The UK Department for International Development (DFID) leads the UK’s work to end extreme poverty. We are tackling the global challenges of our time including poverty and disease, mass migration, insecurity and conflict. Our work is building a safer, healthier, more prosperous world for people in developing countries and in the UK too.

We are responsible for:

  • honouring the UK’s international commitments and taking action to achieve the United Nations’ Global Goals
  • making British aid more effective by improving transparency, openness and value for money
  • targeting British international development policy on economic growth and wealth creation
  • improving the coherence and performance of British international development policy in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  • improving the lives of girls and women through better education and a greater choice on family planning
  • preventing violence against girls and women in the developing world
  • helping to prevent climate change and encouraging adaptation and low-carbon growth in developing countries.

Read more: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-international...

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Policy, legislation and its implementation
We will publish a new Disability Framework later in 2018 setting out how we will put disability at the heart of our work.

Timeframe and/or implementation plan
We will consult on the new Framework and publish by the end of 2018.

Policy, legislation and its implementation
A new policy position on children and young people with disabilities in institutions:

In line with the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care for Children, the UK government recognises that institutionalisation harms children’s physical, emotional and psychological development. Children with disabilities, including physical, psychosocial and intellectual disabilities, are often the first to be placed in institutional care, the last to leave, suffer the most as a consequence, and often end up being forgotten by society once institutionalised. In line with our international treaty obligations, including but not limited to the ECHR, UNCRC (and optional protocols) and UNCRPD, as well as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, we are committed to ensuring all children realise their right to family care and that no child is left behind. The UK government will continue to tackle the underlying drivers of institutionalisation and work towards the long term process of de-institutionalisation. The UK is supportive of inclusive community services for all children and the promotion of family and community-based care, together with individually tailored services for children with disabilities.

Timeframe and/or implementation plan
DFID will be working with civil society and other stakeholders to explore the current landscape of child protection systems and to scope out entry points to tackle systemic issues, addressing the failures that lead to institutionalisation in the first place. In the short term, we will convene a working group on these issues. We will continue to support the work that civil society does leading directly on the deinstitutionalisation process on the ground

Theme: Eliminate Stigma and Discrimination
Year: 2018
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Endorse and support the Partnership for Inclusive Education
We will set up, fund and lead the new Inclusive Education Initiative (IEI). This new multi-donor partnership will pool expertise to support developing countries to realise the promise of truly inclusive schools, teaching and learning. It will support countries to collect data, integrate disability into education sector plans, build capacity to rollout reforms and train teachers. It will focus on real world outcomes to ensure all children complete school and learn. 

Timeframe and/or implementation plan
The new Inclusive Education Initiative will become operational in 2019 and operate a ‘test and refine’ phase to developing a functional model of support, initially in two developing countries.  A more comprehensive work plan and implementation detail will also be agreed in 2019, linked to resource availability. Tangible results should be delivered before 2021

Additional resources and implementation
We commit to support countries through strengthened education programming including Ethiopia, Jordan, Rwanda, Pakistan, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Jordan. 

Timeframe and/or implementation plan
Implementation plans will be tailored to each country. Examples include:

  • In Ethiopia, we will transform and develop 687 Inclusive Education Resource Centres (IERCs) nationwide by 2022 to promote the inclusion of 24,000 children with disabilities.
  • In Rwanda, we will train 12,000 teachers of English and Maths in inclusive education teaching methods, by 2021
  • In Tanzania the extension of DFID’s Education Programme for Results (now 2014-2020) will support important reforms in primary and lower secondary schools, in order to improve learning outcomes for all children, particularly for girls and children with disabilities, by 2020

Additional resources and implementation
We will commit to a new ‘leave no girl behind’ (LNGB) funding window to the Girls Education Challenge (GEC) programme. GEC transforms girls’ life chances (over 1.4m so far) and the new funding window (LNGB) will award 15 projects and support 10,000 girls with disabilities.

Timeframe and/or implementation plan
LNGB will:

  • Provide access to better quality education, transition to further education and employment opportunities and livelihood transition funds; for example, in Malawi and Nepal.
  • Ensure all LNGB projects use the Washington Group questions.

Implementation will start before the end of the year, 2018.

Theme: Inclusive Education
Year: 2018
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Access to decent work
CDC will publish a Good Practice briefing note for CDC’s fund managers, investees and clients – and broader private sector investors. It will provide guidance on inclusive and practical actions that investors/ private sector companies can take to provide decent work for people with disabilities.

Timeframe and/or implementation plan
Once this is published, CDC will expand coverage of tools for industry sectors within the CDC portfolio and also raise the issue of disability inclusion with other Development Finance Institutions. Publication will be within 12 months of the Summit

Accessible transport and infrastructure
The Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) will identify how developers and operators within its portfolio can take action where appropriate in the design of infrastructure, the operation of infrastructure companies and the delivery of infrastructure services, in order to remove barriers to access for people with disabilities.

Timeframe and/or implementation plan
Within the next 18 months, PIDG will embed this across their work; identify at least one project suitable for a pilot study; and undertake a survey of stakeholders.

Inclusive environments in the workplace
We will launch the disability inclusion theme of UK Aid Connect.  This will be delivered by two consortia led by Sightsavers (‘Inclusion Works’) and Leonard Cheshire Disability (‘Innovating Pathways for Employment Inclusion’). They will work with civil society, academia and the private sector to create innovative solutions to improve long-term economic empowerment, wellbeing and inclusion of people with disabilities in at least four priority DFID countries.

Timeframe and/or implementation plan
The co-creation phases begin in September 2018, where, working closely with DFID, the consortia will embed the governance arrangements and undertake a full programme design including maximising learning and VFM.  Implementation begins from April 2019.

