“The statistics are alarming. They show, for example, that people with disability experience death rates four times higher during natural disasters than people without disabilities. And that is shocking.”
This statement, delivered at a first of its kind workshop in February 2024, sets out in stark terms what is at stake when planning climate finance investments. Coming from Jennifer Sara, the Global Director for the World Bank Group’s Climate Change Global Practice, it was just one of many eye-opening examples shared during the day-long discussion. People with disabilities are often excluded from healthcare during disasters, cannot access information about emergency warning systems or emergency shelters. “Or even when they do and they try to seek shelter,” pointed out Charlotte McClain-Nhlapo, Global Disability Advisor of the World Bank Group, “we find that shelters are often inaccessible to persons with disabilities.”
In the room were both climate finance experts and disability advocates – two groups who have rarely come together before now; and CIF collaborated with the Global Disability Innovation Hub and CBM Global Inclusive Advisory Group to make this happen. After a Washington DC session, the event was replicated in London with support from EBRD and participation from UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the African Development Bank, the European Disability Forum (EDF), Global Action on Disability (GLAD) Network, and more.
These events were a direct response to the powerful call at COP28 for a change in thinking: people with disabilities can be agents of transformative change within climate projects.
Moving the needle
As a fast-moving funder committed to cutting-edge solutions, CIF has been playing a role as a “learning laboratory”: supporting partner governments and multilaterals to trial promising new approaches, including in disability inclusion. Drawing on our experience and the policies of our development partners, CIF has prepared a set of disability inclusion guidelines with concrete recommendations for practitioners, to ensure all entry points for inclusion are considered.
In CIF’s work with the government of Indonesia to design a just transition away from coal, for example, people with disabilities have already been included in initial consultations. With our partner the Inter American Development Bank (IDB), an across-the-board effort has resulted in 58% of significant IDB loans going to projects that met criteria for disability inclusion: they recognized existing barriers, made plans to address these, and established indicators to measure progress. Examples of projects included making electric or hybrid buses accessible for people with visual, physical, cognitive or hearing impairments, and explicitly considering persons with disabilities in national disaster response plans.
“Through this methodology of commitments, targets and accountability,” explained Caridad Araujo, Chief of the Gender and Diversity Division at IDB, "we can really translate a good intention - a level of ambition - into concrete actions that are changing the characteristics of our portfolio. Can we be doing more? Yes, definitely… but in large organizations like ours, this type of structure has been very helpful in moving the needle.”
Change across specific sectors
During a special session on inclusive energy transitions, the Global Disability Innovation Hub and CBM Global Inclusive Advisory Group shared some of their guidance materials. This included measures to create “good, green jobs” in low-carbon sectors for people with disabilities, who otherwise face higher barriers to employment.
One clear need is not only to engage organisations representing people with disabilities, but to channel funding directly to them. CIF has already been doing this, through our Dedicated Grant Mechanism for specific local groups – including those led by people with disabilities – to implement nature-based solutions.
In a special session to reflect on CIF’s forthcoming Climate Smart Cities investment program, Benjamin Dard of the World Blind Association explained how some of the digital technology promising to make our lives more accessible has actually – through poor design – shut many people out of applying for jobs or using public transport. Dard, who has been pioneering studies on inclusive smart cities, put it this way: “while those cities were growing, the gap in terms of accessibility was also growing.”
The solution Dard proposes is straightforward. Whether it concerns natural disaster management, energy transitions, or projects for adaption and resilience, “persons with disabilities and their representative organisations should be at the forefront of climate action.”
New hope
Ola Abualghaib, Manager of the United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD), agrees. “There is a glimpse of hope – we are seeing governments more and more being responsive.” This was echoed by Charlotte McClain-Nhlapo, Global Disability Advisor of the World Bank Group: “I think it’s encouraging to see that some countries are explicitly considering and analysing the impact of climate change on persons with disabilities.”
Examples of exciting collaboration include not only UNPRPD’s work with national governments to embed the rights of persons with disabilities into national adaptation and mitigation policies, but new data the World Blind Union is gathering with United Cities and Local Government to identify what local authorities require to plan infrastructure inclusively. Meanwhile, CIF is ramping up efforts to launch the Climate Smart Cities program.
Across all participants, there was resounding agreement on two points: the exclusion of people with disabilities from decision-making in climate projects must urgently be rectified. And bringing together traditionally separate groups is an indispensable first step.
“We see here a big risk if we continue business as usual,” concluded Benjamin Dard. “But we also see a huge opportunity in making sure that climate investment projects actually contribute to reducing this gap.”