Trinity and the World Food Programme at the United Nations for COSP16

Posted on: 15 June 2023

Trinity College Dublin and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), led an event at the United Nations in New York on June 12th alongside the Conference of State Parties (COSP) to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The event entitled, 'Inclusion on the frontline of hunger solutions: Reaching under- represented groups of persons with disabilities', was at the highest forum for issues related to the rights of persons with disabilities. The focus was on the disproportionate impact of food insecurity on persons with disabilities and actions needed to reach those most at risk of exclusion were explored.

Dr Caroline Jagoe, Academic Lead of the partnership said: 

 “Where marginalised identities intersect, such as for women and indigenous persons with disabilities, or persons with disabilities who use minority languages or those who rely on non-privileged modalities of communication, the experience of exclusion from exercising their basic right to food is compounded. These groups are not ‘hard to reach’ but unacceptably ignored.

The event highlighted two groups who are often sidelined in society and risk being overlooked in humanitarian action – Indigenous persons with disabilities and persons with communication differences and disabilities, including minority language users with disabilities, or those with disabilities relating to communication itself - for example those who do not use speech as a primary mode of expressing themselves or understanding others."

Trinity Research Fellow, Claire O’Reilly added,

 “To achieve equal participation for persons with disability including those from indigenous and minority groups our next wave of action must include a focus on ensuring that data become deeds - tangible actions, and that generating a statistic is not considered a job done.” 

The multi-year research collaboration between Trinity and WFP is generating an evidence base for the inclusion of persons with disabilities in WFP food and nutrition assistance programmes. The World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian organisation and, as the global body mandated with achieving “zero hunger”, it undertakes food assistance and food-related assistance programming in over 120 countries.

The Trinity project team is led by Dr Caroline Jagoe, Associate Professor in Clinical Speech and Language Studies, with Research Fellow, Claire O’Reilly, who is an experienced humanitarian with a background in physiotherapy.

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