By IDA

 - June 10, 2022

Report of the 2nd IDA Global Survey on Participation of Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs)

This new report presents the findings of the 2nd IDA Global Survey led by OPDs on their participation in decision making processes of governments, the UN system and funding agencies. This report provides a comparison against the baseline of the 1st Global Survey report entitled “Increasingly consulted, but not yet participating: IDA Global Survey Report on Participation of Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (survey conducted in 2018, report published in 2020). It assesses and compares the quality, depth, scope, and relevance of OPDs participation in programmes and policies, and offers recommendations to governments, the UN system and funding agencies.

There is a picture of the cover of the report (a design including survey-related icons) with the logos of IDA and the donors Sida, DFAT, SDC, MoFA, CBM, Norad, and Inclusive Futures / UK Aid

Through regular surveys on OPD participation, IDA monitors the Nothing Without Us motto of the disability rights movement. The IDA Global Survey is part of a strategy to hold decision-makers accountable for their commitments under Articles 4.3 and 32 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

Integrating learning from the first survey, investment was made to improve the accessibility of the online survey platform through iData, including new technical functionalities (such as audio and EasyRead formats) developed with our members and tested by a range of persons with disabilities with diverse accessibility requirements. Thanks to this, the pool of respondents is significantly greater (1,341 respondents from 136 countries) and more diverse than for the first survey, for example responses from persons with intellectual disabilities increased from 1,4% to 11,9% of total respondents.

In summary, the main message from the second Global Survey is that while participation is increasing in quantity, with more consultations of OPDs on a wider range of issues, the quality of participation is not satisfactory for OPDs.

In fact, OPDs report that their participation is far from being meaningful and call for investments to build their capacities and opportunities to engage.

The 2021 survey findings indicate the following:

  1. A slow and steady increase of OPD influence, with satisfaction increasing on engagement with international partners but decreasing on engagement with governments. 
  2. OPDs are consulted on a wider range of issues, usually matching their priorities.
  3. Participation remains limited in frequency and levels of shared decision-making but is taking more formal pathways.
  4. Many groups of persons with disabilities are still left behind in decision-making.
  5. Preconditions for participation, such as accessibility adjustments and reasonable accommodation, is perceived to have deteriorated overall.
  6. OPDs lack capacity, resources, and opportunity to meaningfully engage.
  7. The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impacted persons with disabilities, and also impacted on the work of OPDs.

This report is a unique tool to support the meaningful participation of persons with disabilities through their representative organisations. Find more findings and recommendations in the report: