The staff of the project partner agencies trained on disability inclusion

In order to mainstream disability inclusion, Bridging the Gap has held several sessions of the Disability Equality Training (DET) addressed to the staff of their partners’ development agencies. The last one took place in Madrid on 16 and 17 September and was attended by the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP) and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) employees.
Developed in Ireland in the 1990s, and first piloted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 2008, the Disability Equality Training is linked directly with the human rights-based model of disability and has a dynamic, highly participatory and interactive approach to stimulate attitudinal change towards disability, introducing participants to basic tools and concepts that they can apply in their work.
So far, Bridging the Gap has held this activity in five occasions to involve the five development agencies partners of the project: the Commission’s Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO), FIIAPP, AECID, the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) and the Austrian Development Agency (ADA).
The first session took place in Mars in Madrid for FIIAPP and AECID staff. Then, the project held the DET in April in Rome and Vienna for AICS and ADA employees respectively. Finally, in September, two more sessions took place in Brussels for DEVCO and in Madrid for the Spanish cooperation employees, thus completing disability training in all agencies involved in the project.
On the other hand, the project organised an Inclusive and Accessible Communication training on 24 and 25 September in Madrid to let the persons in charge of communication activities know some skills for the inclusion and non-discrimination of persons with disabilities in their daily work. This activity was attended by FIIAPP, AECID and staff from the disability office of the Spanish Ministry of Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Welfare.
Moreover, Bridging the Gap participated in the workshop ‘Tejiendo confianza’, on the role of social movements to develop public policies, organised by the EU programme EUROsociAL in collaboration with Oxfam International and held in La Antigua Guatemala on 30 September and 1 October, to introduce the role of the organisations of persons with disabilities as key actor in the project.