22 Dec 2020
One year on: Reflecting on the first Australia Assists disability-specific deployment

In May 2018, Vivienne became the first Australia Assists deployee to take on a disability-specific role. We look back and learn what has happened since.

Vivienne spent nearly a year as a Disability Inclusion Specialist with the World Food Programme (WFP) in Rome and undertook seven field missions to WFP country offices around the world. Vivienne helped initiate partnerships with organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) and identified barriers and enablers for better disability inclusion practice.

Staff at the country office level found that Vivienne’s support was essential to help progress disability inclusion: "Without Vivienne there I wouldn’t have been able to do anything on disability inclusion. Having a dedicated resource on disability inclusion is crucial; it doesn’t work otherwise."

Now, more than a year since Vivienne finished her deployment, we worked with disability inclusion advisory partner CBM Australia to evaluate what impact Vivienne had on disability inclusion knowledge and practice within WFP.

Click here to read the full report.