Terhas Clark and Mosharraf Hossain will discuss disability, development, rights and inclusion. British Sign Language Interpreters will be present at the event. 

Terhas Clark is an Ethiopian American disability rights change leader in the context of humanitarian interventions. Her work is shaped by her experiences as a disabled youth, where she was denied access to education, and by Amartya Sen’s entitlement theory. Her vision was to use data to strengthen the accountability of mainstream NGOs and donors to serve and respect the human rights of disabled Ethiopians. After completing her MSc in Development Management at the London School of Economics and Political Science, she rolled out Ethiopia’s first disability assessment of USAID's largest bilateral emergency food aid program in the world: Joint Emergency Operation. Terhas developed systems to track disability disaggregated data during household surveys in Oromia and Amhara regions. She also collaborated with the government, NGOs, U.S. Embassy, and Disabled Peoples Organizations (DPOs) to establish employment opportunities for people with disabilities. She has worked closely with the U.S Ambassador’s Office to establish partnerships with DPOs to ensure their voices are represented in U.S Foreign Policy. Her advocacy at the U.S Embassy resulted in policy changes to USAID’s vocational education programs. Her current role is Disability Inclusion Officer at International Organisation for Migration (IOM) - UN Migration.

Mosharraf Hossain is the Founding Director of Global Inclusion Consulting, a consultancy committed to advancing disability diversity and inclusion in international development. He was Director of Global Policy Influencing of Action on Disability and Development International. Before moving to the UK in 2014, he led ADD's country programme for 20 years.

Dr Duncan Green is Senior Strategic Adviser at Oxfam GB, Professor in Practice in International Development at the London School of Economics, honorary Professor of International Development at Cardiff University and a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Development Studies. He is author of How Change Happens (OUP, October 2016) and From Poverty to Power: How Active Citizens and Effective States can Change the World (Oxfam International, 2008, second edition 2012). His daily development blog can be found on www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/.

This talk is part of the Cutting Edge Issues in Development Thinking & Practice, 2021/22, series, a high-profile lecture series run by the Department of International Development at LSE and organised by Professor James Putzel and Professor in Practice Duncan Green.

The Department of International Development promotes interdisciplinary postgraduate teaching and research on processes of social, political and economic development and change. 

Twitter Hashtag for this series: #CuttingEdge2021