Innovating for inclusion

To mark the International Day of Creativity and Innovation to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, Inclusive Futures programme director Johannes Trimmel talks about the need to innovate and how our programmes are making this a priority.

“Innovation means making changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas or products.

To me, it is not always the sexy new thing – it’s also adapting well-known processes and attitudes in an area where, so far, they are not being looked at or considered.

The systems around health, education and employment are often rigid and individuals are forced to adapt to them. That can work well for the majority of the population, but not for a significant group of people. For Inclusive Futures, innovation is about changing systems so they are responding adequately to the needs of people with disabilities.

“We – the global development community – have made a commitment to help everybody. We cannot keep this promise for some people and not others. That’s why we need to innovate.

We think we are doing good work. But if we don’t include everyone – including people with disabilities – we are actually contributing to, and widening, the gap between people who get opportunities and those who don’t.

When we talk about development for all, that cannot just be a slogan. It’s not an accident that the political declaration on Agenda 2030 has a commitment to leaving no one behind and talks about reaching those furthest behind first. It’s a very strong political call.

But at the moment people with disabilities are not being included, so we need to find new ways to change how we all work.

That is why it’s important to innovate and include people with disabilities.

Examples of how we’re innovating

“Development donors and implementers should care about Inclusive Futures, because what we learn will support you to embed disability inclusion in your own work.

Inclusive Futures is not only delivering tangible outcomes to improve the lives of people with disabilities, but also generating an evidence base on ‘what works’ to deliver disability inclusive development.

What we learn will support donors and implementers to embed disability inclusion in their own work.

To ensure this, the set-up of our consortium is very diverse. We have organisations focusing on disability and development, mainstream organisations with no specific programmes on disability inclusion, academic institutions, and the International Disability Alliance, a global network of OPDs.

This is important because single development actor has all the answers. Coalitions and collaboration bring new and creative ideas, innovation, better results and opportunities through pooled ideas, skills and resources.

The set up of the consortium also means that the learning we generate undergoes a lot of reflection and validation. We’re not just saying, “We know this is right, and you’re not doing the right things.” Our learning also considers where organisations stand, where pressures from a donor come in, and so on. So, what we do is realistic – everyone can learn from it.

I think the strongest argument is still the one that adapting a set up system is always much more costly and difficult then setting it up inclusively from the beginning.

Simply overlooking disability at the start is not an excuse that we should allow any longer. We must be inclusive.