Our People .
Senior Specialist Rachel Chaikof
Rachel Chaikof is a senior practice specialist for the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Practice. She began her career in international development by serving in the Peace Corps from 2014 to 2016 in Cameroon where she focused on improving access to health education for Cameroonians with disabilities and received a recognition award from U.S. Ambassador to Cameroon. She joined Chemonics International in 2017, and prior to joining the GESI team, she worked for the GHSC-PSM project, focusing on Africa, and the Iraq Durable Communities and Economic Opportunities IDIQ project. She has served as the co-chair of Chemonics’ internal Disability Inclusion Working Group and co-chair of the external CORE Group’s Disability-Inclusive Technical Advisory Group. She received her B.A. from Savannah College of Art and Design and her M.A. from University College London. She holds a Participatory Gender-Audit Facilitator certification from the International Labour Organization.
by Rachel Chaikof
Hiring Interns with Disabilities: Lessons in Inclusion from Development Project Offices
Every year, December 3 marks the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. An estimated one in six people on Earth live with a disability — whether apparent or non-apparent, permanent or temporary. Although societies around the world have made progress toward disability inclusion, people with disabilities remain severely underemployed compared to the general population. In…
3 Ways to Integrate Disability Inclusion and Accessibility in Procurement
People with disabilities often do not have access in their workplaces, at trainings, and workshops, and lack accommodations such as a ramp or elevator, sign language interpreters, real-time captioning, braille and/or enlarged text that facilitate their participation in society on an equal basis with others. Concurrently, although well intentioned, public policies aimed to support people…
Leveraging Data for Meaningful Progress Towards Disability Inclusion
To learn more about data collection tools for disability inclusion, check out the Monitoring and Evaluation Strategies for Disability Inclusion in International Development Guide. Contact GESITeam@chemonics.com with questions. In the last 15 years, advocacy for the inclusion of persons with disabilities in international development has been rising. As persons with disabilities compose a sizable portion of the global population, approximately 15…
Going the Extra Mile to Reach the Last Mile
Two supply chain experts, Bongisiwe Mosekoa and Fikreslassie Alemu, share strategies they’ve applied in Eswatini and Ethiopia to address social factors and systems challenges behind medical commodity uptake, implement inclusive delivery practices for last mile distribution, and ensure sustained health outcomes for everyone, including underserved populations such as people living with HIV/AIDS, youth, pastoralists and…
Building an Inclusive and Accessible Remote Work Environment
This post originally appeared on Inclusive Development Partners Blog. Beyond the fact that many employers worldwide are required to provide reasonable accommodations , creating accessible and inclusive remote work environments can drive productivity and innovation as well as increase morale. In fact, working remotely has been considered a reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. And while ensuring inclusiveness, accessibility, and…
Making the Future Accessible: Safeguarding Women with Disabilities in the Workplace
Girls and women with disabilities experience up to 10 times more gender-based violence than those without disabilities (United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) global study). This can include physical or sexual violence, often perpetrated by family members or neighbors who know they are alone at home. To compound the situation further, women with disabilities have a…