We are Able Burundi 2021 - 2025 In the countries that are targeted by 'We are Able!' (DR Congo, Burundi, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda) food security is low. People with disabilities (PWDs) are even more likely to live in food insecure households. We are able! wants to see PWDs improving their right to food and food security by creating an enabling environment for right-to-food action at grassroots level. While PWDs are the core target group of the We are able! program, we create benefits for other excluded groups like vulnerable women, youth in general, marginalised ethnic groups and internally displaced persons (IDPs), as applicable per context. By 2025, through engagement with public authorities (formal and informal powerholders), men, women and youth with disabilities and other excluded groups, through resilient and capable local CSOs/DPOs in six fragile and conflict-affected countries, are successfully influencing laws, policies, practices and norms for improved food security for all. The We are able! program targets people (including women, men, and youth) with a disability, while, as spin-off, the program will also create opportunities for other excluded groups,3 such as vulnerable women, persons affected by leprosy, youth in general, excluded ethnic groups, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees, as much as possible or necessary in the specific context. Intersectional traits often make people particularly vulnerable. Refugees with disabilities or disabled women and men of particular ethnic backgrounds often face the most severe forms of food insecurity. We are able! identifies and targets groups and individuals with particular vulnerabilities while creating synergies that allow others to benefit as well. From 2021 to 2025, The Hague Academy for Local Governance (THA) will develop, in joint collaboration with the WaA! implementing partners, a local training curriculum on inclusive governance and strengthen the capacities of a team of national trainers to implement the curriculum (intermediary outcome 3.2 of the WaA! Theory of Change). Subsequently, through this team of national trainers, the capacities of Public Authorities, CSOs and DPOs on inclusive governance will be strengthened by VNG International (outcome 3.1, 3.3 and 3.4). The proposed multi-annual training methodology includes the following two core elements: Training of Trainers (ToT) and Action Learning. 


Training of Trainers (ToT):
In view of southern leadership and sustainability, THA proposes to work through an inclusive team of national trainers as they bring in elementary insights into the local context and culture. In the action learning approach (see below), this is particularly important, as this moves the training away from the ‘pure’ transfer of knowledge to the design and implementation of concrete actions, which have to be tailored to specific local problems and needs. To ensure that the national trainers are well versed into inclusive governance and the action learning methodology, THA provides a comprehensive Training of Trainers programme, see Annex 1 - ToT workplan for more details. 


Action learning:
Action learning is a core component of The Hague Academy’s training methodology. It focusses on making sure that learning processes – including training activities – are centred around participants’ concrete professional problems and that their actions address these problems. It ensures that doing is accompanied by learning, and learning is accompanied by adaptation. Through action learning methods, THA and VNG International will encourage Public Authority, CSO and DPO representatives to reflect on their experiences and to translate the new knowledge and skills acquired into real life actions in support of the Local Inclusion Agenda (LIA). The action learning approach will contribute to an enabling environment within organisations and institutions (e.g. inclusive policies, governance mechanisms and processes), thereby promoting the sustainability of the programme.