Australia Awards South and West Asia

In the lead-up to International Women’s Day, Australia Awards – South Asia & Mongolia has launched a podcast series called ‘Spotlight on Gender Equality and Social Inclusion’. The series aims to inspire ideas about how every individual can apply a gender equality and social inclusion lens to their work. In each episode, Australia Awards alumni will be sharing the innovative ways they are building gender equality and social inclusion into their projects. The entire series is available to listen to for free on the Australia Awards – South Asia & Mongolia website and Spotify.

The fifth episode features Asim Dio, an Australia Awards alumnus from Bangladesh. You can listen to it here.

Alternatively, you may be able to access it on Spotify:

Asim completed a Master of Public Policy at the Australian National University in 2015 with the support of an Australia Awards Scholarship. At the time of recording the podcast, he was a Policy and Advocacy Specialist at Handicap International’s Bangladesh country program, focusing on disability inclusion and disability-inclusive humanitarian action. He has since taken a role as an Advocacy and Networking Specialist at the United Nations Development Programme.

Asim conducting a workshop on disability-inclusive communication for media professionals in collaboration with Handicap International.

Asim highlights the importance of ensuring that humanitarian actions are inclusive of people with disability and that their rights are upheld in development initiatives. He emphasises that it is crucial to incorporate a gender equality lens into disability inclusion efforts, pointing out that women with disability face unique challenges, including higher rates of violence and illiteracy compared to men. This intersectionality of gender and disability creates specific needs that must be addressed to ensure true inclusion.

Listen to the episode in full to hear Asim reveal the key lessons that he has learnt about considering gender equality and social inclusion in development projects. For example, women with disability in the Rohingya community are often left out of decision-making processes. Asim discusses the dedicated efforts necessary to ensure that women with disability are included in all consultations.

In the podcast, Asim reiterates that achieving true disability inclusion requires a gender equality lens. “Without tackling this challenge, we can’t achieve the society we are envisioning,” he says.