December 11, 2023
Comments due Friday, December 15, 2023, at 5:00 PM ET
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) seeks comment on the draft of an update to the agency’s disability policy, which guides its work to advance inclusion of people with disabilities. Submit comments online until 5:00 PM ET on December 15, 2023.
From the draft policy:
“This 2023 'Nothing Without Us: USAID Disability Policy' responds to stakeholder feedback and updates promising practices, places USAID’s work within the current global context, and situates USAID to fulfill its long-standing commitment to nondiscrimination and inclusion of persons with disabilities in society on an equitable basis with others. The policy also positions USAID to partner with persons with disabilities in meeting the myriad challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.
The goal of this policy is to advance empowerment and elevate the lives of the world’s more than one billion persons with disabilities by ensuring that USAID and implementing partners recognize, respect, value, meaningfully engage, include, and are intentional in ensuring that persons with disabilities and their representative organizations benefit equitably from our work as equal partners. Intentional and meaningful inclusion of persons with disabilities across all areas of USAID’s work is key to ensuring that countries can meet their development goals and potential. Moreover, meaningful and intentional disability-inclusion is fundamental to ensuring that development and humanitarian assistance is both effective and cost-effective."