Forgotten Agenda

The sub-study follows a new cohort of women with different disabilities in the same catchment area as sub-study 1. The study is funded by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in the UK. The study will assess the need for and access to SRHR services, trends over time, arising needs and gaps in service delivery, and individual women’s experiences through case studies. The overall project also includes advocacy and awareness-raising efforts and will be supported by an advisory committee. With this committee and other key stakeholders, we will conduct three webinars that will support the situation analysis, awareness-raising during World Disability day, and dissemination of results. The sub-project commenced on the 1^st of February 2021.

Forgotten Agenda Webinar One: Including Young Women with Disabilities and their SRHR needs under the COVID Epidemic in South Africa: What do we know and where are the Gaps?

Forgotten Agenda Webinar Two: People with Disabilities, Research Ethics and Processes under the COVID-19 Pandemic: How do we conduct inclusive disability research during times of crisis?

Forgotten Agenda Webinar Three: What we know about People with Disabilities under the COVID-19 Pandemic in South Africa: How can we improve our response in times of crisis?

• The Disability Data Initiative has published its 2023 report: Hanass-Hancock, J., Murthy GVS., Palmer, P., Pinilla-Roncancio M., Rivas Velarde M., Mitra, S. (2023). The Disability Data Report 2023. Disability Data Initiative. Fordham Research Consortium on Disability: New York. https://disabilitydata.ace.fordham.edu/disability-data-report-2023/
• The Forgotten Agenda methods study was published in IDS Bulletin: Banks, L. M., Willan, S., Inglis-Jassiem, G., Dunkle, K., Shakespeare, T., Hameed, S., Ganle, J., Machisa, M., Carpenter, B., Mthethwa, N., Nzuza, A., & Hanass-Hancock, J. (2022). Including people with disabilities in research under COVID-19: Experiences from the field. IDS Bulletin, 53(3), 129-151. doi:10.19088/1968-2022.130
• The International Disability and Development Consortium has published its Disability Rights Monitor Report highlighting the catastrophic global failure to protect the rights of persons with disabilities access report here: https://covid-drm.org/assets/documents/Disability-Rights-During-the-Pandemic-report-web.pdf
• Under the theme ‘Access to health care for persons with disabilities in South Africa’, the Health System Trust has just published its 23rd edition of the South African Health Review. The 2020 edition provides critical insight into barriers and facilitators, good practices, and successful service-delivery models for disability inclusion and rehabilitation. https://www.hst.org.za/publications/Pages/SAHR2020.aspx
• The Institute for Development Studies has released a report on people with disabilities and COVID-19 in Kenya a study undertaken as part of inclusion in work programmes. 
• UNFPA published its report on The Impact of COVID-19 on Women and Girls with Disabilities
• The Institute for Development Studies published an article exploring the COVID-19 experiences of people with disabilities in Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria, Nepal and Uganda  
• Two articles have been published under this study, namely: Analysing disability statistics using the Burden of Disease study and Adapting Disability Research Methods and Practices During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Experiences from the Field

Events

• The 16 Session of the Conference of State Parties to the CRPD in June 2023 focused on “Ensuring equal access to an accessibility of sexual and reproductive health services for persons with disabilities”
  More information about the event can be found here: https://social.desa.un.org/issues/disability/cosp/16th-session-of-the-conference-of-states-parties-to-the-crpd 
  The note by the Secretariat to the event can be found here: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N23/080/78/PDF/N2308078.pdf?OpenElement
• The SAMRC released its first Forgotten Agenda Webinar focusing on: Including Young Women with Disabilities and their SRHR needs under the COVID Epidemic in South Africa: What do we know and where are the Gaps?
  • Webinar tackles the challenges of sexual reproductive health and rights of young women with disabilities | 2 Aug 2021 (news article)

    The South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) recently hosted the first Forgotten Agenda Webinar which focused on the sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of young women with disabilities – particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic...Read article

• The SAMRC released its second Forgotten Agenda Webinar focusing on: People with Disabilities, Research Ethics and Processes under the COVID-19 Pandemic: How do we conduct inclusive disability research during times of crisis?

• The SAMRC released its third Forgotten Agenda Webinar focusing on: What we know about People with Disabilities under the COVID-19 Pandemic in South Africa: How can we improve our response in times of crisis?

Discussion | Rights of women with disabilities - Jill Hanass-Hancock from the council's Gender and Health Research Unit speaks to #eNCA

• ICASA will include a Disability Networking Zone (DNZ) from the http://icasa2021.saafrica.org/blog-grid-3columns.html?search=Global+Village

ARRC: Her Voice Study and Information Flyers for Young Women with Disabilities

• Study: https://arrc-npc.org.za/her-voice-fund/
• Flyers: https://arrc-npc.org.za/resources/

LSHTM: Six Country Study on Disability and COVID-19

• project: https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/centres/international-centre-evidence-disability/covid-19

IDS: Five Country Study on Disability and COVID-19

• project: https://www.ids.ac.uk/publications/taking-a-disability-inclusive-approach-to-pandemic-responses/
• overview paper: https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/8375/6190

SAMRC: Breaking the Silence – Comprehensive Sexuality Education for Learners with Disabilities

• project: https://www.samrc.ac.za/intramural-research-units/breaking-silence