The following key lessons emerged in the implementation of AACES in 2012–13.

Community empowerment

Community members responded positively to opportunities for participation provided by the use of rights and strengths based approaches to empowerment. In many instances, the approaches helped marginalised people, including people with disability, realise they have strengths and assets that can transform their lives in positive ways. Training to develop skills, knowledge, confidence and understanding of rights enhanced the effective participation of marginalised groups.

The experience of NGOs so far is that improving the level of community empowerment and making sustainable changes to service access, depends on a number of factors. Gaining support from men for initiatives to empower women has facilitated wider understanding in communities of women's rights and access to services. In Tanzania the involvement of the Maasai¹⁸ men in World Vision's project to educate
communities about health care has increased male support for women accessing family planning services.

Secondly, raising awareness and training community leaders and traditional authorities enhanced community empowerment, especially where tradition is a barrier to change.

In Zimbabwe, Plan International trained traditional leaders (chiefs and village heads) and other decision-makers to promote gender awareness. The traditional leaders reported significant changes in their attitudes towards women, leading to women gaining a public voice on rights issues. In Ethiopia, given the strong patriarchal structure of Afar¹⁹ society, AOA's partner APDA trained religious and community leaders on the importance of women using formal health care during pregnancy and childbirth, which led to more women going to hospital for childbirth.

Finally, working with governments through community planning processes, building relationships of trust with government officials, or advocating through collective action led to tangible results, in particular by aligning community initiatives to local and national development plans. In Tanzania, World Vision participated in planning meetings with district health officials to highlight community issues and advocate for more spending on maternal and child health. They also shared their plans and budgets with government officials to harmonise work plans.

NGOs are responding to these lessons by increasing their engagement with communities and decision-makers, forming and participating in networks to change attitudes and advocating for policies to ensure that the most marginalised groups, which may include women and people with disability, are able to access the services they need with active support from men.

Partnerships

The results of the 2013 partnership survey indicated that African NGO partners wanted greater support to develop their capacity in leadership and strategy development. As one component of this, staff from African NGOs will be encouraged to take on bigger roles in the program steering committee, reflection and other workshops and forums. The results of the survey also point to the need to make greater use of in-depth interviews of partners to supplement information that is obtained through the questionnaire. The interviews will help provide a better understanding and ensure proper attention to all factors that influence the effectiveness of the partnership.

Disability inclusiveness

There are a number of barriers to disability inclusiveness in communities, including lack of inclusive policies, funding and negative cultural beliefs and attitudes. A key lesson learned is that success in promoting disability inclusiveness depends on creating an enabling environment that allows people with disability to participate fully in community decision-making. This requires raising awareness about, the rights and potential of people with disability in communities and among decision-makers. In Malawi, Caritas' partner CADECOM helped people with disability to participate in community development meetings by advocating for their inclusion in various community committees and ensuring that meeting venues were accessible.

Collaboration with disabled people's organisations (DPOs) to raise awareness and appreciation of the rights of people with disability has been useful in promoting disability inclusiveness. Marie Stopes International in Kenya and Tanzania and World Vision in Rwanda successfully partnered with DPOs to design education and communication materials to reach people with disability with information on their rights. AFAP's partner in Mozambique, Concern Universal, and Oxfam in Zambia also partnered with DPOs to advocate for improved service delivery to people with disability, including employment opportunities.

NGOs are building on these lessons to continue engaging people with disability to increase awareness of their rights. They are also engaging with agents of change in communities such as traditional leaders, community leaders and government officials to influence policies and eliminate negative attitudes and beliefs. NGOs are collaborating more with DPOs to increase their skills and knowledge to effectively address barriers to disability inclusiveness in their programs and increase access to services for people with disability.

18. The Maasai are a Nilotic ethnic group of semi-nomadic people inhabiting Kenya and northern Tanzania.

19. The Afar are an ethnic group in the Horn of Africa. They primarily live in the Afar Region of Ethiopia and in northern Djibouti, although some also inhabit the southern point of Eritrea. Afars speak the Afar language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family.