Inclusive Community Development Program

Toward Inclusive Local Communities Where No One Is Left Behind

The Community-Based Inclusive Development Program (CBID) works to promote the active and meaningful participation of persons with disabilities in community life and local development. This includes their participation in priority-setting, planning, decision-making, and accountability processes, as well as improving their access to services and opportunities on an equal basis with others.

The Program is grounded in the understanding that the exclusion experienced by persons with disabilities does not arise from disability itself, but from environmental, institutional, attitudinal, and policy-related barriers that restrict their participation and access to rights, services, and opportunities. Its work therefore extends beyond empowering persons with disabilities; in parallel, the Program engages young people, local authorities, community-based organizations, organizations of persons with disabilities, service providers, and government bodies to strengthen their responsibility and capacity to remove these barriers and build more inclusive and diversity-responsive communities . This reflects the organization’s participatory, community-led approach, which positions young people as a driving force for change.

Program Objectives

The Community-based Inclusive Development Program seeks to:

Promote the active and meaningful participation of persons with disabilities in social, economic, political, and cultural life, as well as in local planning, decision-making, and accountability processes.
Strengthen the role of young people as a driving force for community change by developing their knowledge, skills, and capacities in community participation, participatory research, advocacy, and accountability, and by enabling them to influence policies, services, and practices at the local level.
Strengthen the capacities of local authorities to institutionalize disability inclusion within governance, planning, policies, budgets, services, and institutional practices, and to ensure the active participation of persons with disabilities and their representative organizations in these processes.
Strengthen the organizational capacities of community-based organizations and organizations of persons with disabilities to adopt practices, programs, and services that are more inclusive and responsive to the rights, needs, and priorities of persons with disabilities.
Improve access for persons with disabilities to community facilities, services, and opportunities, while working with relevant stakeholders to remove the environmental, institutional, informational, and communication barriers that restrict their participation.
Generate and use evidence and knowledge concerning the rights, needs, and priorities of persons with disabilities at the local level, and apply them to planning, service and initiative development, advocacy, accountability, and policy-influencing efforts.
Raise community awareness, promote positive attitudes and practices toward the rights and participation of persons with disabilities, and challenge the stereotypes and discriminatory practices that contribute to their exclusion from community life.

Approach

The Program adopts a participatory, human rights-based, and community-led approach. It engages persons with disabilities, community members, and local activists in assessing local realities, identifying priorities, designing solutions, and monitoring their implementation.

Inclusive Youth accountability teams, comprising young women and men with and without disabilities, serve as a key driver of community change. The Program builds their capacities in the rights of persons with disabilities, participatory research, advocacy, and social accountability. These teams contribute to the development of participatory diagnostic studies examining the situation and needs of persons with disabilities at the community level. They identify gaps and local priorities; design and lead community initiatives, advocacy campaigns, and accountability efforts; and engage in dialogue and accountability sessions with duty-bearers and service providers. Through this work, they help influence policies and practices and improve the quality and accessibility of services.

The Program also works with community-based organizations and organizations of persons with disabilities to strengthen their institutional and programmatic capacities and improve their responsiveness to the priorities of their communities. It provides technical support based on participatory assessments of their organizational capacities and needs, followed by the development and implementation of capacity-development plans that enhance the efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability, and inclusiveness of their programs and services. The Program also supports these organizations in designing and implementing community interventions and initiatives that enhance the participation of persons with disabilities, improve their access to services, and advance inclusion within their communities.

In partnership with the Ministry of Local Government and the local authorities in targeted communities, the Program works to institutionalize disability inclusion within the local governance system. This includes assessing the current state of inclusion; developing and implementing action plans that respond to identified gaps and priorities; and integrating disability inclusion into governance, planning, budgeting, services, institutional practices, participation and accountability mechanisms, and accessibility measures. The Program also assists local authorities in advancing inclusion within local development planning processes and improving the participation and representation of marginalized groups, particularly persons with disabilities and their representative organizations, in identifying needs and priorities, making decisions, and monitoring local plans and programs.

In parallel, the Program draws on assessment findings, accumulated experience, and evidence to support advocacy and influence policy. This includes supporting national-level policies that advance disability inclusion across local authorities, in partnership with the Ministry of Local Government and other relevant stakeholders. The aim is to move from fragmented initiatives and interventions toward a sustainable institutional approach in which disability inclusion becomes a guiding standard for the local government sector in planning, budgeting, service delivery, oversight, and accountability.