Close search bar
News and opinions

Inclusive Futures at the International Conference on Family Planning 2025

October 2025

Globally, one in five women has a disability, and too many are still denied control and choice over their bodies, their sexuality, and having a family. This needs to change.

At the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) in Colombia, from 3-6 November, we’re calling on NGOs, donors and governments to urgently address the barriers in sexual and reproductive health so women with disabilities can claim the fundamental rights they are entitled to.

Together with our partners from the Nigerian disability movement, we’ll share what we’ve learned from delivering rights-based, locally owned and scalable solutions to inclusive sexual and reproductive health – from co-creating projects with women with disabilities, breaking down harmful stigma and strengthening health systems.

Inclusive Futures at the International Conference on Family Planning: how you can get involved

Members of the Inclusive Futures consortium – Sightsavers, BBC Media Action and our disability partners – will lead three sessions sharing learnings from our innovative and collaborative work in Nigeria, which has reached more than four million people.

More information about the event can be found on the Sightsavers and ICFP websites.

Two women are seated opposite each other, engaged in conversation, each speaking into a professional-style microphone. They are in a recording environment.

What is Inclusive Futures?

We’re the UK FCDO’s flagship disability-inclusive development consortium initiative, led by Sightsavers and the International Disability Alliance.

We generate and share evidence about what works, and encourage uptake across the global development community and governments.

About Inclusive Futures

See our life-changing family planning work in Nigeria

Read the story

Visit our Sightsavers – Inclusive Futures booth

People with disabilities are entitled to their sexual and reproductive health and rights

  • Location: Booth number 76, Fourth floor, Ágora Convention Centre, Bogotá

Visit us at our booth to connect with our consortium and organisations of people with disabilities partners, write on our message wall explaining what inclusive family planning means to you, pick up a copy of our Changing Times newspaper, listen to an episode of a disability inclusive BBC World Service radio drama, or play ‘The Ideal Family’ board game used in our innovative project in Nigeria.

A Nigerian woman in a wheelchair is looking at the camera.
Risikat is the executive director of the Women with Disability Self Reliance Foundation and a partner in our inclusive family planning project in Nigeria. © Sightsavers/Adesegun Adeokun

Attend our events

Tuesday 4 November

Disability, gender, and reproductive autonomy

“The decision is mine”: promoting inclusion, autonomy, and free and informed reproductive choices for women with disabilities in Nigeria

  • Time: 11.55am-1.15pm
  • Location: Room P, Floor 3

Maryam Aminu from our Nigeria country office team will join Amina Nasiru from the Joint National Association of Persons with Disability (JONAPWD) to explain why meaningfully engaging women with disabilities in co-creating activities and influencing decisionmakers is essential – both for addressing the barriers that prevent them from making free and informed choices about their sexual and reproductive health and promoting longer-term systemic change.

A nurse in Nigeria stands with her hands in her pockets outside a family planning unit.
Shafaatu, a nurse trained in inclusive healthcare, outside a family planning unit in Kaduna, Nigeria. © Sightsavers/Adesegun Adeokun

Thursday 6 November 2025

Breaking barriers, building access: inclusive social behaviour change (SBC) in action

Using media to support access to, and usage of, family planning services for people with disabilities in northern Nigeria

  • Date and time: 11.55am-1.15pm
  • Location: Room Ñ, Floor 3

Kaushiki Ghose, senior research manager at BBC Media Action, will explain how they’ve used disability-inclusive mass media, including a Hausa-language radio drama, Madubi, to inform and educate listeners about modern contraceptive methods and improve their knowledge and understanding about disability rights in relation to access to healthcare, reaching an audience of three million people across five states in northern Nigeria.

Watch BBC Media Action’s film about their Inclusive Futures work in northern Nigeria.

Inclusive SBC: delivering a digital campaign as part of a disability-inclusive SBC approach in Kaduna, Nigeria

  • Date and time: 11.55am-1.15pm
  • Location: Room Ñ, Floor 3

Maryam Aminu from Sightsavers’ Nigeria country office will join Amina Nasiru to share learning from our innovative, UK aid-funded project in Nigeria, where an SBC strategy co-created with women-led organisations of people with disabilities (OPDs) has used peer-to-peer workshops, radio discussions and online micro and nano influencers to shift social norms, reduce stigma, and increase knowledge around inclusive family planning and the free and informed use of modern contraceptives.

A woman wearing a grey T-shirt with the words 'The decision is mine' leads a workshop with other women with disabilities in a courtyard in Nigeria.
Women with disabilities during a workshop on family planning options in Kaduna, Nigeria. © Sightsavers/Gateway Studios

More news and opinions

A family sit crossed legged outside their home in northern Nigeria.

Disability inclusion is under threat – we cannot afford to lose momentum

Sightsavers’ Johannes Trimmel and the International Disability Alliance’s José Viera reflect on the achievements of UK aid’s flagship disability inclusive development programme in its final year, and the urgent actions needed to sustain momentum.
Our panel speakers pose for a photo at the UK Mission in New York.

Breaking the silence: new report on disability stigma launched at an event at CoSP

On 11 June, global disability rights advocates, government officials, development agencies and media partners came together to confront one of the most persistent barriers to disability inclusion: stigma and discrimination.
A group of female farmers sit in a semi-circle and having a discussion.

How media and community engagement drive disability inclusion in Kenya

In Kenya, local media and community action are helping to tackle disability stigma, foster workplace inclusion and empower people with disabilities.

What works to include people with disabilities?

Resources and learning

Inclusive Futures are specialists and global leaders in disability and development from more than 20 global organisations.

Our partners