Advocacy

In 2024, our data advocacy efforts continued to grow in both reach and influence. Working closely with Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs), we expanded our strategic partnerships and strengthened networks that champion the rights of people with disabilities through evidence-based policy change.

One of the year’s key milestones was our support for the Citizen Collaborative on data, alongside becoming a founding member of iCount, a new coalition focused on advancing disability-inclusive data systems. We also co-launched research with the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) on the experiences of deaf Indigenous women in Bolivia, specifically their access to health services. The findings powerfully illustrated the barriers these women face and reinforced the urgent need for disability-disaggregated data in health policy and programming.

Our ongoing collaboration with the World Blind Union on the AccessibilityGO! initiative was a highlight at the World Urban Forum. Here, we participated in high-level panels on inclusive, climate-resilient infrastructure, amplifying OPD voices and pushing for accessibility to be integrated into urban development agendas.

We also took time in 2024 to reflect on our support to OPDs in global, national, and community-level advocacy. These reflections are shaping how we move forward — ensuring our support remains responsive, inclusive, and empowering.

As we look to 2025, accessibility advocacy remains a central pillar of our work. We are committed to expanding our influence and deepening partnerships that ensure people with disabilities are not only counted but meaningfully included.

“It was wonderful to have contact with many different organisations who committed to work with us and collect data on persons with disabilities and also to ensure that data collection was led by organisations of persons with disabilities. Governments wanted to learn from our experiences as well as OPDs and also deaf data, we’re missing that Deaf data, it’s a very big gap.”  – Pamela Molina, Executive Director, World Federation of the Deaf.