A new era of Aust support for people with disabilities inclusion and rights

CBM welcomes a new era of Australian support for the inclusion and rights of people with disabilities with the announcement of the development program’s new strategy guide.

CBM Australia and the Australian Disability and Development Consortium (ADDC) warmly welcome the beginning of a new era of Australian support for the inclusion and rights of people with disabilities, with the announcement of a new strategy to guide Australia’s development program.

In an opening address to the Australasian Aid Conference, Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Pat Conroy, announced the development of a new disability inclusion and rights strategy to guide Australia’s Overseas Development Assistance (ODA).

The Minister highlighted that disability inclusion must be at the heart of Australia’s development program and that Australia will seek to work more with local organisations.

CBM Australia, the ADDC, Organisations of People with Disabilities (OPDs) and other stakeholders in Australia and around our region have consistently called for the development of a new disability inclusion and rights strategy to guide development efforts for more than a year.

This news, coming in the lead up to the International Day of People with Disabilities on 3 December, means those calls have been heeded.

CBM Australia’s CEO, Jane Edge, welcomed the announcement, stating that “Australia’s historic leadership on disability rights and inclusion in our development program has had a direct and tangible impact on many thousands of people’s lives. People with disabilities are often among the most marginalised, and too often, are left out or left behind in development programs.

“Today’s announcement by Minister Conroy signals that Australia will stand with people with disabilities, understand that they are the experts in their own lives and partner with them to help them reach their full potential.

“Advocating for a new strategy for a disability inclusion in the aid program has been a critical feature of CBM and ADDC’s communication with government over the past two years.”

Kerryn Clarke, Executive Officer of ADDC said, “We are keen to work closely with Government to ensure that the new strategy is informed by, and led by, people with lived experience of disability, OPDs and local partners. The key to a successful strategy that builds on the foundations of Australian leadership in disability inclusion will be significant and substantive consultations with the representative organisations of those most affected by the cycle of poverty and disability.

“Today’s announcement of a successor disability inclusion strategy is enormously welcomed and is just the beginning of what’s needed to rebuild Australia’s leadership on disability inclusion and rights. We look forward to sustained and increased funding year-on-year; ambitious targets on disability inclusion in the new overarching development policy; and increased consultations and partnering OPDs in our region.”

Australia’s international leadership on disability inclusion and rights is long-standing. In 2009, Australia became the first donor country to have a standalone strategy for disability-inclusive development. This strategy was followed in 2015 by the more ambitious Development for All 2015–2020, furthering Australia’s commitment to the inclusion of people with disabilities.

This provided the basis for Australia’s global leadership, along with consistent core funding of around $12.9 million per, and strong, visible international advocacy and influencing.

From this strong foundation, however, there had more recently been a decline in funding, and a lack of strategic direction with the Development for All having expired at the end of 2021, leaving a major policy gap.

This announcement comes on the back of the Government’s decision to reverse the cuts and restore the core disability funding in the October Federal Budget. These announcements signal disability inclusion as a renewed priority for the aid program.

This rebuild of Australia’s leadership on disability inclusion and rights in development efforts is critically needed and can’t come quickly enough. With the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic still reverberating around the region and the increasing incidence of extreme weather driven by climate change, it is those already marginalised and excluded who are feeling the effects most harshly and people with disabilities, perhaps most of all.

CBM Australia and the ADDC look forward to working with the Government, with Organisations of People with Disability in our region and our community here in Australia to develop an ambitious and progressive strategy with rights and inclusion at its heart.

Media release from CBM Australia. Note: Content has been edited for style and length.

Ritchelle Drilon

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Ritchelle is a Content Producer for Healthcare Channel, Australia’s premier resource of information for healthcare.

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