Innovation to Inclusion: i2i
The i2i programme was designed to show how digital and tech-based solutions could enhance disability inclusion. i2i focused on boosting digital skills, confidence, and employment opportunities while addressing barriers like transport, accommodation, and assistive tech.
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Innovation to Inclusion (i2i) was a three-year programme focused on technological initiatives that directly improved access to paid private sector work for people with disabilities in Kenya and Bangladesh. Funded by UK aid and managed by a consortium led by pan-disability charity Leonard Cheshire, i2i improved access to waged employment for 10,000 women and men and benefited up to 50,000 family and community members.
Included in the project delivery were at least 20 Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs), 80 private companies, government agencies and government staff in the implementing countries, technology-based recruitment companies, and key academic institutions.
About
i2i was designed to show the impact that digital and tech-based solutions could have in strengthening disability inclusion. The programme reached 120 government personnel, 100 DPO representatives, 100 employer representatives, and 12,000 family and community members of people with disabilities, as well as directly benefited 10,000 people with disabilities of working age.
The i2i programme specifically emphasised digital and technological innovations along the DEP (Disability Employment Pathway) to increase persons with disabilities’ confidence, soft skills, and digital literacy while finding solutions to address barriers in employment and retention, such as additional costs of transportation, accommodation, and lack of assistive technologies.
i2i also worked with DPOs to strengthen community support for women and men with disabilities seeking employment by addressing social and gender norms. Skilled women and men with disabilities were supported to find waged employment through an inclusive employer hub, which included accessible online job matching platforms, job fairs, and recruitment agencies.
GDI Hub: Innovation Expertise
GDI Hub identified and selected innovative ideas through an innovation challenge call to support, develop, and implement ideas that addressed solutions to barriers for women and men with disabilities to access and retain waged employment in the private sector (specifically technology) in Kenya and Bangladesh.
Working papers
"Barriers to Access and Retain Formal Employment for Persons with Disabilities in Bangladesh and Kenya" was written by GDI Hub's Nusrat Jahan and Professor Catherine Holloway to support the development of challenge statements for a GDI Hub innovation challenge fund call related to improving access to and retention of employment for persons with disabilities in Kenya and Bangladesh.
Scoping report
Conducted in late 2018 and published in January 2019, the scoping report formed part of a wider approach of the UK Government Aid Connect Scoping Programme to research and understand innovative approaches to the provision of Assistive Technology for disabled people seeking employment in Kenya and Bangladesh. As the global development community moved to reduce the price and increase access to AT through markets and governments, this scoping study sought to understand more about what could be done to enable persons with disabilities in Kenya and Bangladesh to overcome barriers to formal sector employment through access to AT.
The report was a rapid assessment and was limited in scope to formal sector engagement. It was noted that for vast numbers of disabled people living in Bangladesh and Kenya, the informal sector was often where livelihoods were made; but that wasn’t the focus of this work. The research was prepared by GDI Hub to harness the synergies between Aid Connect and the AT2030 and ATscale global programmes, and these opportunities were drawn out throughout the report.
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