Inclusive Safeguarding

The International Disability and Development Consortium (IDDC) and its members aim to promote inclusive development by ensuring all people are treated equally and are fully included in human development outcomes of international development.

The consortium commends gains that have been made in disability-inclusive development but also recognises the risks for people with disabilities who are in programmes that do not safeguard them effectively.

People with disabilities often experience harm due to the structural exclusion, discrimination and injustices they experience because of their disability. These experiences are present in the work of international development practitioners and organisations. To help eradicate them, organisations and individuals are obligated to identify the ways their work specifically put people with disabilities at increased risk. They must also adopt inclusive mitigation strategies that protect the dignity, wellbeing and safety of all people.

Organisations and their representatives are bound to safeguard people with disabilities due to the human rights conceptual framework, which is based on standards set out by universal human rights conventions.

We are, therefore, duty-bound to safeguard people with disabilities at work by our commitment to uphold human rights, not simply as a risk mitigation exercise.

This document states IDDC’s stance on disability-inclusive safeguarding, acting as a point of reference for our members. It is also a position paper and advocacy tool for demanding disability-inclusive safeguarding.