皇冠体育app

I鈥檓 really pleased to be here today. Disability has long been the poor relation amongst our development goals, indeed the great neglect of the developing world, but now we鈥檙e finally seeing this issue get the attention it needs.

皇冠体育app UK will play its part. As the Minister responsible for disability, within the UK Department for International Development, I am determined to make people with disabilities a key development priority.

I am very pleased to announce today that from this day forward all of the schools HMG supports must be designed to allow disability access for universal design. And as well as our support to other civil society organisations working on disability, we have also committed more funding this year to the Disability Rights fund 鈥� the only grant-making organisation to solely and directly support disabled people鈥檚 organisations in developing countries.

But this is a global challenge and it needs a global partnership to tackle it. Better data is a key priority. We need more evidence to inform our policies, we need to share what works well, as well as better understand the biggest barriers for disabled people trying to access services and opportunities. Only then will we get to the root of the problem and what we must do about it.

It鈥檚 clear that the Millennium Development Goals produced some extraordinary results for many people in many countries, and these goals focused and coordinated our development efforts.

However, as we start to develop a post-2015 framework, we can see that progress has been very uneven. People with disabilities all too often remain locked out: they lack economic opportunities, they don鈥檛 get access to key services, they are socially isolated and don鈥檛 have a voice in their communities. Women and girls with disabilities often suffer multiple discriminations and are extremely vulnerable.

It鈥檚 imperative we address this, as we reflect on lessons from the MDGs and agree successor goals. 皇冠体育app UN鈥檚 High Level Panel reported on what these goals could look like earlier this year. And the most powerful message in this ambitious report was that we should leave no one behind 鈥� and I think that is a fantastic set of words we should use whenever we can - regardless of disability, gender, geography, ethnicity, race. No one must be denied universal human rights and basic education.

皇冠体育app UK played a key part in this report with our Prime Minister co-chairing the Panel - and we will be urging the UN to take up this core commitment.

Of course it鈥檚 ambitious and difficult and we鈥檒l have to work together. 皇冠体育app report calls for a data revolution which, if achieved, will be transformational for people with disabilities. At the moment we can鈥檛 see the scale of the problem: where we鈥檙e succeeding and who we鈥檙e leaving behind.

If we can do all of this then we have reached a turning point for people with disabilities 鈥� a watershed moment. So let鈥檚 rise to the challenge, and keep at it together. Thank you.