Investing in Champions to Ensure Health for All: Experiences in Empowerment and Inclusion from the LMG Project

Health is a key driver of human welfare and sustained economic and social development. Despite global recognition of the right to health for all, disenfranchised groups commonly face disproportionately greater unmet health needs. Persons with disabilities are especially vulnerable, with one in seven people worldwide living with some form of disability. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognize that persons with disabilities should be included in all levels of the development agenda to address existing inequities. Barriers to disability inclusion in health include disparities between standards, policies, and practice, inadequate accessibility, availability, and quality of services, lack of reliable data to inform planning, overwhelmed and under-resourced organizations, and limited inclusion of persons with disabilities in planning, delivery, and oversight. These obstacles can be organized into five areas that need attention to make inclusion a reality in healthcare service delivery. The LMG Project has worked closely with various partners to address these challenges. The project's approach to inclusive health has focused on equipping persons with disabilities to take on leadership and decision-making roles in their local health systems. When given the opportunity, persons with disabilities are in the best position to design solutions to the inequities they face and spearhead change efforts to improve their health. Policymakers, service providers, and civil society organizations can benefit from technical assistance and policy changes to promote inclusive health and to strengthen stakeholder coordination and governance mechanisms to ensure commitments are kept. The LMG Project's capacity development approach for inclusive health employed participatory, team-based processes and tools to reduce the barriers faced by people with disabilities and include their voices in decision making. The project's programs emphasized both personal and professional development, as it is people's behaviors that set the tone for the quality of interactions and relationships, which are critical to building mutual trust and engagement. The programs brought together diverse stakeholders representing government, service providers, civil society, and disabled people's organizations to create platforms for inclusive decision-making where persons with disabilities can participate and contribute to the development of health policies and programs. The LMG Project's experience has shown that empowering persons with disabilities to take on leadership and decision-making roles in their local health systems can lead to improved health outcomes and increased access to health services. By promoting inclusive health and strengthening stakeholder coordination and governance mechanisms, the project aims to advance health for all through empowerment and inclusion.