Overview

The ACFID Disability Equity Peer Learning Program will run from March to June 2025, and will bring together staff from ACFID members to strengthen their knowledge and practice in disability equity. Using a similar methodology adopted for the ACFID Climate Action Peer Learning Program in 2024, participants will be placed into small groups with peers from other organisations to work through a program of learning that includes topics such as:

• Disability equity in context analysis and project design
• Disability equity in project implementation
• Preconditions to Inclusion
• Intersectionality
• Partnering with Organisations of Persons with Disabilities
• Reaching particularly marginalised groups of people with disabilities
• Disability equity in monitoring, evaluation and learning
• Measuring impact
• Inclusion at the organisational level
• DFAT’s new International Disability Equity and Rights Strategy (IDEARS)

The small group sessions will be supported by a range of suggested readings, resources, discussion plans and action planning tools. In addition, the Program will include a number of online “Deep Dive” events on specific topics for all participants to join.

Disability Equity and the ACFID Code of Conduct

The Peer Learning Program will align with and support participating organisations to understand and implement the ACFID Code related to empowerment of people with disabilities (Commitment 2.3), through the following compliance indicators:

• 3.1 Members demonstrate an organisational commitment to the inclusion of people with disabilities.
• 3.2 Members’ planning process includes consultation with people with disabilities and contextual analysis of the barriers to social inclusion and participation.
• 3.3 Members promote opportunities for people with disabilities and/or their representative organisations to participate in decision making.
• 3.4 Members monitor and evaluate their progress in promoting the empowerment of people with disabilities.

What is Peer Learning?

ACFID utilises Peer Learning alongside other methods and offerings such as e-learning modules, workshops, and facilitator-led training. Peer Learning is a methodology that involves bringing together individuals from different organisations and providing facilitated experiences for learning through interaction with others. While there will be technical input from curated resources, Deep Dive webinars, and access to topic specialists at various points, the learning is intended to primarily take place as groups discuss these inputs and reflect on how they can apply the technical input to their own and each other’s practice and organisations.

The previous Peer Learning Program found that the individuals that learn the most from the Program are those that actively engage in the resources and their group sessions, and don’t expect to be passive recipients of information. What learners get out of the peer learning process will directly relate to the way they engage with the Program and their group.

What does participation involve?

Registration is per organisation, with a cost of $550 for medium and large ACFID members, and $200 for small members. Each registered organisation can nominate up to 3 staff members to participate in the peer learning program (if there is interest in having more staff participate, please reach out to ACFID to discuss options).

The program will run from 11 March to 19 June 2025. Key elements of the program include:

• Learning Pods that will be formed with approximately 6–8 people per pod, that periodically check in for Learning Pod Sessions throughout the program. The Pods will be formed by grouping individuals that have some areas of commonality across geographic working area, sectoral/thematic focus, organisational structure/context, and the level of time they are able to commit to the Program. Learning Pods will decide upon a sequence of Learning Pod Sessions, depending on the topics they would like to cover and their time availability. This may range from 6 to 12 Learning Pod Sessions throughout the time of the Program. Sessions may last from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours and instructions for each Session are provided to guide learners through resources, discussion questions and learning prompts.
• Deep Dive sessions will be held every 2–3 weeks and be webinar-style events on a range of topics. They will provide key technical content for the Peer Learning Program from experts, guest speakers and panellists and through presentation of case studies.

Organisations are requested to support the participation of their staff by:

• Being open to reflecting on and improving processes, tools and approaches to Disability Equity. The goal of the Program is to support ACFID members improve and strengthen their work in Disability Equity. It is expected that organisations that participate in the Program hear back from participating staff and consider actions that could strengthen the organisation’s approach to Disability Equity.
• Identifying appropriate staff members to participate. The program will have a strong focus on the programmatic side of Disability Equity, but staff with roles outside of programming are also welcome to participate. While understanding that participating staff members may have travel and leave during the duration of the Program, ideally they will be available for the majority of the time.
• Ensure participating staff members’ line managers are aware of and supportive of their participation, so it can be factored into workload and workplans.

For the staff members participating in the Peer Learning Program, participation will include:

• Being available to attend or watch the recording of the Kick-Off Workshop, scheduled for Tuesday 11 March. This event provides foundational content, and instructions for the logistics of the Program. It is essential that participants have watched this workshop by the end of that week.
• Being available to communicate and coordinate with their Learning Pod members at the start of the Program, to set meeting times and topics and on ways of working.
• Being able to prepare for, attend and engage in the majority of their Learning Pod sessions. Learning Pods will be formed with individuals with similar availability, and preferred time commitment. Participants are able to indicate the level of time commitment they prefer which could range from a lower time commitment covering fewer learning topics e.g. one 45 minute Learning Pod session per fortnight; to a higher time commitment covering more learning topics e.g. one hour-long Learning Pod session per week.
• Being ready to actively and positively engage in Learning Pod sessions, including taking a turn to chair a Learning Pod session if need be.

Converting Learning Into Action

Participating organisations are requested to be open to participating staff sharing their learning within their organisations, and possibly having reflections on operational policies and procedures or programming and advocacy approaches. Participating staff may also have developed action plans as part of the Program, with potential implications for their team or organisation. While not all suggestions and ideas may be possible for organisations to take up and action, it is encouraged that there is some planning to receive these suggestions and for them to be considered by the organisation more broadly. Likewise, organisations may provide opportunities for participating staff to share key learnings with their colleagues.

Principles for Working Together

Participating organisations and their staff members engaging in this Peer Learning Program are requested to commit to the following principles in how they engage with other organisations in their Learning Group, and from the Peer Learning Program cohort more broadly:

• We value mutual understanding, shared aspirations, dialogue, and constructive criticism to achieve a common goal of advancing disability equity.
• We seek to understand and appreciate the possibilities and constraints associated with each other’s working environments.
• We respect and recognise that during this process sensitive information and documents may be shared. We will not share that information and on completion we will delete materials shared unless explicit permission is given to keep, use or share the information or documentation.

Registration Process

Please complete the information for your organisation via the link. Registrations close on Friday 21^st of February.

Once ACFID receives this registration, a link for individual participant registration will be sent to each staff member. You can view the individual registration information here: https://forms.monday.com/forms/4f6540e9b3a5d7e6245be120232da214?r=use1

Cost Contribution

Participating organisations and requested to contribute to the costs of running this Learning Program. Medium and Large Members are requested to contribute AUD$550 per organisation, and Small Members $200.

N.b. if cost will be a barrier to your organisation’s participation, please contact [email protected] to discuss options.

There are two payment options:

• Pay via the Humanitix registration (nb this includes GST) at https://events.humanitix.com/acfid-disability-equity-peer-learning-program, or
• Request an invoice to be sent to your organisation

Questions

For any questions, please contact Anne Fitzpatrick, ACFID’s Learning and Impact Lead on [email protected] or 02 8123 2225