World Learning Gears Up to Launch Inclusion Initiative
Creating an inclusive world — a world in which all people have a voice in society and the power to determine their own destiny — is among the goals envisioned in the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
World Learning is taking concrete steps toward achieving that goal.
On May 16, World Learning will launch the TAAP Toolkit and Guide for Inclusive Development at the World Bank headquarters in Washington, DC.
TAAP — which stands for Transforming Agency, Access, and Power — engages development practitioners, organizations, and policymakers to amplify the voices, opportunities, and dignity of all people. World Learning has created the TAAP Toolkit in collaboration with our partners, the Women’s Refugee Commission, IREX, HelpAge International, Mobility International USA, and Leonard Cheshire Disability. Using the toolkit, these practitioners will be able to move beyond diversity and toward social transformation by ensuring the integration of social inclusion in development projects of any sector.
“TAAP forces its users to think deeper and find more sustainable transformative solutions,” said World Learning President and CEO Carol Jenkins last month at the European launch for the TAAP Toolkit at the House of Lords in London.
Hosted by Lord Aberdare, Jenkins led the event alongside Naila Kabeer, professor of gender and development at the London School of Economics, to introduce the toolkit as an open-source guide offering practical tools, technical advice, and hands-on activities designed to change the way that the international development field understands social inclusion. “It will help ensure every segment of the population is present at the table and their voices truly heard,” she said.
Kabeer agreed. “What I like about TAAP is that it’s about confronting those who actively or passively exclude,” she said at the event. “The norms of social discrimination are so interwoven in society, they’re more instinctive than active.”
The TAAP Toolkit will help NGOs and other organizations move beyond thinking about social inclusion and into action. In addition to offering concrete activities, the toolkit includes step-by-step guidance and downloadable worksheets that are 508 compliant and accessible even in low-bandwidth situations.
TAAP encourages users not to wait any longer to make the world a more inclusive place. “One of the core principles within the TAAP Toolkit is called think big, think the impossible,” Jenkins said in her presentation. “I want to encourage us all not only to think big, but also to act fast to address this critical challenge of social inclusion. It should not and cannot wait.”
Learn more about the TAAP Toolkit — which was developed with extensive international collaboration, consultations, and pilots in various countries — at our North American launch on May 16 at 4:30 p.m. at the World Bank. And stay tuned here for more information after the launch about the TAAP Community of Practice, a group of committed practitioners, organizations, and policymakers who come together to solve problems, share knowledge, cultivate best practices, and innovate to advance social inclusion.
As Jenkins says, “We invite you all to join our journey of making inclusion the social norm. Ask questions and imagine the possibilities.”
