Disability and the SDGs: from words to action

SDG 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

“Build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all.”

SDG 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

“By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status.”

SDG 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

“By 2020, enhance capacity-building support to developing countries… to increase significantly the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts.”

These targets that specifically mention disability will help ensure that in efforts to provide education, equality and data monitoring, people with disabilities will be included. This means real commitment to progress, to measuring that progress and achieving advances which have, until this coming weekend, been impossible.

But these commitments, which hold such potential and hope for the world’s billion people with disabilities, are just a piece of paper. Without implementation, their promises will go undelivered, and people with disabilities will continue to be left behind.

That’s why advocacy and partnership are vital if we are to see real impact by 2030. Funders, non-profits, and other groups need to maintain pressure on governments to include people with disabilities in their development plans, even when inclusion is challenging or costly.

People with disabilities will be vital actors in this process. The inclusion of disability in the SDGs will be a powerful tool for people with disabilities to use as they raise their concerns with their own governments, and work in partnership together to deliver progress.

Once the UNGA session ends, the SDGs are agreed and the celebrations are over, the real job begins: to ensure that what is promised is delivered.