MDGs and Their Relationship to Disability

650 million people live with disabilities. Unless such huge numbers of people are part of development policies and programmes, it will be impossible to attain any of the Millennium Development Goals

MDG1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

Extreme poverty among families with a family member with a disability may limit the amount and quality of food for them and their families. In house holds with limited resources it is often the woman or girl child with disabilities who is often the last fed or fed.

MDG2: Achieve Universal Primary Education

Poverty and prejudice bar families and communities from educating the girl child with disabilities. Where resources are scarce, the girl child with disabilities is often deprived of even a basic education.

MDG3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

Women with disabilities face extreme discrimination compared to not only a person without disabilities but often from men with disabilities and often less preferred in programmes.

MDG4: Reduce Child Mortality

Infanticide or the deliberate killing of infants with disabilities, especially girls with disabilities, is a huge problem in certain countries.

MDG5: Improve Maternal Health

There is very little information or services available for women with disabilities on maternal health or pregnancy-related information. Women with disabilities also have little access to maternal health related information and care.

MDG6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases

A disproportionate percentage of women with disabilities who became HIV positive tend to be unable to access proper clinical care.

MDG7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability

Deteriorating environments can have a significant and disproportionate impact on women with disabilities, especially pregnant women with disabilities, and this can be a cause disability.

MDG8: Develop a Global Partnerships for Development

Of the approximately 650 million persons with disabilities world wide, an estimated 80 percent live in developing countries. International partnerships are key to any sustainable development programme.

(taken from: Disability Rights, Gender and Development A Resource Tool For Action)