The second part of my role at the conference was, to discuss, share and question other attendees about disability inclusion commitments in their own SRHR projects.  

I repeated my key messages in different ways to different attendees, always highlighting the importance of inclusion at every step. These key messages are based on project experience and feedback from persons with disabilities as service users, and from the OPDs who we co-delivered with. 

My key messages

1. Programmes should raise awareness of the sexual and reproductive health and rights of all people with disabilities, emphasising their sexual autonomy and decision-making capacity and the multiple and intersectional discrimination they face in claiming their rights.
2. Donors, civil society, and other development actors should support national governments to collect disability disaggregated data around the provision of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information and services to inform improvements in policy and services. 
3. The collection, analysis, and use of data disaggregated by disability, gender, age, location, and other factors are crucial to monitor access to services and information, and health outcomes among people with disabilities – and inform strategic investments towards inclusive and comprehensive SRHR.
4. Donors should set targets that focus on access rather than the use of services. If we focus only on use, it may lead to women and girls with disabilities being pressured into ‘accepting’ contraceptives in order for targets to be met. People with disabilities, and especially women and girls with disabilities, are exposed to increased risks of violence, exploitation, and abuse – including coerced contraception, sterilisation, and abortion. It is therefore crucial that family planning and broader SRHR programs are built on principles of free and informed choice and bodily autonomy rather than simply achieving targets around uptake.  
5. Programmes should focus on ensuring health workers are given adequate training through the well-designed curricula of health training institutions and continuous professional development, to improve disability awareness and ensure that SRH information, goods and services are provided to people with disabilities without discrimination or stigma. 
6. Global health actors should focus on meaningfully engaging people with disabilities and their representative organisations while designing, implementing, and monitoring SRHR projects. 
7. SRHR services, facilities, and information need to be inclusive and fully accessible to people with disabilities in all their diversity. 
8. Social and behaviour change campaigns must be designed to be inclusive and accessible, and tackle disability stigma and discrimination at all levels of society. 
9. If people, and particularly women with disabilities, are not meaningfully included in mainstream family planning and SRHR programs, the Universal health coverage and Sustainable development goal targets will remain unmet. 
10. Inclusive programming on family planning and SRH needs to use an intersectional lens, for example, with a focus on disability, age, gender, impairment, and context among other factors. 

To find out more about our work on sexual and reproductive health and rights, take a look at our sexual and reproductive health page.