GDS25: Time is running out to prioritise disability in development

The UK’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget will be ‘temporarily’ cut from 0.5% to 0.3% of gross national income (GNI) by 2027, a reduction of around £6 billion.

USAID has eliminated 83% of its programming. Donors across Europe are slashing their aid budgets. As international development shrinks, and donors and implementers reprioritise, what’s at stake for the 16% of people in the world with a disability? And why does disability inclusion in development matter, both for the UK and the world?

The 2025 Global Disability Summit (GDS25)

The Global Disability Summit (GDS) is the world’s premier global gathering to advance disability inclusion and influence global disability policy. Taking place once every three years, the 2025 GDS will be led by the International Disability Alliance (IDA) and co-hosted by the governments of Germany and Jordan in Berlin from April 2-3.

The first GDS was held in the UK and co-hosted by the UK and Kenya in 2018. The GDS is a unique opportunity to unite global, regional, and local stakeholders in the public, private, and voluntary sectors with shared goals and visions for disability-inclusive development. Attendees are encouraged to register specific inclusion commitments, which can be publicly viewed via the GDS website and leveraged to hold governments and others to account on disability in development.

GDS25 comes at a critical time – with aid budgets collapsing, bridging the gap between disability inclusion and development co-operation is the only way to both deliver quality aid and uphold the UK’s commitment to Leave No One Behind.

Of the world’s 1.3 billion people with disabilities, 80% live in low and middle-income countries and were disproportionately impacted by previous cuts to ODA. People with disabilities die up to 20 years earlier than people without disabilities, and face inequities arising from stigma, discrimination, poverty, and exclusion from education, employment, and political processes. 

Children with disabilities are also 49% more likely than their peers to miss out on going to school. Factors such as ethnicity, sex and gender, sexual orientation and age can further compound marginalisation. Development that is not inclusive of people with disabilities leads to poorer outcomes overall. 

The UK must continue its historic leadership on disability rights

Thanks to an inquiry by the House of Commons International Development Committee and subsequent report, published last year before July’s general election, and the current government’s response in January 2025, the FCDO’s approach to disability inclusion has been under the microscope. Much of the inquiry and report inevitably focused on the impact of the previous cuts to the ODA budget and the 2020 merger of the former Department for International Development with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. However, the Committee also highlighted a number of areas of progress over the past decade.

The FCDO’s Disability Inclusion and Rights Strategy has been recognised as a milestone achievement in improving the inclusivity of the UK development portfolio. The MPs’ report also highlighted the FCDO’s flagship Disability Inclusive Development (DID) programme, while backing the ‘twin-track approach’ of both providing targeted specialist support on disability and mainstreaming disability inclusion across all sectors of development policy and practice, including education, health, climate change, and democracy and governance. 

Mainstreaming disability across development provides good value for money, as it ensures aid most effectively reaches the greatest number of people possible. In its response, the government noted that prior to the first GDS in 2018, only 18% of its bilateral aid was marked as being principally or significantly disability-inclusive, but this has increased to 35%. 

GDS25 is a moment of truth for the UK Government and all donor nations – will they uphold their commitment to disability inclusion in their development and humanitarian programmes in this new and challenging environment? Will they share and implement the good practice championed by, not just MPs in the UK, but by the global disability movement, including data collection, engagement of people with disabilities in the design and implementation of development programmes, improved safeguarding and disability-inclusive responses to democratic backsliding, humanitarian crises, and climate change?

What comes next?

A number of members of the Bond Disability and Development Group have been accepted to attend GDS25, and will be represented through side-events, stalls, and bilateral meetings, including – hopefully – with Minister for Disability, Sir Stephen Timms MP, who is attending on behalf of the UK government.

The Bond DDG has pushed to ensure that people with disabilities and their representative organisations are consulted and considered in new commitments made towards disability-inclusive development. It is vital that commitments are clear, measurable, and actionable, backed by properly funded action plans with mechanisms for accountability, and clarity on who is responsible for implementation.

The end of the Summit itself is just the beginning – the DDG will continue to work constructively with ministers, officials, other parliamentarians, and organisation of persons with disabilities partners to ensure the UK government’s commitments to disability inclusion in its development and humanitarian work are strengthened, to improve the quality of all aid for all people.