Attachments
A guide for humanitarian actors on reaching people with disabilities and older people: Practical tips from the Data That Matters project and the Survey for Inclusive Rapid Assessment (SIRA) tool
Executive Summary
This Light for the World How-To Guide was created as part of the Data That Matters project. It serves as a comprehensive guide for humanitarian actors to building an inclusive data ecosystem to improve access for people with disabilities and older people to humanitarian services. It introduces the Survey for Inclusive Rapid Assessment (SIRA) tool, designed to identify the barriers and enablers these groups encounter when seeking humanitarian assistance. The guide emphasizes how inclusive data practices can drive equity in humanitarian programming.
The document begins by addressing the fundamental data problem: people with disabilities and older people often remain invisible in humanitarian settings due to insufficient data collection practices. Challenges such as stigma, inconsistent methodologies, and inaccessible tools contribute to this issue, ultimately hindering inclusive response efforts. In response, the guide outlines a framework for creating an inclusive data ecosystem, emphasizing inclusive identification and mapping, equitable data collection practices, and robust data sharing and analysis. These components are supported by strategies rooted in human-centred design, ethical data practices, and the application of the Washington Group Questions on Disability and the Child Functioning Module to ensure comprehensive disability identification.
The SIRA tool is a centrepiece of this guide. First of its kind, it is designed to be simple, flexible, and rapid. SIRA employs both quantitative and qualitative methods to identify barriers and enablers to accessing humanitarian assistance. Its adaptable structure allows for its application across diverse humanitarian contexts, ensuring it can generate actionable insights tailored to local needs. The tool’s development involved extensive field testing and collaborative input from organizations such as OPDs, NGOs, as well as from affected communities, ensuring its relevance and inclusivity. The SIRA tool pursues open-data and open-source principles by making the digital data collection tool and code used for data analysis freely available online. The datasets generated from field testing are available in open formats and platforms.
In addition to its practical applications, the guide explores the broader implications of inclusive data for advocacy and humanitarian programming. It highlights how disaggregated data can inform advocacy efforts directed at governments, donors, and international organizations, enabling them to address systemic barriers and enhance inclusivity in their policies and practices. Furthermore, it demonstrates how this data can be used to design targeted interventions and inclusive mainstream programmes that remove barriers for marginalized populations while benefiting all affected individuals.
Ethical considerations are central to this framework. The guide underscores the importance of nonextractive data collection practices that offer tangible benefits to respondents, such as referrals to essential services. It also advocates for capacity development among persons with disabilities and older persons, empowering them to take active roles in data collection and analysis processes. Ultimately, this guide provides a roadmap for humanitarian actors seeking to design and implement disability- and older-age-inclusive interventions. By fostering the use of inclusive data, it aspires to transform the humanitarian response landscape into one that prioritizes accessibility, equity, and the meaningful participation of all individuals.