination based on gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, and other factors. 

“In my engagements with the Disability Inclusion Helpdesk – both in preparations for and delivery of products – I found the service to be of brilliant quality. It certainly provided a wide range of people with increased knowledge and understanding of the issues and was always able to consider how best to support colleagues in the FCDO, to put information and evidence into practice.”
Emma Žaja
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)

If you would like to hear more about our work on Governance and Inclusive Societies (GIS), please reach out to Emma Haegeman, Head of Governance and Inclusive Societies Portfolio, EmmaHaegeman@sddirect.org.uk 

Disability Inclusion Helpdesk Query 119 Disability Inclusion in the Security Sector

This report explores the importance of taking a disability inclusive approach to security efforts. It is split into three sections: the first puts forward the case for disability inclusion in the security sector; the second provides the rationale for disability inclusion in specific security sector efforts, with illustrative examples of how this could be done; and the third provides recommendations from key informants (KI) working at the intersection of disability inclusion and security.

Data on access to higher education for students with disabilities in Africa, South and South-East Asia and MENA regions

This report reviews available data on access to higher education for students with disabilities in Sub-Saharan Africa, South and South-East Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It looks at how many students with disabilities are enrolled in higher education, how many are women, and what gaps exist in the data. The report finds that data is limited, often outdated, and not disaggregated by gender or type of disability.

Evidence review on deinstitutionalisation of children with disabilities

This report reviews global evidence on the deinstitutionalisation of children with disabilities. It explores which organisations are active in this area, the barriers to family-based care, and where reforms have been successfully implemented. The report highlights examples of inclusive care reforms, advocacy by organisations of persons with disabilities, and support from international agencies. It identifies what works, what challenges remain, and where further evidence is needed.

Building equitable partnerships

This package includes two resources: a report and an accompanying toolkit. 

The report discusses the Building Equitable Partnerships initiative between Plan International UK and Social Development Direct, sharing research findings from across the collaboration. The toolkit offers a set of practical tools developed through this collaboration, designed to support equitable partnerships. The tools can be adapted to different partnership contexts. Questions and indicators can be edited or removed depending on your needs.

Nigeria Voices for Change (V4C)

SDDirect played a leading role in the implementation of Voices for Change (V4C), the UK Department for International Development (DFID)’s £28m flagship programme (2012 - 2017) on strengthening the enabling environment for women and girls’ empowerment in Nigeria. SDDirect was responsible for technical leadership across the programme and for bringing together a team of Nigerian and international experts with technical expertise in the fields of gender equality, social norms, media and communications, and research and evidence.

UNHCR's Engagement with Displaced Youth

This review sought to explore the United Nations High Comissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) engagement with displaced youth, refugees and internally displaced persons (IPDs), by analysing the UN agency’s commitments to youth through its policies, guidelines, strategies, institutional infrastructure, approaches to identifying and responding to the needs of displaced youth, current funding, programmes and monitoring and evaluation processes.

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