World Bank Announces New Commitments on Disability Inclusion

The World Bank Group (WBG) has announced its commitment to accelerate global action for disability-inclusive development in key areas such as education, digital development, data collection, gender, post-disaster reconstruction, transport, private sector investments, and social protection.

The announcement was made during the Global Disability Summit which was co-hosted by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DfID) in partnership with the Government of Kenya and the International Disability Alliance.

In line with the WBG’s strategy to develop human capital around the world, the World Bank Group Commitments on Disability-Inclusive Development aims to help developing countries invest more and more effectively in persons with disabilities and inaccessible services.

“It is past time that the voices of a billion people around the world living with a disability are heard – this is a truly powerful group, whose potential is far too often left on the sidelines,” said Kristalina Georgieva, Chief Executive Officer of the World Bank. “Economic growth and poverty reduction depend on equal opportunities for everyone, and today we are committing to do more and do better to make sure that people with disabilities have an equal chance to succeed.”

More than one billion people worldwide including an estimated 800 million in developing countries experience some form of disability, according to the World Report on Disability by the World Bank and World Health Organization.

Persons with disabilities face stigma, discrimination, and exclusion from accessing jobs and services, such as education and health care, and they consistently fare less well than their non-disabled peers in development gains.

The commitments build on the WBG’s ongoing efforts to respond to the urgent need for accelerated action at scale to achieve disability-inclusive development in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Over the last five years, the World Bank has significantly ramped up its work on disability-inclusive development across multiple sectors, such as fragility and conflict, education, social inclusion, transport, and water.