Advisory Capacity development and Exchange (ACE)

Project | March 19, 2025

CBM Global’s Inclusion Advisory Group (IAG) has been supporting the disability movement in the Southeast Asia and Pacific regions to strengthen their disability inclusion advisory knowledge and skills through implementation of a dedicated capacity strengthening project. 

The 2023-2024 Advisory Capacity Development and Exchange (ACE) project consisted of several components: (i) to support the advisory capacity of Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) in the Pacific region through co-creation of knowledge products and tools; (ii) to train six members of the disability movement in Southeast Asia (Laos, Indonesia and the Philippines) in disability inclusion advisory knowledge and skills, through a year-long fellowship; and (iii) to produce a series of publicly available, accessible, knowledge products to support the disability movement to engage in priority areas of advisory work. 

In the Pacific, IAG worked with the Pacific Disability Forum (PDF) to provide coaching and mentoring, facilitate peer exchange, and develop collective resources to support disability movement leaders to respond to the advisory requests they increasingly receive. 

“When PDF started out, we advocated about disability rights to everyone, we had to! Now, we’re in the process of going to the next step… providing clear advice and recommendations to our stakeholders on how to translate CRPD obligations into their own policies and practice.” Setareki Macanawai, Former CEO of the Pacific Disability Forum 

The year-long pilot Fellowship in Asia was implemented in partnership with International Disability Alliance (IDA) – a global OPD – and trained Fellows in disability inclusion advisory skills through webinars, tailored and practical on-the-job training opportunities, and personalised professional mentorship.  

A recent evaluation of the Fellowship concluded that the approach is an effective method of disability movement capacity strengthening; that the unique mixture of core and tailored content of the Fellowship curriculum contributes to success; that the approach benefits the wider disability movement, increasing impact; and that learning from the pilot Fellowship can enhance future approaches to disability movement capacity strengthening on advisory work.  

“The ACE program introduced me to wider networks and, as a result, there is more demand starting to come to my organisation from, for example, International Non-Governmental Organisations …to help advise on their… inclusion policies. This is the sort of work that my organisation wants to do.”  Fellow, 2024 

The successes of the Pilot Fellowship have inspired further thinking on how best to meet the needs of the Disability Movement in enhancing their capacity to influence through technical advice. IAG looks forward to working with ACE alumni in future advisory work and iterations of the Fellowship.

The knowledge product were developed in collaboration with ACE Fellows and PDF, responding to OPD priorities. The products include interactive ‘choose your own adventure’ games to use in capacity development activities, as well as guidance notes on priority topics such as disaster risk reduction, and core advisory skills such as negotiating a Terms of Reference and designing and running inclusive workshops. They resources are fully accessible and available in multiple languages on our resource page. 

For more information about this project contact Helen Barrett, Senior Inclusion Advisor, at helen.barrett@cbm-global.org   

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