Building capacity
Capacity building of project staff and of Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) is important to make the participatory processes meaningful for all.
For the project staff capacity building must involve a practical understanding of how to include and engage with persons with disabilities. For example, capacity development on disability inclusion in development projects can be part of organisations’ induction training packages; other forms of coaching and peer learning can be planned to support staff. In addition, assigning an "inclusion adviser" at the pre-planning stages of the project to influence the design and implementation of the action and provide technical expertise and support to staff can be effective.
OPDs are required to play an active role in the project cycle. However, some OPDs may lack the capacity to participate meaningfully unless they are offered opportunities to build their capacity. Therefore, investing in OPD empowerment through capacity development to enable meaningful participation is important. Capacity building should equip OPDs to feed into the project cycle more effectively by improving their knowledge about the technical area of the project or training in computer literacy, management, and administration. Any capacity development should be clearly based on the needs and requirements of the OPD, and never on assumptions.
