The MDGs - including resource kit
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are part of the global partnership that has grown from the commitments and targets established at the world summits of the 1990s. CBM urges all actors to accelerate the process of making the MDGs a reality for persons with disabilities, and is supporting the call for a fully disability-inclusive post-2015 global development framework based on human rights and equity.
Disability inclusion in the MDGs is essential
Responding to the main development challenges and to the calls of civil society, the MDGs promote poverty reduction, education, maternal health, gender equality, and aim at combating child mortality, AIDS and other diseases. Yet there is an important gap in the current MDGs: persons with disabilities, that is, the estimated one billion people worldwide who live with one or more impairments are not mentioned in any of the eight goals.
CBM supports local partner organisations on the ground, which assist people with disabilities to access education, vocational training, healthcare or livelihood support, so that they can participate in society on an equal basis with others.
Inclusive development is an important aspect of this because it supports the equal rights and opportunities of persons with disabilities everywhere. Disability-inclusive development therefore is the process of ensuring that all marginalised and/or excluded groups are included in the development process, including people with disabilities using a twin-track approach.
In September 2010, with only five years left until the 2015 deadline, world leaders met in New York to accelerate progress. The initial outcomes of this summit included persons with disabilities in policies and programmes - read more about this summit here.
CBM supports local partner organisations on the ground, which assist people with disabilities to access education, vocational training, healthcare or livelihood support, so that they can participate in society on an equal basis with others.
Inclusive development is an important aspect of this because it supports the equal rights and opportunities of persons with disabilities everywhere. Disability-inclusive development therefore is the process of ensuring that all marginalised and/or excluded groups are included in the development process, including people with disabilities using a twin-track approach.
In September 2010, with only five years left until the 2015 deadline, world leaders met in New York to accelerate progress. The initial outcomes of this summit included persons with disabilities in policies and programmes - read more about this summit here.
Disability, human rights and international development
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is a human rights instrument that also has a social development dimension. It reaffirms that all people, regardless of what type of disability, must enjoy all human rights on equal basis with others.
The right to development is universal and the CRPD further emphasises persons with disabilities right to development, and provides the legal basis for the advocacy activities of CBM and its partners. Article 32 articulates that once a country signs the convention, it will need to make its international cooperation and development programs inclusive of, and accessible to persons with disabilities.
As the 2010 midway report on the MDGs indicates, progress has been most successful in countries where economic growth has been broadly distributed. Inclusive international development cooperation, based on equality and human rights, is necessary to eradicate poverty.
The right to development is universal and the CRPD further emphasises persons with disabilities right to development, and provides the legal basis for the advocacy activities of CBM and its partners. Article 32 articulates that once a country signs the convention, it will need to make its international cooperation and development programs inclusive of, and accessible to persons with disabilities.
As the 2010 midway report on the MDGs indicates, progress has been most successful in countries where economic growth has been broadly distributed. Inclusive international development cooperation, based on equality and human rights, is necessary to eradicate poverty.
The Millennium Development Goals - listed
Adopted by world leaders in the year 2000 and set to be achieved by 2015, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) provide concrete, numerical benchmarks for tackling extreme poverty in its many dimensions. The MDGs will not be achieved unless disability is actively included.
- Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
- Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
- Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
- Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
- Goal 5: Improve maternal health
- Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
- Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
- Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development
- www.includeeverybody.org/disability.php
- CBM - Inclusion Made Easy (PDF, ~ 4.9MB)
