Women with disabilities leading humanitarian action

The assumption that women and girls with disabilities lack the capacity to participate in humanitarian response is an enduring prejudice in many conflicts and emergencies. The Community Association for Vulnerable Persons (CAVP) in Northwest Region Cameroon works to change perceptions about women with mobility impairments, hearing impairments, and mild intellectual disabilities, and to improve access for women and girls with disabilities to humanitarian interventions. The only women with disabilities-led organisation (WDLO) working in the humanitarian sector in Cameroon, CAVP works on economic empowerment, advocacy, medical assistance, gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and mitigation, education, and awareness-raising on sexual and reproductive health and rights. Women and girls with disabilities face a range of barriers in accessing humanitarian programmes and services designed by organisations utilising technical knowledge instead of lived experience. The specific needs of women and girls with disabilities and their families are seldom considered in the planning, implementing and monitoring of humanitarian responses. Since 2015, CAVP has defied the stereotype of women with disabilities being reliant on others, addressing needs in its community by working to improve the lives of women and girls with disabilities and advocating for gender- and disability-responsive social protection in the Northwest Region.

CAVP’s work in Cameroon

Nearly a decade from its founding, CAVP has fought to be recognised as a humanitarian organisation, countering negative attitudes among both international and national actors who see women with disabilities as project participants, not partners or leaders. Working at the intersection of gender and disability, CAVP works to design and deliver humanitarian interventions focused on the specific needs of vulnerable women and girls, addressing the cracks in the humanitarian system that women and girls with disabilities too often fall through. In addition to advocating for gender- and disability-responsive project programming and service provision, CAVP works to reduce the risk of violence, abuse and exploitation against women and girls with disabilities through its programming in the health, protection, education and livelihoods sectors.

CAVP’s organisational strategy is focused on addressing the priorities identified by vulnerable women and girls themselves, specifically by reducing stigma, decreasing dependency, and supporting decision-making. Too often, the rights of women and girls with disabilities are undermined by family members and carers taking decisions on their behalf, or by the experience of violence, or marginalisation due to stigma. CAVP provides training for women with disabilities in economic-empowerment skills, so they can improve their financial independence, and provides start-up capital for women to open small businesses that in turn pay rent on their homes, meet medical needs, and pay school fees for their children. By addressing dependence on family members that isolates many vulnerable women, CAVP projects work to mitigate the risk of psychological abuse, neglect, and denial of needs.

Enabling greater WDLO leadership and participation

The challenges faced by women with disabilities are reflected in the challenges faced by WDLOs, for example, negative attitudes regarding women with disabilities – such as gaps in technological experience, skills and literacy – create scepticism about the ability of women with disabilities to lead and manage a humanitarian organisation. Many humanitarian actors view women with disabilities as ‘beneficiaries’ in need of humanitarian assistance, not as humanitarian decision-makers, due to the high rates of violence experienced by women and girls with disabilities and pre-crisis inequalities between men and women. The compounding effects of ableism, gender inequality and other forms of discrimination result in women’s marginalisation from leadership in humanitarian action. Women with disabilities are often excluded from leadership due to physical and communication barriers accessing meetings and being heard in decision-making forums, and bias against people with disabilities goes unaddressed in humanitarian structures.

Despite the success of CAVP interventions, significant challenges impede its work as CAVP senior leadership and staff fight for recognition and exposure in the crowded humanitarian sector. Competition among local organisations is fierce, with funding and resources controlled by large national organisations with well-established contacts and established reputations as humanitarian actors. In order to access humanitarian spaces, CAVP has to challenge discriminatory social norms relating to both gender and disability. Stigma and discrimination are significant barriers facing organisations of women with disabilities, including societal assumptions that women with disabilities are dependent on others, are unable to communicate, or have been excluded from education and work.

The role played by self-led humanitarian actors such as CAVP is increasingly recognised by humanitarian decision-makers in policy and guidance focused on meeting the needs of vulnerable communities, particularly in the case of reaching populations with multiple intersecting identities, such as women and girls with disabilities. For example, while men-led organisations of persons with disabilities or disability service providers may receive training on gender mainstreaming, GBV risk mitigation, etc., and recruit women as support staff to protect against sexual exploitation and abuse, decision-making and management remains with men leaders, limiting the impact that women with disabilities can achieve by utilising their lived experience, knowledge and understanding. While humanitarian organisations strive to address the gaps in their capacity to reach vulnerable women and girls, the direct participation of WDLOs in service provision provides invaluable insight into the personal experiences and impacts of these gaps. In the Northwest Region, CAVP’s advocacy has been essential in raising awareness of the unique risks faced by women and girls with disabilities, while also promoting equality, inclusion and resilience. Fostering respectful and dignified representation of women with disabilities in humanitarian interventions – including health and protection information, education, and communication materials – has been highly impactful.

In order to effectively strengthen response capacity for disability inclusion, humanitarian organisations must actively engage with WDLOs and seek their guidance in adapting project activities to meet the specific needs of women and girls with disabilities. This requires moving beyond extractive consultations and actively engaging with WDLOs on their organisational strategies and institutional planning, beyond isolated project-funding opportunities. By making partnership with self-led groups of vulnerable persons a regular practice, humanitarian agencies can learn about and address disempowering practices in their activities and operations, for example, use of non-accessible venues for coordination meetings and workshops. WDLOs should be approached earlier in the project-development process, before discussions are constrained by predetermined budgets and intervention strategies. Pivots toward better practice like this can be arrived at via adaptive management and learning from WDLO partner feedback – in this case, feedback about the limited impact of consulting with organisations of women with disabilities on barriers to accessing humanitarian response after projects have been designed and funded.

Conclusion

Women with disabilities offer unique knowledge and skills that are essential to removing barriers to humanitarian assistance. It is imperative to recognise women with disabilities as capable agents of change rather than passive recipients of aid. Humanitarian agencies must overcome their fear of engaging with women-led organisations at the design phase of projects and actively involve them in decision-making processes. This requires a shift in mindset and a willingness to share budget lines for direct and indirect costs with women-led organisations. Moreover, awareness-raising efforts among humanitarian staff must go beyond simply educating them on the rights of persons with disabilities. It is crucial for staff to see women with disabilities in leadership positions, demonstrating their capacity and dispelling assumptions about limited ability.

In conclusion, promoting the empowerment of women with disabilities in humanitarian settings requires a multifaceted approach that prioritises their voices, addresses systemic barriers, and fosters meaningful inclusion and representation. Only through collective action and genuine collaboration can we ensure that the rights and needs of all individuals are respected and upheld.

Veronica Ngum Ndi is CEO of Community Association for Vulnerable Persons (CAVP), Cameroon.