"Disabled people are at the greatest risk from aid cuts"

“The UK’s sudden decision to slash its aid budget by 40% poses a huge risk to people with disabilities, including people stranded near the frontlines of the war in Ukraine, people injured by mines in Syria, and Rohingya refugees with disabilities in Bangladesh.

Last year, a parliamentary inquiry found that people with disabilities, especially women and girls, had borne the brunt of the previous government’s substantial cuts to UK aid. It is imperative that the current government learns from this and takes urgent action to protect the most vulnerable people from the worst impacts of their drastic decision to reduce this budget even further.

Conflict is the major driver of humanitarian need in the world, and people with disabilities are always among the most vulnerable and worst affected. And yet, we are seeing governments in the UK, US, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and elsewhere slash aid budgets with little concern for the people they are abandoning.

This is not only disastrous for millions of people, but it also self-defeating because international aid is vital to maintaining the peace and security on which every country – including the UK – depends.

At HI, we are deeply worried about the impact of aid cuts on disabled people in places like Gaza, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

- Gaza now has the highest number of child amputees per capita in the world.
-  In Syria, over 28% of the population over the age of two now lives with a disability, yet only 62% of hospitals and 53% of primary healthcare centres are fully functional.
-  In Sudan, people with disabilities report being ‘left behind like luggage’ as communities flee the violence.

The UK has been a leader on disability inclusion since hosting the first ever Global Disability Summit in London in 2018. The huge progress made is now at risk of being erased.

At this critical time, we urge the UK Government to publicly reconfirm its commitment to disability inclusion and to spell out how they will ensure that the most vulnerable people are protected from the worst effects of the cuts. UK aid supports people with disabilities facing extreme violence and exclusion in some of the toughest places on Earth. We urge the Government not to abandon them."

George Graham
Chief Executive, Humanity & Inclusion UK

Notes

George Graham is available for interview.

The global situation of people with disabilities

The number of people with disabilities in the world is growing and now stands at over 1.3 billion, or around one sixth of the population. Most of these people live in low- or middle-income countries and, on average, they experience poverty at more than twice the rate of people without disabilities. Everywhere, people with disabilities face discrimination and barriers to accessing basic services, such as healthcare and education, or opportunities for employment.

People with disabilities typically experience disproportionately high rates of morbidity and mortality. Children with disabilities are much more likely not to attend school than children without disabilities, and around two thirds of adults with disabilities do not have a job. Women and girls with disabilities can be multiply disadvantaged, often experiencing greater levels of exclusion and disproportionately suffering gender-based violence and abuse.

In times of crisis, people with disabilities often become especially vulnerable. They are frequently excluded from emergency preparedness plans and they are two to four times more likely to die in a natural disaster than people without disabilities.