OPD & AT User Engagement
The global OPD/DPO map is the largest-ever collection of advocacy groups led by disabled voices in the transnational disability community.
The Global OPD /DPO map.
The global OPD/DPO map is the largest-ever collection of advocacy groups led by disabled voices in the transnational disability community. It is an open-source data collection project, meaning its key goal is to collect information about relevant organisations and make them freely available to the public, particularly OPDs/DPOs and individual disabled people themselves. The map is a living document, intended to make visible the important work of communities of disabled people across the world.
OPD Capacity Building
GDI Hub has partnered with in-country Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) to assess needs and develop tailored capacity building strategies. Working alongside Kilimanjaro Blind Trust Africa (KBTA) in Kenya and Special Talent Exchange Programme (STEP) in Pakistan, this collaborative work empowers OPDs through storytelling for advocacy, needs assessment, and the analysis of policy consequences placing disabled people's voices at the heart of meaningful, lasting change.
- OPD Capacity Building for a Disability Inclusive Future Kenya Project Report
- OPD and capacity building in Pakistan
- Storytelling Case Study
The foundational work was explored further with KBTA by conducting a deep dive of OPD needs across Kenya through participatory workshops. This work built on the original needs assessment to support the development of a country-level strategy for OPD strengthening targeted at policymakers and government stakeholders. This research also generated an OPD capacity-building framework to support Kenyan-based OPDs in accessing funding, building skills and developing resources for sustainable growth.
Insights from the capacity-building research have been broken down into three regional case studies:
Mapping the Finance Landscape
Blurb: Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) play vital roles as policy and governance experts, strategic partners, advocates, and community implementers of work to progress equity and inclusion of people with disabilities, including accelerating access to assistive technology. Despite their integral role in disability rights advocacy, many OPDs operate with minimal and insecure funding, undermining their ability to sustain operations, be involved in, and have influence over the shaping of strategies, policies, and interventions. This section of the programme focuses on collaborative knowledge sharing of OPD funding resources as well as the landscape in which they exist.