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.
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 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.
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
The GEDSI Entry Points series supports UK PACT staff and implementing partners to better appreciate the relationships between GEDSI and sectors we work in, and the various ‘pathways’ that can help to strengthen both the approach and results.
The GEDSI Entry Points series supports UK PACT staff and implementing partners to better appreciate the relationships between GEDSI and sectors we work in, and the various ‘pathways’ that can help to strengthen both the approach and results. This brief focuses on the clean energy sector, providing guidance on reducing energy poverty, creating inclusive livelihoods and leadership opportunities, expanding market activities, and reducing the risk of harm for women and people from excluded groups.
This report provides guidance for UK PACT implementing partners and expert deployments on how to mainstream GEDSI through each stage of the project cycle, with checklists, example activities, and links to further resources.
This info note sets out the approach we take to integrating GEDSI into the CLEAN Helpdesk, which provides technical assistance on climate, environment and nature. We provide GEDSI guidance at every stage, from reviewing the initial terms of reference, to including GEDSI experts in the technical assistance team, and finally reviewing technical assistance outputs from a GEDSI and safeguarding perspective.
These reports sets out the findings from a gender equality, disability and social inclusion (GEDSI) analysis, focused on biodiversity, sustainable seafood and pollution in coastal areas of Belize, Ghana, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Madagascar.
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.
This presentation by Dr Lorraine Wapling explains how to collect better disability data using the Washington Group questions. It covers why good data matters, especially for children, and how poor methods can lead to undercounting.
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.
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.