Inclusive environments in the workplace
We have launched a new UK-Kenya Strategic Partnership for the Economic Empowerment of People with Disabilities. This collaboration between the UK, Kenya and select businesses (UK and Kenyan) will establish a dynamic partnership model which demonstrates private sector leadership as a driving force behind inclusive economic growth in Kenya. Membership of this partnership includes KCB Group, SafariComm, M-Kopa and Standard Chartered Bank, with input from advocates for disability-inclusive business such as Lizzie Kiama, founder of This-Ability and Caroline Casey, founder of the #valuable movement, amongst others. 

Timeframe and/or implementation plan
Following the launch of the UK-Kenya Strategic Partnership at the Global Disability Summit, the next meeting is to be held in Nairobi in early 2019.  This meeting will take a closer look at how inclusive practices can be tailored to the business needs of each partner, offering a greater understanding as to how business can expand and grow whilst meaningfully engaging with communities and public sector partners. Over the longer term we hope this partnership model will be replicated and used to stimulate inclusive economic growth more broadly.

Inclusive environments in the workplace
Under our Responsible Accountable and Transparent Enterprise (RATE) programme, we have funded the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) to produce Base Code Guidance for global firms to mainstream disability inclusion in their supply chains.

The guidance is a high-level document which outlines the business case for employing people with disabilities, challenges the myths that exist around disability inclusion in the workplace and highlights best practice examples from UK and global businesses employing people with disabilities. 

Timeframe and/or implementation plan
ETI produced this guidance between March and July 2018.  It was launched on 23rd July, as part of the Global Disability Summit pre-event, at a session on inclusive business practices. 

The guidance is intended for a wider audience beyond just ETI membership and will be used as a resource for businesses to draw upon when reviewing their own practices. We will promote the use of this guidance when engaging with private sector partners, and internally where appropriate. For example CDC will use the guidance to help them produce a briefing note for investment fund managers and investee businesses on tackling disability issues in the supply chain.

Other
We will launch a new six-year cutting-edge innovation and scale-up programme, called the Disability Inclusive Development (DID) programme. This will find out what works, for whom, when and why – delivered by a ground-breaking consortium led by Sightsavers, several UK INGOs and the Summit co-hosts the International Disability Alliance.

The DID programme will deliver tangible outcomes to improve the lives of persons with disabilities – including improved educational attainment and health outcomes; jobs and livelihoods and reduced stigma and discrimination. Interventions in six countries including Kenya (co-host) and Bangladesh.

Timeframe and/or implementation plan
Ambition by 2023 is to enable up to 100,000 women, men, girls and boys with disabilities to access health services; up to 45,000 people with disabilities to increase their incomes; 3,000 children with disabilities to attain and improve learning and reach millions of people through interventions to tackle stigma and discrimination.

Theme: Routes to Economic Empowerment
Year: 2018
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Join Global Partnership for Assistive Technology
We will launch ‘ATscale’, a global partnership for assistive technology (with partners such as USAID, WHO, UNICEF and GDI Hub) to transform access and affordability for life-changing AT such as wheelchairs, prosthetics, hearing aids and glasses. Our objective is that 500m people globally will be being reached by essential assistive technology by 2030.

Timeframe and/or implementation plan
We aim to build the alliance in two stages. First, DFID will support this with an initial £10m, three year programme called ‘AT:2030 life-changing AT for all’. It will deliver at least 3 million people with access to ATs, catalyse at least 10 new disruptive technologies with potential for life-changing impact, develop at least 6 innovative service delivery models and spark 30-50 new start-ups. In parallel, we will work to create a more structured partnership model for the long-term with a further £20m programme.

Theme: Harnessing Technology and Innovation
Year: 2018
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Sign up to the Inclusive Data Charter
We have signed up to the Inclusive Data Charter to support the quality, quantity, financing and availability of inclusive and disaggregated data.

Timeframe and/or implementation plan
DFID’s Inclusive Data Charter Action Plan will be finalised and launched in autumn 2018

Theme: Data Disaggregation
Year: 2018
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We will contribute a further £1 million to the UN Trust Fund on Violence Against Women and Girls hosted by UN Women.  This will support their efforts in preventing and responding to violence against women and girls with disabilities. This funding will support grassroots organisations to scale up their response to prevent and respond to the scale of violence experienced by women and girls with disabilities. 

Timeframe and/or implementation plan
We are currently providing £20m over six years (2014 - 2020) to the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women. This £1m will be on top of this support.

Other
We have launched an open source Global Data Portal, which compares the quality of disaggregated data on disability prevalence around the world. The Global Data Portal brings together existing disability data for the first time on 16 key development indicators from 40 low and middle-income countries around the world. Initial analysis helps to identify gaps between men and women with disabilities and those without disabilities. This will support stronger planning, resource allocation and accountability.

Timeframe and/or implementation plan
Launched on 24 July 2018.

Theme: Women and Girls with Disabilities
Year: 2018
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We will be publishing a set of updated humanitarian commitments to form part of the revised Disability Framework by the end of 2018.

Timeframe and/or implementation plan
We will consult on the new Framework and publish by the end of 2018. 

Theme: Conflict and Humanitarian Contexts
Year: 2018
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We have extended the ICS youth volunteering programme until December 2019. We have doubled the number of applications we want to achieve from people with disabilities to 6% of total applications.

Under the extension we have also doubled the number of bespoke disability focused projects in the portfolio, and will ensure that 40% of the overall project portfolio focuses on disability related outcomes.

Theme: Other
Year: 2018