United front for children with disabilities

In its role as a global children’s charity, UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, has developed the Disability Inclusion Policy and Strategy (DIPAS) as a roadmap to removing barriers for children living with disabilities.

Through intensive internal and external consultations, UNICEF has determined the following six key strategic priorities:

• Prevention of stigma and discrimination
• Improvement of disability inclusive services, programs and workplaces
• Access to comprehensive community care and support services
• Access to assistive technology
• Disability inclusive action in humanitarian, emergency and fragile contexts
• Full and meaningful participation of persons with disabilities

The organisation is wasting no time, with actions being implemented as early as this year, including the development of a divisional/regional action plan scheduled for December 2023.

Other actions include:

• Increase organisational budget by 10 per cent by 2030 to fund improved disability inclusion across its program and operations
• All offices to progressively increase the number of employees with disabilities by at least two per cent by 2025
• All regional offices to have at least one dedicated full time disability specialist by 2025
• Mainstream disability inclusion into media communications and advocacy by 2025
• 75 per cent of UNICEF staff are trained in disability inclusion by 2025

Click here to view the full DIPAS.