Committing to strengthen the collection and use of disability- inclusive data through partnerships
Sightsavers
Sightsavers is a proud champion and co-founding partner of the Inclusive Data Charter, a global network of governments and organisations, hosted by the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data.
Sightsavers vision is a world where no one is blind from avoidable causes and where visually impaired people participate equally in society. We work in more than 30 countries worldwide partnering with governments, local, regional, national, and international organisations, to advocate for the rights of people with disabilities.
We reaffirm our commitment to the collection, analysis, and use of disability-inclusive data as one of the key foundations of inclusive development. We commit to strengthening the engagement of impacted communities in our work on inclusive data in the countries where we operate, collaborating to build the capacity of partners to advocate for inclusive data, and to contributing our knowledge and learning to support others in the global development sector.
Globally, there’s a lack of accurate data on disability. Without disability inclusive data, we cannot adequately assess the inequality gaps experienced by people with disabilities nor design targeted programmatic and policy interventions to address these gaps effectively.
Over the next 3 years (2024-27), we commit to:
- Strengthening engagement with communities in the collection and use of inclusive data. In the countries where we operate, we will continue to enhance our work on inclusive data, looking its intersection with cross-cutting issues such as climate action, health, and social inclusion. We will strengthen the engagement and participation of the people and communities we work with, as active agents in inclusive data collection processes and decisions that impact them, to advance more inclusive local development.
- Increasing collaboration with partners to advocate for inclusive data. We will continue to work with the disability movement and development partners to advocate for disability inclusive data collection and use to become standard practice for national statistical offices. This will include our continued advocacy to increase the uptake of the Washington Group questions on disability, where relevant, into censuses and surveys across more countries.
- Sharing our knowledge and learning on inclusive data. As champions of the Inclusive Data Charter (IDC), we will share annual progress on the implementation of our updated Sightsavers IDC action plan (2024-27) through advancing our cross organisational inclusive data network to foster ongoing improvement and learning, and through leveraging opportunities created by partners. We will use the insights to produce inclusive data knowledge and guidance to support others in the global development community.
Progress towards these commitments will be monitored through reporting published on our website as well as reporting to partners and supporters of our work.