Multi country

The project has contributed to accelerate the paradigm shift among Organisations of persons with disabilities, development agencies and social protection practitioners from a strictly compensatory approach to disability benefits related to notions of incapacity to work to an approach that emphasized the importance of leveraging social protection systems to advance the full and effective participation and inclusion of people with disability. At the heart of this paradigm shift is an approach to replace the widespread “incapacity-to-work” approach to disability benefits with an understanding of social protection systems needing to fulfill four key functions for people with disability 1) providing income security 2) covering disability-related extra costs to pay for goods and services required for participation 3) covering costs of accessing health care and assistive devices and 4) creating interlinkages and improving accessibility of other needed services such as early child development, inclusive education, inclusive employment services etc. This new paradigm also requires a shift in understanding social protection not as charity but adopting a rights-based approach as well as strengthening community-based care and support systems and supporting the deinstitutionalization of people with disabilities. In this context, paying attention to recognizing, rewarding and redistributing unpaid care between men and women will be crucial to avoid adverse impacts on gender inequality on the pathway of the inclusion of people with disabilities.