Recent research has revealed the impact of U.S. and global funding rollbacks for gender and disability work. The findings paint a bleak picture, not only for women with disabilities, but for democracy, human rights, and gender equality globally. Across the world, feminist disability advocates and their organisations are challenging rising authoritarianism, pushing for gender and disability-inclusive sexual and reproductive health services, and speaking up against the high rates of gender-based violence and growing anti-gender movements. They are playing a vital role in addressing armed conflicts, climate change and other humanitarian emergencies affecting their fundamental rights.

Substantially increasing investment in this transformative work has never been more urgent. Across the world, one in five women and girls –around 500 million people– identify as a person with a disability. Any strategy to uphold democracy, address human rights abuses, and advance gender equality will fall short if it does not ensure the sustainability of the feminist disabled leaders who represent this vast and often overlooked community.

However, the work of these leaders has been historically underfunded, more so in recent years. In the words of an organisation working at the intersection of gender and disability in Sub-Saharan Africa, ‘some donors are shifting focus to broader economic or humanitarian issues, reducing dedicated funding for disability-inclusive programs… Many funding opportunities focus on either disability or gender, but few prioritise both.’

This is consistent with the limited quantitative data available about funding, which indicates that less than 2 per cent of global philanthropy goes to support women’s rights, and less than 5 per cent of that limited funding targets women, girls, and gender-diverse people with disabilities. Similarly, only 9 per cent of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) members’ official development assistance for gender equality has a disability focus.

Research Findings About the Impact of Funding Cuts on Feminist Disability Advocates

Our organisation, Women Enabled International, recently launched an initiative to monitor the impact of the current funding crisis on human rights defenders working at the intersection of gender and disability. As highlighted by the Disability Rights Fund, cuts to U.S. development aid are happening at a moment when ‘funding from other donors—both governments and foundations—is [also] tightening or disappearing altogether,‘ The results from our research are staggering.

Read the full article about feminist disability activists by Sofía Minieri and Satya Nelms at Alliance Magazine.