Australia and IDA back disability leadership across ASEAN for a future of rights, opportunity and belonging
Across eight countries in Southeast Asia, stronger disability movements will help turn the promise of equal rights into everyday change and contribute to a peaceful, stable, and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
With Australian Government support, the International Disability Alliance and the ASEAN Disability Forum are advancing the DFAT programme, Scaling Up Inclusion in Southeast Asia through OPD-to-OPD Granting, Ecosystem Strengthening and National Systems Change. Across eight countries, the programme will strengthen organisations of persons with disabilities, the networks that connect them and their ability to shape a more inclusive future.
The programme builds on Stronger Movements, Stronger Futures, announced by Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Minister for International Development Anne Aly in December 2025. Through this partnership, Australia is backing the leadership of organisations of persons with disabilities as a foundation for a stronger, moreinclusive region, in line with its International Disability Equity and Rights Strategy.
"Behind every organisation of persons with disabilities are people with hopes for their lives, knowledge of their communities and the determination to make things better," said José Viera, Executive Director, International Disability Alliance.
"Australia's support across the ASEAN region recognises that leadership. It helps create the time, trust and stability organisations need to bring people together, develop solutions and keep working until rights become a reality in everyday life.”
Through OPD-to-OPD granting, resources will support priorities identified by organisations of persons with disabilities themselves. Grants between disability organisations, alongside technical assistance and peer learning, will help OPDs build their skills, sustain their work and pursue the changes their communities want to see.
Ecosystem strengthening means building the relationships and shared capacity that help disability organisations achieve more together. The programme will connect national organisations with provincial and grassroots networks, support collaboration across different disability groups, and strengthen partnerships with wider civil society and public institutions. The aim is a more diverse, credible, resilient movement, able to share knowledge, respond to challenges and act collectively on shared priorities.
These stronger organisations and partnerships will help drive change in national systems. By bringing lived experience and collective expertise into dialogue with governments, OPDs can influence the laws, policies, budgets and public services that shape everyday opportunities. The goal is to turn community priorities into lasting improvements in how national systems recognise rights, remove barriers and enable equal participation.
This includes strengthening OPDs’ ability to advance gender equality and respond to climate change. Women with disabilities must be able to lead and shape the systems, policies and financing that affect their autonomy and livelihoods. Persons with disabilities must also be able to influence how communities prepare for climate impacts and respond to disasters. Their experience and expertise are essential to solutions that work for everyone.
The programme aims to reach at least 194 organisations, coalitions, networks and provincial branches across eight countries, connecting grassroots priorities with national reform. Through these connections, a concern raised in a local community can inform collective advocacy, and progress at the national level can create opportunities for people in their everyday lives.
Together, IDA, the ASEAN Disability Forum and Australia are working towards a more diverse, resilient and connected disability rights movement, with organisations of persons with disabilities at its core. Stronger movements can help build peaceful, inclusive and prosperous societies in which persons with disabilities, in all their diversity, have equal opportunities and their rights upheld.
Saowalak Thongkuay, ASEAN Disability Forum Chair, commented: “A stronger movement means more people can be heard, more leaders can emerge and more communities can shape their own futures, with OPDs bringing not only hope and expectations but also the solutions that will make a difference.”
IDA Media
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