Around 1.3 billion people live with a disability – yet less than one-thousandth of global development aid targets them as a primary focus. As governments reduce international support, persons with disabilities risk being pushed even deeper into poverty, isolation and lifelong exclusion. The global community promised to leave no one behind. That promise is now being broken.
Even with global development commitments, progress on inclusion remains slow. Given that less than 3% of global Official Development Assistance (ODA) was primarily allocated to persons with disabilities in 2021, the slow pace of progress is hardly surprising. For example, persons with disabilities are disproportionately excluded from disaster and climate-driven responses, one of the most pressing challenges of our time, and surveys show little improvement in inclusion over the past decade, according to UN Water.
The most vulnerable are being left behind
The current trend of shrinking international aid threatens to worsen these inequities. Reductions in aid mean fewer resources for inclusive employment programmes and education, accessible infrastructure and health services specifically designed for persons with disabilities. Given the barriers they already face, from labour markets where participation rates lag by around 30 per cent, to accessing essential services, the withdrawal of external support risks reversing any progress made.
Afghanistan provides a striking example of how aid cuts can have devastating consequences. The country is already facing severe poverty, political instability and limited access to basic services, leaving communities highly vulnerable to further shocks. In 2025, hundreds of health facilities were forced to close following major donor withdrawals, leaving communities without access to basic healthcare. Persons with disabilities, who often depend on continuous and accessible services, were among the hardest hit. The UNCRPD guarantees the rights of persons with disabilities, yet in Afghanistan, over one in seven people lives with severe disability, and women and girls are particularly affected by additional barriers to inclusion and participation (The Asia Foundation, 2019).
Bebe Fatima, a graduate of the Preparatory Education Rehabilitation Center (PERC) in Taloqan, run by the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee, shares her experience:
“Here, I learned how to walk with a white cane, read Braille and improve in subjects like maths and English. In public schools we have some students with visual and hearing impairments, but there are no specialised teachers, so we don’t always get proper education.”
The students aspire not only to continue their education, but also to become future educators for children with disabilities. Despite the challenges they face, they remain hopeful, taking deliberate steps toward a better future with determination and perseverance.
Urgent call for action
If the international community allows disability exclusion to persist with cuts in aid, there is a real risk of undoing hard-won progress and leaving persons with disabilities even further behind, in direct contradiction to the “leave no one behind” commitment under the UNCRPD. Further budget cuts, in a context where only a very small percentage of funding reaches the most vulnerable, will have devastating consequences both for persons with disabilities, and for society as a whole.
The time to act is now. Without targeted commitment and increased ODA funding for persons with disabilities, we risk undoing hard-won gains in inclusion, leaving a generation of persons with disabilities at greater risk of poverty, exclusion and neglect. Global justice demands immediate, inclusive action to prevent aid cuts from causing irreversible harm.
