Inclusive Futures Podcast Inclusive Futures

Financial inclusion has been identified as an enabler for seven of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the World Bank Group considers it a key enabler to reducing poverty and boosting prosperity. Despite progress in recent years, people with disabilities still face multiple barriers in accessing financial services and products.

In this 23-minute conversation, Paul Horsters from GIZ’s Global Project on the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities speaks with Mary Asare and Ana de la Vega Núñez from GIZ and Sheru Muuo from Sightsavers about research they carried out in Ghana, Mexico and Kenya. They discuss why women with disabilities are often more financially excluded and how this can be improved.

Sheru also explains how, with funding from GIZ, Sightsavers is piloting a new loan product with a reduced interest rate and a longer repayment period, to support women retailers with disabilities in western Kenya to grow their businesses in the Global Labor Program – Inclusive Futures.

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Many small businesses in Kenya have been adversely impacted or even been forced to shut down due to the effects of COVID-19, including businesses run and owned by people with disabilities.

In this 11-minutes audio report, Inclusive Futures citizen reporter Alan Herbert speaks with Henry Thuo, an entrepreneur with a disability and the founder of Hemuth fabrications.

Listen to this audio report to hear about how COVID-19 almost wiped out Henry’s business and how the assistance he received from Light for the World’s InBusiness initiative gave his business a lifeline during the pandemic.

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Farmers with disabilities are growing the vital ingredient for beer as part of an innovative project in western Kenya.

In this 11 minute episode, our global reporter Kimberly Middleton explores how one farmer has spent days chasing birds, and challenging negative stereotypes of disability, to supply sorghum to East African Breweries Limited.

Kimberly also talks to the brewery about their pledge to be inclusive of people with disabilities, and to national representative body United Disabled Persons of Kenya about why projects like this one are essential.

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In this episode, three disability experts who have been seconded to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to promote inclusion share their views and experiences.

Shikuku Obosi, Susie Rodgers and Tom Palmer discuss what more needs to be done to ensure people with disabilities are not left behind, as well as the impact of both COVID-19 and the merger of Department for International Development (DFID) and Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) on disability inclusion.

In this 26-minute conversation, medal-winning Paralympian Susie shares her concerns that working from home will further segregate people with disabilities from society, Shikuku outlines why disability discrimination is the “mother of all human rights violations”, and Tom explains that humanitarian organisations must respect people with disabilities in crisis responses, both as recipients and leaders.

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Alan Herbert, our citizen reporter based in Kenya, speaks with Eric Ngondi from United Disabled Persons of Kenya about realising the dream of disability inclusion in the workplace.

Alan and Eric discuss Eric’s experiences as a person with a disability, particularly in the areas of jobhunting and employment. They also talk about Eric’s involvement in the Inclusive Futures initiative, which includes training private companies to become more disability confident, and look at the progress that’s been made towards disability inclusion in Kenya.

Listen to this 20-minute audio report to hear Eric speaking candidly about the violent circumstances in which he lost his sight, and how he set out on a ‘second season’ of his life.

Eric also reveals some of the concerns held by the employers he works with, as they look to include people with disabilities in their workspaces, and why the participation of people with disabilities and the organisations representing them is crucial to success.

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For the disability-confident employers’ toolkit mentioned by Eric in this programme, visit: www.inclusivefutures.org/toolkit

To find out more about Alan, our citizen reporter for Kenya, visit: www.inclusivefutures.org/alan
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In this candid interview International Disability Alliance executive director Vladimir Cuk and Sightsavers deputy chief executive Dom Haslam discuss the progress of disability inclusion over recent years.

They touch on moving from “nice words and pictures” to implementing programmes in line with human rights, and the challenges they’ve experienced when development organisations truly work in partnership with people with disabilities.  They also discuss the “harsh wake-up call” when the COVID-19 pandemic struck and revealed that “disability discrimination is so much alive, and well, and kicking.”

In this 26-minute report, the pair also share their vision for an inclusive world and their personal highlights to date that prove that change is happening.

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