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The Philippines has developed a range of national laws, policies, and programmes in response to violence against women and girls (VAWG). However, as elsewhere, the needs and experiences of women with disabilities are rarely considered in government policies or development activities. Yet women with disabilities are more likely to experience violence than their peers without disability, and they experience a range of barriers that prevent them accessing violence prevention and response services. This article describes initiatives supported by the W-DARE programme to respond to this. These initiatives have involved disabled people’s organisations, local researchers, and activists in the women’s movement, and officials from multiple levels of government. They aspire to build the ability of national policymakers, programme staff, and local service providers to respond to the interests of women and girls with disabilities who face violence.

BACKGROUND: In many contexts, women with disability have less access to sexual and reproductive health information, screening, prevention, and care services than women without disability. Women with disability are also known to be more likely to experience physical and sexual violence than women without disability. In the Philippines, health service providers often have little awareness of the sexual and reproductive experiences of women with disability and limited capacity to provide services in response to their needs. Very limited data are available to inform development of disability-inclusive sexual and reproductive health, and violence prevention and response, services in the country. This paper presents the protocol for W-DARE (Women with Disability taking Action on REproductive and sexual health), a three-year program of participatory action research that aims to improve the sexual and reproductive health of women with disability in the Philippines. DESIGN: W-DARE is a disability-inclusive program that will use mixed methods to 1) increase understanding of factors influencing the sexual and reproductive health of women with disability, and 2) develop, implement and evaluate local interventions to increase supply of and demand for services. W-DARE will generate data on the prevalence of disability in two districts; the wellbeing and community participation of people with and without disability, and identify barriers to community; and describe the sexual and reproductive health needs and experiences, and service-related experiences of women with disability. These data will inform the development and evaluation of interventions aiming to improve access to sexual and reproductive health services, and violence prevention and response services, for women with disability. Local women with disabilities, their representative organisations, and SRH service providers will be involved as members of the research team across all stages of the research. DISCUSSION: This th